TSA Enhanced Pat Downs : The Screeners Point Of View

In the past few weeks since the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) implemented its new “enhanced” pat down procedures there has been considerable backlash from the traveling public. This backlash has been loud and angry … but what is not heard or seen in the media is the quiet resentment of this new policy within the TSA.

A few days ago I contacted 20 TSA Transportation Security Officers (TSO) to ask their opinions of the new “enhanced” pat downs. Of the 20 I reached out to, 17 responded. All 17 who responded are at airports where the new “enhanced” pat down is in place … and the responses were all the same, that front line TSOs do not like the new pat downs and that they do not want to perform them.  I expected most to not like the pat downs … but what I didn’t expect was that all 17 mentioned their morale being broken down.

Each of the 17 TSA TSOs that responded to me detailed their personal discomfort in conducting the new pat downs, with more than one stating that it is likely they are more uncomfortable performing the pat down than passengers are receiving them.

Some comments from these TSOs include:

It is not comfortable to come to work knowing full well that my hands will be feeling another man’s private parts, their butt, their inner thigh. Even worse is having to try and feel inside the flab rolls of obese passengers and we seem to get a lot of obese passengers!”

Do you think I want to go to work and place my hands between women’s legs and touch their breasts for a few hours? For starters, I am attracted to men, not women and if I was attracted to women, it would not be the large number of passengers I handle daily that have a problem understanding what personal hygiene is.”

Yesterday a passenger told me to keep my hands off his penis or he’d scream. Is this how a 40 year old man in business attire acts? He’ll scream? My 3 year old can get away with saying he’ll scream, but a 40 something business man? I am a professional doing my job, whether I agree with this current policy or not, I am doing my job.  I do not want to be here all day touching penises.”

Being a TSO means often being verbally abused, you let the comments roll off and check the next person, however when a woman refuses the scanner then comes to me and tells me that she feels like I am molesting her, that is beyond verbal abuse.  I asked the woman if she thought I like touching other women all day and she told me that I probably did or I wouldn’t be with the TSA. I just want to tell these people that I feel disgusted feeling other peoples private parts, but I cannot because I am a professional.”

I was asked by some guy if I got excited touching scrotums at the airport and if it gave me a power thrill. I felt like vomiting when he asked that. This is not a turn on for me to touch me it is in fact a huge turn off. There is a big difference between how I pat passengers down and a molester molesting people.”

Aside from the issue of TSA TSOs being required to physically touch passengers in places they do not want to be touching them during the ‘enhanced’ pat down, morale is decreasing for front line TSOs, due in part to an increase in verbal abuse.  Each of the 17 TSOs who responded to me detailed a new level of verbal abuse they are experiencing at work.

The TSA has experienced a high level of turn over since its inception, however its turnover rate has decreased recently. With this decrease in morale, caused directly by a change in TSA policy, it is likely to begin experiencing a higher than average turn over again … which will further decrease the effectiveness of airport security.

Some comments from these 17 TSOs include:

Molester, pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep. These are all words I have heard today at work describing me, said in my presence as I patted passengers down. These comments are painful and demoralizing, one day is bad enough, but I have to come back tomorrow, the next day and the day after that to keep hearing these comments. If something doesn’t change in the next two weeks I don’t know how much longer I can withstand this taunting. I go home and I cry. I am serving my country, I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.

I come to work to do my job. It is not up to me to decide policy, it is up to me to carry out my duties as dictated by the Transportation Security Administration. When a person stands in front of me and calls me a pervert or accuses me of molesting them it is disheartening. People fail to understand that neither of us are happy about the intrusive pat down I am carrying out.  I am polite, I am professional and while someone may not like what I have to carry out, they came to me because they choose not to utilize the alternative and less invasive method of security at my airport.

I served a tour in Afghanistan followed by a tour in Iraq. I have been hardened by war and in the past week I am slowly being broken by the constant diatribe of hateful comments being lobbed at me. While many just see a uniform with gloves feeling them for concealed items I am a person, I am a person who has feelings. I am a person who has served this country. I am a person who wants to continue serving his country. The constant run of hateful comments while I perform my job will break me down faster and harder than anything I encountered while in combat in the Army.

Do people know what a Nazi is? One can’t describe me as a Nazi because I am following a security procedure of designed to find prohibited items on a passenger’s body. A Nazi is someone with hatred and ignorance in their hearts, a person who carried out actions of execution and extermination of those based on their religion, origins or sexual preferences.  I work to make travel safer, even if I do not agree with the current security procedures. Further more, I am Jewish and a TSA Transportation Security Officer, an American Patriot and to call me a Nazi is an offense beyond all other offenses.

There are multiple sides to every story, and I think the point of view of those on the front lines of the TSA, those required to carry on the policy and procedures created by the TSA, are an import part of this story. I think those organizing efforts to change the TSA’s policy should also consider the impact to the TSA TSOs.

Rather than dehumanize the TSA TSOs, work with them, understand their views and opinions and work together to change the current TSA policies.

Happy Flying!

866 Comments

  1. While I feel some sympathy for these people being demoralized by the name calling, I cannot feel too bad for someone who chooses to do something for a living that he does not agree with. What has happened to moral conviction? If you do not want to molest people for a living, lodge a complaint with your employer, or refuse to do it. If most of you feel the same way, then they could not possibly fire all of your for refusing to molest people.

    Please TSOs, find some strength in your convictions and let the TSA know that this new method is not a good way to ensure safety. That there must be a better way. And if they do not find a better one, leave. Get a job that is not morally repugnant and criminal in actions. You will feel better about yourself and the world you are living.

  2. @ American

    You do not “lose your rights” just by virtue of choosing to fly.

    Flying is no more a government granted “privilege” than driving is

    The courts have held, numerous times, that you have a fundamental right to travel, by any conveyance of your choosing.

    The courts have also held that taxpayer funded operations, (airports, TSA itself, and federally regulated air routes) are open to access by all citizens.

    These are rights, not privileges, and can only be restricted or denied by government through due process with the burden of proof always resting with government and not the citizen.

  3. I have just looked over some of the statements made about the screening process and the TSOs as they perform their duties are enfringing on the rights or those TSOs to work in an atmospher that is not hostile.

    I present to you who travel and those who object so loudly that, while you may petition the behavior of TSOs, THEY HAVE NO RECOURSE WHEN THEY ARE VERBALLY ASSAULTED AND HARASSED. THEY CANNOT SEND A LETTER TO YOUR BOSS AND RECOUNT THE UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR THAT YOU HAVE EXHIBITED WHILE ON YOUR TRAVELS. THERE IS NO LETTER OR INVESTIGATION IN YOUR PERMANENT FILE BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE HAD A BAD DAY OR FELT THEY HAD TO TAKE A WHACK AT A TSO.

    TSOs are being attacked by the very people they are trying to protect and then they are under constant scrutiny by their management for anything that can be held against them. These marks on their records go with them from agentcy to agentcy, from employer to employer making it harder to escape the cycle of dead end jobs like being a front line TSO.

    Promotion at TSA is arbitrary as is the discipline meeted out for offenses on the job and off. Unlike the passengers who come through the checkpoint with a chip on their shoulder, the snide comments that you make to an officer after you have forced their hand by opting out of the scanner will not effect your promotion or your ability to be hired somewhere else.

    Everyone has a breaking point and you should tread wearily on other peoples feelings. Those of you who pull the “Chosen profession” cop out should look around and see if there are jobs that could be posted for those people so that THEY may be able to make another choise. You cannot chose what is not available. All of you “NOT-IN-MY-BACK-YARD ” SHOULD LOOK AT THE MAN IN THE MIRROR BEFORE YOU START TO CRITICIZE OTHERS.

    THERE IS A RULE: DO TO OTHERS WHAT YOU WANT DONE TO YOU.

    IT IS VERY CLEAR THAT TRAVELERS HAVE NOT PRACTICED THIS RULE BUT WOULD BE OFFENDED IF THEY WERE TREATED THE WAY THEY TREAT TSOs.

    CONSIDER THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN, WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU AGREED WITH EVERY POLICYOF YOUR EMPLOYER, PROMIMENT OR OTHERWISE?

    HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING RIGHTS THAT ALLOWS YOU TO STRIKE AND PROTEST THE POLICIES AND ACTIONS WITH WHICH YOU DO NOT AGREE?

  4. I have to laugh at all of these self-described civil libertarians who have suddenly come out of the woodwork to shriek like a bunch of hysterical schoolgirls over a pat-down. Where were you for the years following 9-11 when the Bush administration and the Republican Congress slowly but surely eroded civil rights across the board in the name of “security?” People are having meltdowns over an airport scanner but there was little outcry, other than from the ACLU and a few groups on the left, over policies like warrantless wiretapping, etc.

    In fact, I recall quite well when the public was screaming for more airport security after 9-11.

    The current TSA policies are simply the logical evolution of the Bush-era national security policies that were, for the most part, happily embraced by a majority of Americans. As a country we gave up our right to complain about civil liberties a long time ago.

  5. Passengers ought to start indulging in a little “security theater” of their own. I’m over 40 and pretty secure about my body. If some security person started poking aggressively around my crotch because I’m wearing a maxi pad, the next thing that would happen would be me reaching into my own pants, pulling the thing out and showing it to them, and then requesting a trash can and a paper towel. “There ya go TSA, problem solved”.

  6. A couple of questions:

    1. Will these new machines and pat-down procedures detect explosive powders secreted in a person’s rectum or vagina?

    2. If the answer is “no”, then what’s the point?

  7. Beyond the questions of rights, feelings, molestation, and morale, I think we need to ask these officers, and the ultra-secretive TSA about effectiveness. I think we’d all feel better if the TSA had caught even one terrorist, or stopped one bomb with these techniques. They haven’t and won’t. The only people have been caught were caught because their bomb making skills sucked. Never in screening.

    Hundreds of millions of innocent travellers are screened, not one bomb found nor one terrorist stopped. For this the courts have completely tossed out the bill of rights. Today, at least relative to transportation, the US and most of the world now live under the kind of Soviet style “security” that we used to laugh and rail about when I was growing up.

    Sure, go ahead and argue that is a deterrent. Just like virus software is a deterrent to hackers. Works brilliantly. Hackers just give up. They never try to get around the “latest security update”. Sure…the TSA is staying ahead of the terrorists. Pretty soon we’ll be flying naked and sedated, with probes up our collective asses.

    So far, the only terrorist acts that have been stopped (that we know of), have been stopped by human and electronic intelligence. God bless the CIA, the FBI and all other international spy agencies that have manpower focused on this threat. The TSA unfortunately is not one of these organizations. It is a police force tasked with harrassing its citizenry and violating the constitution which it is sworn to protect.

    In support of the TSA officers who are obviously ambivalent about the latest policy, I suggest we begin wearing the following tshirt slogan when flying:

    “Don’t Touch My Junk” (unless your name is Janet Napolitano).

  8. “A Nazi is someone with hatred and ignorance in their hearts.”

    Sometimes. Sometimes a Nazi is someone who blindly follows their orders, whether or not that are right or legal.

    TSA screeners should feel ashamed to go to work every day and humiliate us. I find it very difficult to feel any sympathy for them.

  9. “I am a professional doing my job, whether I agree with this current policy or not, I am doing my job. ”

    You are not a professional. You are a monkey with a badge. If there weren’t a TSA you’d be flipping burgers or stocking shelves at Walmart with the rest of the highschool dropouts. Get over yourself.

  10. If anyone touches my children inappropriately I will sue them for it, very simple. Groping a child is definitely illegal.
    As for groping me… the gropers don’t get any sympathy from me. Hand on my thigh and I pretend to go near orgasm, then shudder more and more as they come closer to my junk. THAT should be demoralizing enough.
    The problem is that writing a message on a form and sending it into the system only gives statistics, change will not happen from that. Making everyone speak up loudly (letters to your congresscritter, the TSA, the CAA, your airline AND complaints from the agents who dislike performing these actions with explanations of the myriad problems they encounter every day) is the most likely way.

    The Nazi analogy is perhaps a little strong, but is correct. Obeying orders to break other people’s dignity and violate their rights is always morally wrong and makes YOU and accomplice. Yup. If this gets judged as a constitutional violation then any agent taking part in the action IS an accomplice to the deed. He won’t go to prison (except if he gropes my kids) but he will have blindly followed orders like a mindless goon. Any crying the TSA goons do at night is well deserved. Quit that job. It’s better to loose your money/house than to throw away your honor, dignity, ethics and so on.
    USA was founded on love, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and this seems to violate all those (at the very least it violates the fourth amendment). QUIT

    I’ve handled security at an international airport (including coordinating security for a former US president), and this has nothing to do with security. This helps nothing. There are still, and will always be, multiple other routes for those that really want to cause problems. People like me can easily get through airport security, and if I can do it then so can the bad people.

  11. @ Jonah

    You wrote:

    “I have to laugh at all of these self-described civil libertarians who have suddenly come out of the woodwork to shriek like a bunch of hysterical schoolgirls over a pat-down. Where were you for the years following 9-11 when the Bush administration and the Republican Congress slowly but surely eroded civil rights across the board in the name of “security?” People are having meltdowns over an airport scanner but there was little outcry, other than from the ACLU and a few groups on the left, over policies like warrant-less wiretapping, etc.”

    They crawled out of the same hole that the anti-war left has now crawled into, since the wars now belong to Obama, and are all good.

    I can’t speak for others, but I know where I was under the Bush regime, screaming just as loudly as I am now about lost freedom and liberty.

    I think what has galvanized people on this issue is that it is not as esoteric an infringement of rights as perhaps a wiretap would be.

    When Big Brother physically puts his hands on you, or worse yet, puts his hands on your eight year old daughter’s genitals, that’s a game changer for even the worst government apologist.

  12. I have to laugh at those who think these measures by the TSA keep them safe. The fact of the matter is they have caught NO ONE. Recent would be terriorists were caught by passengers onboard planes AFTER having passed by the “brilliant” agents. Every single measure taken by the TSA has been a knee jerk reaction to something terrorists have tried. which is tantamount to closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out. Meanwhile, the terrorists have moved on to the next plan. And the next plan will likely be a bomb placed in a body cavity which the strip search machines will NOT catch. So tell me imbecillic “American”, will you be okay with a TSA agent telling you to “bend over and spread em”? Actually, I have no doubt you will.

    Here are a few more facts:
    1. The TSA is doing what even LEO’s cannot do because it is in violation of the Constitution.
    2. If anyone else did what they do, they would be arrested for sexual assault.
    3. The TSA is doing what the military cannot do to Taliban and Al Queda terrorists they capture – for those keeping score, this means terrorists have more rights than we do.

    With regards to point #3, while I respect and appreciate former military now employed with the TSA, I feel no sympathy. You should be the LAST people subverting the Constitution – the same document you swore an oath to protect and defend. What did you serve and sacrifice for?!?

    The rest of the cretins and perverts at the TSA I have even less sympathy for. You have the unmitigated gall to complain about being “verbally abused” while violating our privacy and bodies? Well BOO FREAKING HOO.

    To Hana: I wish you could bring your eloquence to Capitol Hill, our lawmakers need to hear what you have to say. Unfortunately, it will likely fall on deaf ears and clueless minds. But you are correct, El Al’s methods are proven effective at doing what they are meant to do while being respectful and less of an inconevience to the public at large. It is what we SHOULD be doing but that requires common sense, intelligence and intestinal fortitude, qualities lacking in our government.

    Finally, let me offer this quote from one of our founding fathers who is no doubt spinning in his grave:

    “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” Ben Franklin

  13. “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” Benjamin Franklin.

    This is not about terrorism. This is about cowing a free people to advance a political agenda (the true definition of terrorism by the way).

    The time is now to rise up on our hind legs and let those who would subjugate us know that we will not tolerate such an affront to our freedom and our liberty. Otherwise, the “terrorist” who hate our feedom so much will have won. Won’t they have after all?

    And as a side note, if I decide not to fly in protest of this draconian attack on my liberty, my engine gets flooded with salt water after just a few moments. At least most of you have to option of “opting out”.

  14. I thought the mantra was, if you don’t like it, don’t fly?

    Well, if they don’t like it, quit their jobs.

    Simple, no??

  15. One question, can I as a man, request a female groper. I sure as the devil do not want some gay guy squeezing my balls to get his jollies.

  16. “…those required to carry on the policy and procedures…”

    Gee, I haven’t heard it phrased in such a tactful way since Nuremberg.

    It’s nice that *somebody* still remembers that employees have no free will and are simply cogs in the machine!

  17. These TSA officers are full of crap. To the respondent that says she’s not a Nazi, she’s correct. She is worse than a Nazi. She’s pretending that she doesn’t have a choice, but she does. Some officers under Hilter had to follow his policies because it was a choice between life and death. The majority though did what they did because they enjoyed torturing other people. If they were truly discusted by the policy they would leave.

    I’m sick of people that do things that they know is flat out wrong and act like they don’t have a choice. You always have a choice. Seriously, as a CPA, I can’t sign off on documents that I know are fraudulent and hide behind Im just doing my job BS. Doing my job won’t keep my butt out of jail. So why should we the public feel any differently about TSA officers? They belong in jail for sexual assault.

  18. “Keep in mind that TSA WBI scanners cannot store or transmit images while in service in the field … it simply can’t happen with the current hardware”

    Fish, you are an idiot.

    Why do you think God invented cell phone cameras? Everything that ends up on a screen can end up on the internet.

    – Sophomore

  19. I’m sorry, am I supposed to feel sorry for TSA employees?
    You cannot, on the one hand, argue that flying is a choice and if I don’t want to be molested I should not travel by air and then in the next breath tell me that TSA agents feel verbally abused by passengers using the First Amendment to respectfully protest this abusive practice.
    Guess what, you don’t have to be a TSA agent. If you don’t like your job, quit. It’s just that simple, but don’t come to me and tell me that I just need to shut up and deal with violation of my person by you and I don’t even have the right to say anything about it. I mean that type of statement does sound like an abuser. Not only should I take it, but I should never tell anyone about it.

  20. What would happen if everyone opted out of the radiation, showed up sweaty and dirty (unless meeting a business client on the other end), and accidentally broke wind while being searched?

  21. Haze @ 156 said: THERE IS A RULE: DO TO OTHERS WHAT YOU WANT DONE TO YOU.

    So, am I to assume that TSA officers want to have their crotches grabbed by strangers when they’re trying to visit relatives? That they want their children forcibly restrained and handled until they’re in tears?

    It’s not the passengers who are failing to follow the rules of basic courtesy here. If the TSA officers don’t want to be vilified, they can stop performing vile actions. Saying, “but my boss told me to!” doesn’t excuse it.

    I might have more sympathy if I’d heard less stories of browbeating and outright lying (“you can’t refuse to be scanned!”) and leering at female passengers. But I might not. If your job requires you to do something that’s offensive, you cope with people despising you–or you find a way out. Quit, protest, call in sick, refuse to do the grope-downs for religious reasons, or be as openly helpful and human as you can, instead of putting on the coldest mask you can muster and try to pretend those aren’t people you’re fondling against both of your wishes.

    If they *really* think they’re keeping us safe from terrorists with these invasive and traumatic searches, they should sleep easy and shrug off any insults, knowing that they’re really helping people. (Pediatric nurses get screamed at, kicked, and insulted by small children. It doesn’t move them to tears; they know that kids are better off getting their shots.) The fact that they’re upset proves they know how wrong this is.

  22. Two things to remember when you’re thinking about TSA employees, and a general comment about politics.

    1) Regardless of the effectiveness of the TSA (and I agree it’s abysmal, but that’s because of how the mission is defined more than anything else), the current crop (or at least the vast majority) of TSA screeners had NO IDEA they would be forced to grope passengers when they applied for, and later accepted, their jobs.
    2) It’s easy to say, “Quit and get another job” but in this economy? You’ve got to be kidding! I’ve been in high tech for years, but after a year without work, I considered applying with TSA, knowing full well how useless their policies have been for years. I just hope the unhappy screeners are making their bosses painfully aware of heir feelings, and that it’s percolating up the food chain.

    You can grind your axe about “Where were the people during the Bush presidency blah blah blah” if you like, but you sound like a whiny brat. This is not really a political issue anywhere except in DC, and by making it one, you seriously erode the efforts to stop the madness. (And for the record, I know lots of Republicans and Democrats (as well as others) who were P.O.d at this under President Bush and are P.O.d at this under President Obama.)

  23. Fish,

    The radiation received in the air is all the MORE reason not to add any additional.

    We had a two and three year old invasively checked. When we complained, the TSA agent screamed for Security as if we were holding guns. They quickly arrived, could tell that despite her protestations that we were threatening, we were simply venting that a strange woman was putting her hands down the diaper of a child (too bad it wasn’t poopy — I’ll make sure it is the next time). They brought over a TSA grandmother who basically changed their diapers (traumatizing for the older girl).

    This is crap. The argument “then don’t fly” is the same type of argument that we shouldn’t mind if the government comes in our house if we don’t have anything to hide. Poor logic. It’s about freedom.

  24. Just put some junk on your junk. As the woman with the sanitary napkin pointed out, a molester doesn’t like surprises. Nor does he like it when the power trip reverses. Wear a c*ckring. Wear a ball stretcher. Wear women’s panties. Smile when they figure it out.
    Like it or not, TSA employees have a much larger voice than the public does. So, do what it takes to make them “go off” on their bosses.

    FWIW, Nazis simply followed orders. Hitler gave the orders.

  25. Flyingfish,

    I don’t remember making a personal attack against anyone.. but where is your warning to Flyer about calling me whiney moron?

  26. I don’t know if anyone will read this far, but To those who compare TSA agents to Nazis: To quit your job as a Nazi enforcer meant death or fleeing the country as a refugee. Some did it. But it is a lousy comparison.
    Many suggest a boycott of airlines, but I don’t believe this will work because there are too many people who simply have to fly.
    Many suggest TSA agents quit their jobs under protest. This wouldn’t work either. There are hundreds of people waiting in the wings to take each job that is vacated.
    People suggest that TSA agents cannot possibly be serving their country. Also false. Many of these agents became agent long before the TSA morphed into the unweildy organization that it is. They accepted the job with the intent of doing their part to prevent terrorist hijackings. These people are serving their country, and now find themselves in a ridiculous position. (And no, this does not excuse rudeness, and it does not apply to everyone).
    Last point, we only have the AIT scanners because Michael Chertoff, former head of DHS, has a large financial interest in this technology and manufacturing process. No one has been able to show to me what they actually detect.

  27. Has anyone mentioned the fact that the TSA policy is also NOT to search Muslim women below the neck?

  28. The way we are going to get this molestation to stop is by humiliating the TSA as much as we are humiliated. It’s open season. Call them perverts, creeps, and molesters. I hope morale is horrible. I hope they quit their jobs. As far as I am concerned they are half the problem. Abuse them as much as you can.

  29. There’s only one problem with everyone’s “They should quit!” mantra: If you tell all the people who are uncomfortable with putting their hands on your genitals and/or being called a Nazi to quit, who’s going to be left? The people who enjoy putting their hands on your genitals and/or don’t have a problem with Nazis. Aren’t those EXACTLY who you want to be giving YOU a patdown? Oh, and did I mention the TSA has had an unfortunate history of doing sloppy background checks so it’s entirely possible that they might hire a registered sex offender (and that’s not counting all the pervs out there who didn’t make it onto the registry).

    (Incidentally, people say “Don’t fly if you don’t like it!” Sorry, but if you’re going cross-country, flying is usually significantly cheaper than trains or buses, and not everyone in the world owns a car, but even then gas and motels can be as much as 2x the cost of a ticket on Airtran).

  30. I appreciate you posting viewpoints from the TSOs’ side. Still, I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. People who served in the German army under Hitler are not much different than TSOs, other than what orders they are carrying out. So I don’t get the nazi comment above. Still, I thought about this last week when the stories really started to break. I have a wife, kids, mortgage, car payments, etc. But there is no way I could go through with this job. I would immediately begin looking for another job, anything. And I can find anything, even if it means flipping a burger. I am more sympathetic to the agent who has all of these responsibilities at home, but for those who don’t, I have zero sympathy for them. Don’t be a part of the police state apparatus. Find another job. If you don’t, you will be treated as you are being treated. The people will vent their frustrations somewhere, and you represent the establishment doing this to the people. True or not, it does not matter. My advice to people flying is to keep your mouth shut when you are actually dealing with the agent. Too many problems can arise if you say something during this process. Believe me, this advice is probably more for me than anyone reading this. I don’t want to fly. We bought tickets to go home for Christmas three weeks ago. Lots of $$ potentially lost, to say nothing of the grandparents not seeing the kids, etc. I haven’t decided what we are going to do, but I do know that we aren’t flying after this trip until and unless there are major changes at TSA. Sad. Incredible what is happening to us. Bush said after 9/11 that we should just continue to go about our lives and live…to not let the terrorists win. Kind of hard to do that when the government is preventing us from going about our lives and making it difficult for us to live it in a normal way.

  31. “I should not have to go home and cry after a day of honorably serving my country.”

    I’m sorry, but doing something vile, shameful, illegal and unconstitutional just because you were told to do so isn’t honorably serving your country. Rather, it is the exact opposite.

    In this situation, Honorably serving your country would be looking your supervisor in the eye and telling him to shove the peepshow machine and the junk grabbing where the sun don’t shine and then walking off the job if necessary.

    Trust me, when you tell your next prospective employer why you quit your job, he or she will hire you in an INSTANT.

  32. None of the agents mention that they’re upset with the TSA or trying to get things changed- “I’m just following the rules.” Well, rules can be wrong and in a country like ours some of our government employees need to actually act like public servants and stand up for the rights of those who pay their salary. The terrorists have already won if every air passenger has to either get cancer mutations created or get molested by a government employee in order to fly on a plane — all in the name of security theater that actually makes us less safe because resources are devoted to it that could instead be used on police investigative work, the only government anti-terrorism tool that has worked in the past.

  33. I’m sorry, wasn’t “Nazi” clear enough for you? Let me be more specific: Adolf Eichmann. “I’m just doing my job” is not an excuse for an immoral job.

  34. How many times do I hear “If you don’t want to be scanned or groped, don’t fly”? If you’re so victimized by your TSA position, quit. How’s that sound? Tool.

  35. I wonder if the widows, widowers, children and parents of people who died on Flight 93 on 9/11 object to going through the body scanners or to the pat-downs? People strip off to nearly nothing and parade around on beaches to show off their boobs and butts to strangers for no reason other than vanity, but they feel that their rights are being violated because the TSA wants to save their lives from some crazy jerk carrying a bomb in his underwear? Give me a break. You’re not that special. You don’t have anything under your clothes that anyone else doesn’t have. Why all this false modesty? You will be the first ones screaming about the government not preventing another plane from flying into a building if someone with box cutters hijacks the plane. Grow up.

  36. @American –
    “You say TSOs touch people’s “junk” against their will, which is totally false. They have to request it, which makes it consensual, so epic fail.”
    “You say, “I will not consent to an enhanced patdown.” When, in fact, you are saying you want to be patted down. You have one option that won’t touch you in the least, and you say no, I want to be “molested”, which, by definition, is consent.”

    No. You clearly have no understanding of ‘consent’. Capituation under duress is NOT considered to be consent. If your logic were correct, then every time a rapist held a gun to someone’s head and said “tell me you want it or I’ll blow your brains out”, they would have consent, and it would no longer be rape. Sorry, NO.

    You also seem to think that the only way people get the grope-up is if they opt-out of the Nude-scanner. Again, NO. If the Nude-scanner is unavailable, and you have metal implanted in your body which sets off the metal detector, you will get the grope-up. If you AGREE to the Nude-scanner, and they see something odd (menstral pad, colestomy bag, implants, odd fold in your clothes, etc) you will get the grope-up. If they can’t figure out what something is in your carry on bag, you will get the grope-up. Again, that is not “choosing” to be groped.

    Furthermore, it is ridiculous to claim people are giving prior consent to genital contact when they buy their tickets for a number of reasons:
    (1) the words “genital contact” do not appear on my airline ticket or any of the associated paperwork, so I never consented to it;
    (2) the TSA has (or at least had not when I flew) posted on their web site what would happen if you failed the metal detector or were selected for the enhanced screening and either failed or opted out of the Nude Scanner, so I couldn’t even know it was a possibility at the point I left for the airport; and
    (3) I and many other people bought tickets months ago, when the TSA was doing the old-style pat-downs. So again, I could not consent to something that didn’t even yet exist.

    You clearly don’t have any understanding of what consent is, or what it means to be an American.

  37. @Gail – “People strip off to nearly nothing and parade around on beaches to show off their boobs and butts to strangers for no reason other than vanity, but they feel that their rights are being violated because the TSA wants to save their lives from some crazy jerk carrying a bomb in his underwear?”

    You may strip off to nearly nothing and parade around on beaches, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us do. You may like being groped by strangers (and like having your children groped by strangers, as well), but that doesn’t mean the rest of us have to agree with you.

    When the next attempted bomber gets past the checkpoint by putting the bomb up their anus, are you going to happily agree to having the TSA stick their fist up yours?

  38. @Gail: awww boo-hoo, 9/11! Are you some kind of mind reader? HTF do you know what people will do? I don’t want the TSA to even exist – get these TSA-holes the hell out of my airports and back into the peep arcades. Box cutters? You really are a tool.

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