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!
I’m definitely sympathetic to what these workers are saying.
The only people who are winning here are the ones with huge contracts for selling the equipment to TSA. Really quite ridiculous corruption.
I would hate being frisked to get on a plane and I would have been tempted to act out by saying “I’ll bet you enjoyed that, didn’t you” to the person doing that if hadn’t been made aware of what the situation is like for them. Thanks for your post.
The late Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007 RIP) wrote: “The shoe thing at the airports and Code Orange and so on are world-class practical jokes, all right,” Vonnegut reflected. “But my all-time favorite is one the holy, antiwar clown Abbie Hoffman (1936-1989 RIP) pulled off during the Vietnam War. He announced that the new high was banana peels taken rectally. So then FBI scientists stuffed banana peels up their asses to find out if it was true or not.”
As a german i must say that the Nazi comparison is indeed inappropriate. Instead TSOs should be compared to the average german citizens who just did their job every day under the Nazis. You know, a lowly beaurocrat going through the city’s files to identify those who had jewish ancestry for example.
Did they agree with the whole procedure? Maybe not.
Did them (and everyone else) going along with it and just “doing their jobs” harm the freedoms of citizens? It certainly did.
What a difference one missed “Groping” by a perverted TSA worker will make when a plane is blown up.All you snot-suckers will call a lawyer before you call an ambulance because they missed the actual threat.Look at any WallyWorld check out line and envision having to touch those in-bred creatures to keep your job.Anybody can point at someone else and their NAZI ways on the same day they turn down an insurance claim,foreclose on a house,or any number of despicable things you do to keep your jobs daily.
Stop the whining about what the Government is doing while demanding the Government do something else to fix the problemSTOP Using the Airlines for 3 days and they’ll treat you like a customer instead of cattle.
In the end, the world is laughing at the USA and their retarded policies and beliefs about what or how security should be. Whoever wants to blow a plane, will have no trouble doing it… understand that.
If the “greatest” nation feels threatened by a Nail Clipper, then you might as well stop trying to be the world police and mind your own business, the world has worked fine for a lot of years before the US of A was even a sperm…
The final sentence of the article, to work together with the TSA employees, strikes me as extremely odd. Yes they are people, but in these interactions they are in the position of POWER OVER the passengers. There’s no “together.” Despite their whining and demoralization, passengers face jail and an $11K fine for not obeying their dictates. There is nothing equal, mutual, or reciprocal about it. They can cry about being caught in the middle, between us and their overlord/employers, but all that means is that they need to come out on one side or the other — with their employer, or with the people? When I see them choosing to on our side against this ridiculous, degrading and useless “thing based” security, and instead join the push for a return to human security and intelligence, then I will say we can “work together”. But as long as they exercise all the power and we are like cattle with no choice, no way. And “Nazi” is a good name for it. Nazism doesn’t have to be in your heart, it can simply be in your actions. Actions exactly like these. I’m sure not every Nazi soldier “enjoyed” gassing Jews or shooting them in the head, but they did it anyway, to remain in good favor with “the system.” In that way they qualify.
Though I understand the individual agent frustrations, having been a constant air traveller for over 15 years, (I’m in the military and travel commercial air a couple times a month) the quality, courtesy and professionalism of Airport security folks as a whole has been in constant decline in the US for decades.
As an active duty service member I’m actually a little bothered when I see TSA agents wearing the US flag on their uniform. They don’t deserve the honor.
Dear TSA front line – doing your job and following directions or orders has found to not be an excuse.
Dear TSA Agents – don’t worry, but aggressively patting down 3-year olds, elderly women, and everyone else who doesn’t fit the profile, you are successfully keeping the American people safe from the Boogyman (aka, Al Queda). /Sarcasm. Clearly these measures aren’t designed to protect us from Al Queda, as Pistole claims – or else we’d be focusing on people who were even remotely likely to BE a terrorist. Instead, it’s one more powergrab by the government. For the TSA agents who don’t realize that wake up. To all who complained: boo hoo, you don’t like your job? Quit. You are not keeping America safer.
If you plan to participate in the protest, show some concern for the other travelers by packing diapers and some extra nonliquid snacks or money in your carryon.
Those traveling with children or the elderly are probably the most threatened by a slowdown, so show some consideration.
And if you aren’t allowed to give it out, it will just make for the NEXT viral video, not a bad thing either.
“Additionally, the Nazi analogy is not dead on. As I have stated, I have my significant issues with the TSA, but they are not rounding people up and shipping them off to be exterminated in an attempt to commit genocide. ”
How do you think it started with nazis? They didnt start by rounding people up to kill them. They started by doing little things… for security reasons…. to make people compliant. It took many years to get to that point. Why to people fail to see that.
I’m glad they feel bad. It’s expensive to hire a new employee, so if the turnover rate increases, maybe the TSA will rethink its tactics.
Go a head and poke my cooch. I’m happy to whip out my maxi pad and show it to you. Keep it as a souvenir!
What the hell is our country becoming?
To #136, Frank: I know plenty of Army grunts (enlisted as nothing, assigned to combat infantry – seriously “grunts”) who took advantage of training and educational opportunities afforded them by the Army and transitioned into six figure careers upon their exit from the military. Anyone who doesn’t take their opportunities is just stupid. Even when you’re out of the military, it’s not too late – take that GI bill to a trade school for crap’s sake!
These innocent sounding TSA agents are not typical of the type I’ve read about over and over again online. Many are more like the power-hungry prison guards who have absolute control over their charges, and get off on it. I’ve often seen these types at airports. They love having power over other people and love to be just border-line abusive. They do not respect others and this is probably because they grew up as abused and disrespected children. Now they enjoy taking it out on others. Don’t tell me that all these agents are just patriots serving their country.
Time to seek out and utilize air travel options not affected by TSA B.S. — things like charter, local private pilots, small regional airlines that have structured their ops to avoid as much Federal B.S. as possible, etc… .
NOTE: Local private pilots can offer suprisingly affordable options and even private charter can be very affordable when done in groups. Another option (if you fly alot) is to get together with a local private pilot, and some friends, and set up a group ownership arrangement of an aircraft that meets most of the group’s needs. Some recommended, affordable, capable aircraft: cessna 206, cessna 210, cessna caravan, king air 100, and the king air 200 (most, especially non-aviator types, will be happiest with the caravan and king air aircraft).
To all the ‘I am just doing my job’-people: If your job is perceived as molestation by so many people and you yourself don’t like to do it, maybe you should bond with the passengers and protest the enhanced pat-down regulations. It’s the system to be fought, not your fellow people.
Enough with the Nazi comparison, folks. Some of us actually had relatives who were exterminated during that time. You do a dishonor to their memory and to yourself by using that comparison. There is a no equivalence (moral or otherwise) between now and then. None.
And for the people saying “if you don’t like it, quit,” that’s a mighty easy thing to say when it’s someone else (not yourself). In case you haven’t heard, there’s 9.6% unemployment out there. Would you quit your job if you had a family to feed or bills to pay? I highly doubt it.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Oh, the poor dears!
Then again, how many times have we been told, “you can always drive.”
Well, “they can always quit.”
So backatcha.
When the Fourth Amendment crashes into some blue-shirt’s precious little hurt feelings, guess where my sympathy’s are?
Everybody has the right to say NO – I said NO to many jobs that would have taken my honor or where I would have been forced to take the honor of others and do things that I think are NOT good to do – I resigned and tried to find another job or live another live – it is always possible! If you feel that at work you are forced to do things that are not ok – you have always the right to say NO.
If you are so spineless to say “no, I fear saying no because I will loose my job” – well, than you basically agree to do things, that are not good – it is your choice. You must organize then and together you will reach your goals.
Jesus decided to do what he thinks is right and nobody could force him doing things that he thought were wrong. If you do not trust in god anymore, you should start recognizing today that you are not alone. Good will help you!
People of USA – you must resist the fascist system that is forcing you more and more to do things that you do not want to! Be proud of the one that once was America – a free country!!! You must restore this freedom!
Nowadays USA is like a big prison! How could you let that happen???
People of USA, why don´t you wake up? You must believe in God and restore freedom for your great nation! Please, start today!
The abuse being heaped on the screeners happens at any large organization where management doesn’t care about responding to those it serves. Ask any hourly retail employee at a store where the service stinks. The advice I give them is the same advice I would give the screeners. You need to get a thicker skin and push back a little or quit. It’s obvious management isn’t backing you up. Ever wonder why the clerks at the DMV or unemployment office are (or at least used to be) so mean and rude sometimes?
TSA’s mandate is 100% safety at any price – including sensitivity to those it serves. Some of you might remember Lily Tomlin’s line on Laugh In, “We’re the phone company, we don’t have to care.” Just to note – the AT&T monopoly isn’t around anymore.
Recording/saving the images… check!
Florida officials saved/recorded 35,000 pictures after they repeatedly said they wouldn’t. SKETCH. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/04/body-scan-images-from-sec_n_670170.html
I know economic times are hard, but really, unless you’re supporting like 4 adopted kids, one of whom is disabled I have NO SYMPATHY for anyone who’s working as a TSA officer. You’ve chosen a “profession” in which you treat your fellow Americans like criminals, and now rob them of their 4th amendment rights. You’re just doing your job? Just following orders, huh? That’s why they’re calling you a Nazi, buddy!
You may not be rounding us up into concentration camps, but one of the first things Nazis did at the camps was to rob the Jewish people of their clothing and dignity.
I can’t feel sorry for these people. They are CHOOSING to do this job, we have NOT CHOSEN to have our right to the privacy of our bodies violated. The stories on-line of passengers who were victims of sexual assault at the hands of the TSA (having your labia touched without warning or giving consent is nothing short of sexual assault) or whose urine bags broke all over their clothes makes me have zero sympathy.
If you work for the TSA – stop following orders. Join your fellow Americans again and protest these policies. You may have power to change them.
Well, first of all, I agree to the other Bernd (also German), that it’s more the common opportunist that just “did his job” during the Nazi time, which still contributed a lot to all the disaster. But a lot of real Nazis hid behind the opportunists after the war (claimed they were such, while they really where Hitler fanbois); same thing when there’s now enough public pressure to the TSA agents to feel that they are doing something wrong. Also, following criminal orders is criminal by itself, and no excuse whatsoever.
And about “they can always drive”: I can’t. There’s no road between Germany and San Francisco, and I’m “forced” to business travels by my employer. Yes, I can always quit, too, but for me, it’s just half a dozen silly massages (actually, last time I got the pat down only in Germany, there wasn’t one in SFO, and the porno scanner was apparently broken, as well).
If we didn’t call these incidencs “terror”, but “accidents”, we wouldn’t even notice that something is going on. Each year, 10 times as many people die from car accidents in the USA as on 9/11. Yes, you can always drive, but it’s a lot more dangerous than terror. Here in Germany, we have “terror warnings”. The real threat is that it’s going to snow this week. Since it’s the first snow this winter, and enough idiots still don’t have winter tires on their car, it will be deadly. For a few people, at least.
You can’t have both, perfect security and freedom. This works just as well for winter tires as for terrorist threats. This just doesn’t cause this kind of emotions.
@Michael E. Rubin:
Any TSA-hole who depends on the TSA to “feed their family” or some other BS excuse is just selling out this country for a paycheck. I have no sympathy for anyone who chose to have too many kids, chose to buy too big of a house, or has too big of a lifestyle that being a paid sex offender for TSA is the only way to maintain this extravagance. McDonalds, Walmart, and other honorable employers are almost always hiring. Choosing to sexually assault people as a TSA-hole is just a choice. A bad, treasonous choice.
It’s only a matter of time before someone gets raped, and everyone “just following orders.” is enabling it. How does it feel to break the law everyday without chance or recourse?
And to the vets..
“defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;”
When did the 4th amendment get cut out of the Constitution?
Quote: …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…..
Seriously this dude does not know what a nazi is. A nazi is a person following obscene rules, all for the “good of his country”. In WW2 those evil nazis were not a special breed of mankind with nothing but hatred and destruction on their minds but average guys doing their jobs without asking questions.
Applies perfectly to TSA, dont you think?
To #318 – Michael E. Rubin: I am sorry for your loss, but do you really think Nazi Germany started with the extermination camps? No, it started nearly a decade earlier with the nullification of many of the key civil liberties of German citizens in response to a terroristic act. Does that sound familiar? It should.
Divide and conquer has long been a method of quieting the dissenting opinion. All we accomplish by hating TSA officials, and TSA officials resenting passengers for making them feel like dirt, is lessening the force and impact of the voices calling for security reform. If we work together- violated passengers and disgusted TSA employees- from a place of respect and mutual understanding that nobody likes this situation, we have a much louder unified voice to call for policy change.
And to all those calling TSA officials assholes who are selling out, might I remind you that flying is a choice and a privilege, not a right. Anybody who tells TSA people to get a different job clearly has little understanding of the current economic situation in our country, little respect for hard working citizens who are trying to retain their jobs and grappling with ethical issues in the process, and little respect for national security.
TSA security is important, there is no doubt about that- just because their higher-ups have crossed a line does not mean the agency lacks merit. It is my sincere hope that there is some kind of policy action in regards to this, that those who object combine forces to advocate for change, and that we don’t let this useless squabbling between TSA employees and passengers block effective action.
And fyi, I am neither a government official nor a TSA representative. I am a social worker who work within in the private sector, travels often, and in earlier years worked with survivors of sexual assault.
Alright, so let’s get rid of the screening process all together. No one touches anyone. No one scans anyone. Let any $hithead that wants to get on a plane get on one. Let’s see what happens. I do not want that blood on my hands, but it sounds to me like you do. Or at least you have chosen this topic to cry about this week. What is the topic for next week? You gunna cry because Delta won’t let you transfer your airline miles to Bin Laden? Quit your b!tching and do something that will make a difference rather than cry about things on the internet and sit on your a$$ waiting for a response…
Quit your f***ng job!
You don’t have to touch anyone, if you don’t want to.
You don’t have to work as “a professional molester” trying to establish a security-level which can’t ever be reached.
->There is no total security in this world.
You run for phantoms, chasing ideas, not ever realizing that everyday there are more people dying in car-accidents, shooting-sprees and on lung-cancer or there own fat, than on bursting planes.
If you want to serve for total security in aviation and transport: tie all americans and all tourists on their home-toilet. Tie them hard and feed them twice a day.
Or quit your job.
Oh gimme a break.. in a nutshell, physically molesting children, women and men is okay because you’re just doing it for the money, and it would be supernice if the people you feel up would not complain about it, because that’s makes you really uncomfortable.
Has it never occured to you that you are not “serving your country” or “a professional”, but that you are designed to be the nuisance for everyone that won’t submit to go through a pornscanner?
You want sympathy? Put your money where your mouth is, and stand up against this illegal, amoral and disgusting charade of security, otherwise you are not “accused” of being a “pervert, disgusting, an embarrassment, creep”, but in fact you are.
Regarding the Nazi comments: What always amazed me about the Nazi’s wasn’t that one or two crazes like Hitler and friends went off the deep end, it was how easily they were able to to talk thousand of so-called regular people into carrying out their murderous racist agenda. It doesn’t surprise me that the TSA has crazy ideas about security, but we have to rely on the working stiffs to resist the temptation to blindly follow illogical orders. The working life of the guy who feels people’s crotches FOR NO REASON all day should be difficult. Many should simply leave and find work elsewhere. That is how the common people remind that powers that be that we control them, not the other way around. I have no sympathy fo the crotch grabbers. I would rather spend a year living in cardboard on the streets then submit my soul to the control agenda of the TSA for a single second.
Wait til the fags start showing up at the security lines with hardons ! Talk about theater!
I feel for these men and women. They didn’t ask for this policy change, but they aren’t allowed any autonomy by their superiors. It’s easy for me to say I’d rather quit my job than grope innocent people every day at work, but I have a job and wouldn’t know what to do if it vanished. I hope we remember that it’s not the average front line guy we have a beef with, it’s Pistole and Napolitano. That said, I hope that the TSOs make an effort to put their foot down as well. Being asked to grope people all day long has got to be a form of sexual harassment.
Most of those TSA workers didn’t sign on to sexually assault passengers – that was a new assignment they’ve added in the last few months, because passengers were starting to refuse the new naked scanners. Are they getting paid extra for the new assignment? Not likely.
And yet the TSA people will tell you that their policies have *always* been the policy, just as they’ve told you for the last dozen policy changes, and this behaviour of everybody lying about it has been typical for a long time – either they’re trained to do it, or they’re just expected to figure out that most people will believe them.
I think more people wouldn’t be so upset if they were treated with respect while being patted down.
I’ve tripped the metal detector once or twice and you’d think I had committed a heinous crime considering how I was treated.
Immediately suspect, the guy was all militant like and “stand there!”, “put your arms up!” He was talking to someone about my sleeves, because they were rolled up, so I tried to roll down my sleeves to show, “see, nothing there” but he screamed at me. “don’t move!”
Then I got the full pat down. Seriously, I was willing to comply to everything but the way he was treating me and talking to me was pure BS. Treating me like I’d just committed a major crime.
I’m a middle aged woman. It was his attitude and apparent powertripping energy at me that pissed me off. There’s no call for that.
If you’re going to pat people down in an intimate manner, which by the way when you go to the doctor you have to sign a release or you can charge that dr. for sexual assault, then you should be respectful and not treat everyone as a potential terrorist. 99.9% of people traveling are NOT terrorist.
Forget about what that kind of militant, power tripping attitude would do to a person who’s been sexually molested.
TSO should also train people to use their freaking intelligence. I mean seriously, I’ve seen 70 and 80 year olds in wheel chairs being patted down as well as small children. Really? Seriously? Use some freaking intelligence.
I went in and out of Israel back in the 70’s. You know what they did? They pulled me in a room and patted me down. The woman asked me questions while doing so. Not in a nasty way, just like a conversation with a friend. This is how THEY catch suspects. They are trained to pick up body language, facial expressions, key words, nervousness, tone of voice.. all kinds of things. So they can scan lots of people without treating everyone like a freaking terrorist.
TSA saw a chance to usurp some power without accountability and it shows. Everyone hates them. Those airports using private security have a much better reputation for customer service through the security even though they have to do the same things. So it can be done.
56 – another example of not thinking before posting.
Extravagance? Too many kids? What are you talking about? Do you think the TSA is showering their agents with money? These aren’t high paying jobs – maybe you inherited a large sum of money, but most people cannot afford to just quit their job with no repercussions – no matter how sensible their living arrangements are. Seriously – you need to grow up, considerably.
Also, there are many, many people out there that have a lot of very bad things to say about McDonald’s and WalMart’s values too, so again, the whole not-thinking-before-posting issue strikes again.
Finally – these Nazi references are truly pathetic. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. If you don’t like it, swearing out the TSO isn’t going to change anything. Complain to your lawmakers. They have the power to make a change, not a front line TSO.
@Mark: sounds like you’re the one posting without thinking. Everything we do is a choice. Last time I checked, there are other options besides TSA-hole for paycheck. They may not be as financially lucrative, but if an extra 10 grand a year suddenly makes being a sex offender ok, I’d say that your morals and civics are seriously fucked. McDs and Walmart may not be the most responsible companies on the planet, but wanton sexual assault and treason aren’t among the offenses these companies may be guilty of. Grow up and think about things before you rush to defend traitors of the USA.
While I agree that the TSO’s jobs suck, that is their job. What we are seeing is the public responding to the only part of the TSA they see: The TSO. Soon enough the backlash will resonate up the chain of command once these TSOs start telling their supervisors and/or quiting their jobs. This policy will not last long, I’m sure. There are bound to be some incidents of passengers getting aggressive with TSOs during the busy holiday travel weekend. More importantly, the public and TSA seems to have forgotten that recent plots have involved parcels and cargo supply lines.
thrilled to hear this is debasing to their morale and dehumanizing. excited about the day that people will refuse to participate in inappropriate searches and will find other jobs.
If a TSO told me he was “just doing his job,” I would say: and that is exactly what Hannah Arendt meant when she talked about the banality of evil; you’re not just doing your job – you’re complicit in a system that violates my freedoms and my person, and you don’t ever HAVE to do it – you choose to.
I am a female TSO at a Category X airport. I have done about 30 of these new patdowns so far, compared to five years of the older versions.
Honestly, so far I haven’t got any heat over them. Most passengers are just glad they are faster.
The AIT has been received fairly well, but then we’ve had it for awhile. People seem to like it better than the other puffer machines.
As long as TSA is going to act like this, I will not going to visit the USA again. In fact I have even turned down any buisness because it would need traveling. Until I gain back the feeling I am a welcomed Visitor and not a criminal that has the Choice of having made a naked Picture or a private touching of (errrrrrg) Hands that touch thousands of Bacterial swamps.
You TSO are perverts. It’s so simple. You are touching People where not even closest friends (besides any sexual engagement) would touch them. I went down that Procedere once. It is humiliating, intensive, unwanted, sexual embarrising. So by all means of respect. You are pervers and wen u do so it feels exactly so.
You just Cover yourself behind whinings of “Duty for the Country”, “only doing my Job” or “i don’t do the Policy”. If you have any Self respect or any morale Feeling, you just wouldn’t do that Job.
So Long. USA was nice a while ago.
Farewell
“I am a professional doing my job, whether I agree with this current policy or not, I am doing my job.” Not to put too fine a point on it— but similar statements are made by concentration camp operators.
Doing wrong because you’re “just doing your job” is a terrible flaw in human nature. We all have an obligation to be aware of and resist this horrible weakness. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment)
OOOO !!! I feel so sorry for the poor TSA agents. Why don’t we just live them alone to make a paycheck and feed their families? I am sooo sorry! Please forgive me that I have to fly and you have to feel my junk. Next time I will just cut it off. Will that make you feel better? Or would you prefer me to band over and spread them for you pleasure? Ether way my dear TSA agent I will do wathever your hard desire as long as you are not desturbed at work! LOVE YOU!