TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old 1135
3-year-old Mandy Simon started crying when her teddy bear had to go through the X-ray machine at airport security in Chattanooga, Tenn. She was so upset that she refused to go calmly through the metal detector, setting it off twice. Agents then informed her parents that she "must be hand-searched." The subsequent TSA employee pat down of the screaming child was captured by her father, who happens to be a reporter, on his cell phone. The video have left some questioning why better procedures for children aren't in place. I, for one, feel much safer knowing the TSA is protecting us from impressionable minds warped by too much Dora the Explorer.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:5, Informative)
The naked picture scanners that can't be saved (except when they can) and the molest^H^H^H^H^H^H pat-downs that would be criminal offenses if done outside the airport have spawned something of a populist backlash against TSA's goons.
You're seeing a lot of stories because there's both a lot of interest, and a lot of material. This is the classic example of a bureaucracy run amok and it's time for the politicians to do their jobs and regain control over it.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:5, Informative)
The "enhanced" pat-down was created with the goal of making it unpleasant enough to get people to go through the scanners.
And yeah, I'd say that being groped by government goons because I committed the crime of buying a plane ticket is definitely unpleasant.
Video link (Score:4, Informative)
Tribune had the original video taken down, but the news report is still viewable here, with most of the actual footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJNY_PTULO4 [youtube.com]
Vid offline new link (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Metal detector (Score:3, Informative)
Does she have some kind of mutant superpower where emotional distress causes her to manifest lumps of metal inside her body?
As for the rest of this, yeah, this shit is sick. Pat-downs were invasive even before, and now they've turned them into non-consensual erotic massages.
If you touch the side of the detector, it goes off, and you have to walk through again. I suspect this is what happened.
Re:Terrorism is EXTREMELY RARE (Score:5, Informative)
The head of the TSA said today that they want to expand into ground transportation as well. They'll find a way to grope you one way or another.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:5, Informative)
The bit about being threatened with lawsuits was in reference to a recent case in San Diego where a passenger made the choice to leave the airport rather than consent to the search and was threatened with a lawsuit for doing so.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:5, Informative)
In related news, another friend, working for the coast guard, routinely made it through security (as part of his job to infiltrate and notify the chief of security inside the line) with explosives, guns, etc.
As near as I can figure, the entire point of airport security is to catch idiots and pacify the masses through some sort of fear / control response.
Re:Terrorism is EXTREMELY RARE (Score:5, Informative)
For instance, former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who just happens to have a significant financial interest in the company that made the naked-scan machines that the TSA are now using.
Hip thrust during the search (Score:1, Informative)
Everyone should start hip thrusting while being fondled by the TSA agents (men, women, children, teddy bears, etc.). Ask for more, beg for it. Don't stop, I need it! Ooohhhh yyyeeeaaahhh! Was it as good for you as it was for me???
You HAVE to let them know. Here's how. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.ustravel.org/about-us-travel/contact-us [ustravel.org]
http://www.tsa.gov/contact/index.shtm [tsa.gov]
Write politely and literately. Don't rant, and explain your position as briefly as you can. But let them know that you are no longer travelling by air as long as this security theatre is in place.
You can also write to your representatives with the same message, but I cannot give you that contact info.
(I know I'm an AC, but I hope someone mods this up, and people take the advice to heart)
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Informative)
Spoken like someone without the need to travel, nor children. Fail.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:5, Informative)
It seems to have been bought in at the same time as the new scanners came online. I think the biggest objection to it seems to be the way it's done more than anything else - the TSA officials aren't warning people about what they're doing, taking a presumption of guilt if you question any part of the process, haven't made it clear at any point what's changed (or the apparent $10,000 fine for decided you neither want to be x-rayed or felt up) and generally acting like power-drunk dicks.
Another interesting POV here: http://www.pennandteller.com/03/coolstuff/penniphile/roadpennfederalvip.html [pennandteller.com]
Re:The sad thing is... (Score:3, Informative)
Smart countries with better reasons to fear terrorists than us have already thought about that:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother [thestar.com]
(yes, it's been posted by others here as well, but it's worth a read.)
Re:I don't get it (Score:5, Informative)
NPR interviewed him recently about the pat-downs. His comment about the controversy started with a statement to the effect of, "Reasonable people can disagree." He then went on to talk about the balance of security and privacy and security and safety. It was very noticeable that he did not say they would listen to disagreements. His statement, in summary, was "Disagree all you want, but we will decide what the line is."
and yes, a TSA agent has already "gone there" (Score:3, Informative)
But it's ok! Lets have them grab crotches of our teenage sons and daughters, take naked pictures of our wives, etc. It makes us safer!
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:4, Informative)
TSA FINGER-RAPED THIS MOTHER IN DAYTON: (Score:5, Informative)
"I will not be a silent victim of sexual assault by a TSA agent. Total Sexual Assault." [ourlittlec...rboxes.com]
"I stood there, an American citizen, a mom traveling with a baby with special needs formula, sexually assaulted by a government official. I began shaking and felt completely violated, abused and assaulted by the TSA agent. I shook for several hours, and woke up the next day shaking."
Re:I wonder... (Score:0, Informative)
What would happen if we stopped making up crazy situations in our heads to justify the total loss of our freedoms?
Obviously you have never been to Iraq or Afghanistan if you think that is some made up crazy situation. Bombers use children to kill soldiers all the time, because children are trustworthy, no one thinks a child would hurt anyone, meanwhile the child that doesnt know any better has enough explosives strapped to them to kill everyone within 50ft. The child themself if probably completely harmless but the people who have control over those children sure are not. If it can happen there all the time whats to say it wont happen here?
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:3, Informative)
+1 insightful. You can bankrupt Circuit City or Apple or even Microsoft via boycott. You cannot bankrupt the Monopoly known as government. They just suck the money direct from your paycheck.
Somebody else wrote:
>>>US to get to Hawaii then current [strike] compel you to submit to a security screening.
"Laws that are contrary to the Supreme Law (constitution) are nullities." - Thomas Jefferson.
"Laws declared unconstitutional are voided from the day of their creation; as if they never existed." 1810s Supreme Court.
and:
"We are not bound to obey or enforce the unconstitutional Fugitive Slave Act. We declare it nullified." - The Legislatures of the following Member States: MA, CT, VT, and PA during the 1840s. These states became places of asylum for people like Harriet Tubman.
Re:Video No Longer Available! (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN6pJ7nP1yA [youtube.com]
Re:Odds of dying in terrorist attack (Score:3, Informative)
One in half a million is a small chance, not an infinitesimal chance. Let's not abuse well-defined mathematical terms. :p
Re:and yes, a TSA agent has already "gone there" (Score:1, Informative)
And he's not the only one: Online predators arrested in Orlando sex sting include TSA screener [californiaaviation.org].
"Also arrested was Joseph Cioffi of Altamonte Springs -- a U.S. Homeland Security employee who trains screeners at Orlando International Airport, the Sheriff's Office reported."
The people training the Freedom Fondlers are part of the problem. What if they're hiring their friends? It could be like the Catholic church scandal, but this time, they've got the force of law behind them.
Re:I don't get it (Score:1, Informative)
it wasnt an 'enhanced pat down'. it was just a normal old style pat down.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:2, Informative)
Not that I actually consider glass to be a risk, mind - worst case scenario someone gets a few cuts before the hijacker is jumped by 150 other passengers - but it's more of a risk than most of what they're confiscating.
You remember that one only needs to cut through a single major artery to kill a person?
My nine month old and I were patted down on Monday (Score:1, Informative)
We were flying back from Atlanta and it was myself, my 3 year old and my nine month old. I have always work an ergo (no metal components in it) to carry my son as anyone with kids knows traveling with kids requires taking a ton of crap. We went through the metal detector and the agent said we had to get patted down because he was in a harness. It was funny because the agent that was tasked with doing the pat down was confused and went back to check if we had actually set off the metal detector. The agent at the detector said we had not but had to get patted down because it was TSA policy that if I was wearing the carrier, we both had to get patted down. I could tell the agent that did the pat down was completely embarrassed by the incident.
Sadly, I don't feel any safer with the new procedures.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:2, Informative)
Not just threatened. Charges were actually filed and the fines are piling up.
Re:Profiling (Score:2, Informative)
Children and Security - Recipie for disaster (Score:5, Informative)
For those of you without kids:
I've traveled domestically and abroad 14 times in the last 4 years, with a 1 through 4 year old, plus gear. At 1, they don't notice. At two and three, she would reliably freak out at security. My conclusions: The wait tests her patience. The packing/unpacking, undressing/dressing, unstrollering/strollering, takes away all of her comfort. Then, her mother walks away, through a big machine, towards a person with a wand.
We've learned it's best if mom goes first carrying nothing but a boarding pass, so that my daughter walks through the machine, to her mother. Then I follow, with absolutely all the gear. Often there is a meltdown, but then one parent is 100% focused on it, while the other worries about stuff, repeat scans, etc.
Now three of those twelve times, security has helped us a lot. In JFK, Hong Kong, and Beijing, they pulled us aside, and screened us in the priority/first-class lane. There's fewer people, a more enclosed space, and less overall distraction.
This post is just about kids and travel trouble; everyone else has the body-cavity-searches-sucks thread covered.
Re:Maybe blame the haters? (Score:3, Informative)
But 9/11? People were chomping at the bits to blame Bush for SOMETHING, ANYTHING.
What world are you from? After 9/11, Bush had approval ratings about 3x bigger than when he left office. Nobody blamed him for anything until he invaded Iraq.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:1, Informative)
I've always been able to place them on the conveyor myself.
You do that before you get to the airport, not after.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:1, Informative)
The bit about being threatened with lawsuits was in reference to a recent case in San Diego where a passenger was asked to leave the airport by security when he wouldn't consent to the enhanced search and was then threatened with a lawsuit for doing so.
Fixed that for you :)
Re:Odds of dying in terrorist attack (Score:5, Informative)
Internationally it's even less likely, consider international airlines like Qantas who have never had a airborne single fatality let alone a terror attack.
I'm starting to wonder
Re:I wonder... (Score:2, Informative)
Then the GOP would not have a way to scare people into voting against their own interests.
Dems are 100% in control at the moment. The head of TSA (appointed by the Obama administration) on the news today said that genital groping is justified and will continue.
So you can't blame everything on Bush.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:4, Informative)
What isn't clear to most people that any X-ray process, in contrast to magnetic metal detectors or THz RF scanners, *will* damage your DNA [1,2].
The medical community (and presumably the TSA) would like to convince you that X-ray doses are low enough that they are harmless. But IMO there is no "safe" dose. Just greater or lesser degrees of actual physical damage.
1. The photons of X-rays and to a lesser extent short wave UV rays have sufficient energy to break atomic bonds. Breaking the atomic bonds in water can produce hydroxyl radicals which then attack DNA which can further result in DNA double strand breaks. DNA double strand break repair is error prone [3] and corrupts the genome sequence much of the time. Thus any significant quantity of X-rays will damage ones genome and will increase ones risk of cancer and/or ones rate of aging. If the TSA is really using X-ray scanners (and people are not misinterpreting the THz scanners as X-ray scanners) then the is grounds for a lawsuit and a cease and desist decision by the courts.
2. It is useful to keep this in mind when your dentist wants to take X-rays or your hospital wants to take X-rays or run a CT-scan (which involves loads of X-rays). If you can receive treatment without the need for X-rays or CT scans it is something that deserves consideration (and even prior directives to care givers/family/facilities for permanent inclusion in ones medical record). People may be subjected to X-rays or CT scans without their permission as one can observe from many TV programs involving Emergency Room treatments.
3. Courtesy of the exonuclease activities in the WRN and DCLRE1C (Artemis) proteins [genes] involved in DSB repair.
Re:I wonder... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I wonder... (Score:3, Informative)
What does this have to do with the GOP? Holy crap, people, give it up already. We still have a Democratic President, House, and Senate.
This is bi-partisan stupidity - call it what it is.
Re:What's the deal with the rush of TSA stories re (Score:3, Informative)
We're doing it wrong. Here's a great article on how Israel handles security at their airports. Note the emphasis on training PEOPLE as opposed to buying and trusting multi-million dollar machines to do the job.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/744199---israelification-high-security-little-bother [thestar.com]
Re: THz scanning (Score:3, Informative)
Actually I spoke to soon. Some recent investigations suggest that THz RF scanners may damage the DNA by "unzipping" it (which can increase the probability of DNA double strand breaks as well as other kinds of damage) [1].
So it looks like neither the AIT scanners which use back-scatter X-rays, nor the THz scanners are completely without risk of damaging the individual going through them.
I agree with Dthief that high-tech noses detecting chemical odors may be a better way to go for non-invasive, non-damaging scanning.
1. http://tinyurl.com/2fgf9f5 [tinyurl.com]
Re:Profiling (Score:5, Informative)
And yet every single hijacker is a Muslim male. Go figure!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Airliner_hijackings [wikipedia.org] lists 171 hijackings. I omitted 2 of them where I couldn't figure out whether the hijacker was likely Muslim or not (a Croatian incident and a Bosnian one); of the remaining 169 incidents, 126 of them were by probable non-Muslims.
To put that in a percentage, about 75% of hijackings are by non-Muslims. The vast majority are by males--I think that only one was by a lone female, though some of the group hijackings may have included women (I wasn't paying attention).
Cuba is by far the dominant source of hijackings; 105 of the hijackers were Cubans.
Re:TSA FINGER-RAPED THIS MOTHER IN DAYTON: (Score:5, Informative)
No.
The woman touched her labia - hands INSIDE undergarments.