fabrisse: (Default)
fabrisse ([personal profile] fabrisse) wrote2010-11-18 05:18 pm

TSA Scanners, etc.

I don't like the new policy. I didn't like the old policies and I made my views on the Department of Homeland Security clear awhile ago.

But [livejournal.com profile] elusis has a post HERE that covers points I hadn't considered and is essentially far more eloquent on the subject than I can manage.
innerslytherin: (Default)

[personal profile] innerslytherin 2010-11-18 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Eh. I'd still rather go through all that than potentially be bombed. Flying in an airplane isn't a right. It's a privilege, and I'm willing to make concessions in order to have that privilege. *shrug*

[identity profile] fabrisse.livejournal.com 2010-11-19 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
If it were effective, I might agree.

The Europeans, when things are on tight lockdown, have everyone re-identify their baggage as it goes on the plane. It's far more effective than the body scans or pat downs, but we don't do it here.
siderea: (Default)

[personal profile] siderea 2010-11-19 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
Well, the next time you encounter a terrorist bomber, you're perfectly entitled to counterproposed to him that instead of exploding himself for his cause, he makes free with your body. However, you aren't entitled to cravenly beg for your life with any other woman's body, nor any man's either.

Don't like the risk of being bombed? Then don't fly. Flying in an airplane isn't a right. It's a privilege.

[identity profile] snopes-faith.livejournal.com 2010-11-19 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
Urrgh. As you know 'cos we've met, I have pretty enormous breasts and maybe because of this, I've had some horrible experiences with the TSA down the years. Or maybe everyone gets the bad experiences and don't discuss them much online for the same reasons I generally don't - the amount of male commentors who find discussions of large breasts being grabbed salacious or even boastful.

I'm also sorry to say that the policies of the TSA are not unique to the states. At Heathrow before my last flight I was stunned into (almost) laughing in incredulity at how inappropriate the screener was. In full view of the security line, she made about seven big grabs of my breast tissue, testing them all over with apparent curiosity in her palms and between her fingers as if they were melons she was trying to test the ripeness of before buying. She also ran her hand all the way up my leg. I dearly wish I'd seen this cartoon - I would have said more. As it was, in vain I just tried saying, trying to be polite and cheerful, 'it's the wire in my bra' but she totally ignored that I'd spoken at all, giving credence to the cartoon's point. I'm angry I didn't say more now - I *knew* she was doing it wrong and it wasn't that I was afraid but rather the sheer scale of how wrong she was being kind of stunned me into inaction. But the fact that manyu others might feel violated by her approach makes me feel mad I didn't speak up when I felt strong enough to do so. I am appalled that now her way will be the preferred policy for millions.

Mind you, I still preferred this to the woman at Dulles about 5 yars ago who left me wanting to cry whilst doing a similarly inappropriate fingers and palms of hands pat down. But she conveyed so much anger and contempt in her dealings that every touch seemed an utter violation. I can only speak for my own experiences but I was struck by how much more upsetting one was than the other and yet the eternal degree of difference that an onlooker would have witnessed would be minor.

[identity profile] fabrisse.livejournal.com 2010-11-19 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
The worst I've had was them trying to take my passport away from me. But then, I'm older and fat. I'm so sorry you've been put through that humiliation. I can't even begin to imagine.

*hugs*
eanja: (Default)

[personal profile] eanja 2010-11-19 03:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't had to be inappropriately patted down yet (I don't fit any of the profiles, and really am not personally fussed by the x-ray scanners), but I am pretty convinced TSA searches are bullshit for one simple reason. When I travel, it's usually for work, and I am usually wearing cargo pants. Only once, ever has anyone asked to check whether I have anything in them. The x-ray might pick that up, but other screening, probably not, and the xray is pretty new. You can put an amazing amount of stuff into a multi-layered cargo pocket, and unless it's metal, it's not going to set anything off. Even in a pat down you'd have to physically stick your hand inside each layer of the pockets- if I put something flattish in there, you'd very easily not notice it with an exterior pat-down through up to 5 layers of cloth in some places.

I realize that might sound like a good reason for doing x-ray scans, but I think it points out the general lack of competence of the TSA- thanks to the insistence of keeping those jobs poorly paid, you end up with people who've clearly had poor levels of training, and trying to fix security by increasing tech rather than training your workers is pretty much always backwards.

As your linked article suggested, a pat down is not actually going to seriously prevent anyone from smuggling things on board unless it's of the full-on prison level cavity search level. I think most of what the TSA does is theater to make people feel safe, rather than addressing the actual issues of safety.

[identity profile] fabrisse.livejournal.com 2010-11-19 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Hanging around with engineers has helped me explain to people why I don't find this effective, things like the layers in cargo pockets. I'm sure we could come up with an explosive that could be woven and made into cargo pants...