News Articles Internet Articles (2015)
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However, if Gaynler and any other women who file lawsuits can prove from witnesses (usually there are scores of them standing around watching the strip searches since, unless the women protest and demand that the screening be done in a private roomand that the person who does the body search (be of the same gender as the traveler) with the screeners using the fronts, not the backs, Siegel is weighing not only whether or not the case is winnable, but also whether it is actionable against the federal government since the government must allow him to sue before their allegations are actionable against the TSAeven though Siegel will argue the pat-downs constitute an unreasonable search and violate the 4th Amendment. Since the TSA believes the pat-downs are in the nation's interestand are therefore protected under the 9th Amendmentit is unclear which way a liberal federal judge would weigh in on this frayand what an appellate court would say in rebuttal. Clearly, Siegel's target in attempting to file a class action suit is either the airlines, the airport authorities which allow the pat-downs, or the security companies which are conducting themor all three. The government contends that the pat-downs and partial strip searches not only in the United States, but with our European allies, has netted tons of contraband, including a variety of weapons and utensils that Most travelers, male and female alike, are not aware of the TSA policy that "...screeners are to use the back of the hand when screen sensitive body areas, which include the breasts (females only), genitals and buttocks" and may not Since new procedure was put into place, the TSA received over 250 complaints. TSA officials claim the number of complaints are "...trending downwards," and that they received far fewer complaints within the last few weeks. With as many as 15% of the approximately 2 million daily flyers getting the new "pat-down," it is unlikely that the complaints are trending downward regardless what TSA spokeswoman Amy Von Walter says. From week one, Von Walter said, the complaints tricked to only 11 the second weekdown from 45 the first week. However, since only about 10% of those who feel violated will complain, we can assume the number of "palm of the hand" assaults is probably closer to 2,500 women than it is 250 women. Jen McSkimming, the manager of a domestic airlines, was attending an industry meeting on the subject of airport security when those in attendance began discussing the pat-down policy. "Well," the TSA official said, "I only get about 15 complaints a week on this." McSkimming told the New York Times that she looked around the room at the 30 or so people in attendance and noticed that about half of them were women. She asked how many of the women had a bad experience with the TSA's new pat-down policy. "Every single woman," she said, "raised their hand. So, I told him, 'Well, you'd better add 15 to this week's total.'" Most of the women interviewed by the New York Times for a feature article on pat-downs, said they didn't lodge any formal complaints believing it would be an effort in futility to do so. Heather Maurer, a Washington, DC business executive received her "cheap feel" at Logan International Airport in Boston. Although she and several other women with whom Maurer said she had spoken were very offended by the pat-downs, all of them were reluctant to go on the record by filing a written complaint for fear that they would end up on a TSA suspect list and would be singled out whenever they traveled by air. A male screener gave her a full body pat-down, lifted her shirt and looked down the back of her pants. When he did it, she said: "I'm not comfortable having you feel me up." Like most of the women who fly, Maurer was convinced she didn't have a choiceexcept to give up flying, which was something she can't afford to do. Nancy Jackson, the president of a global company headquartered in New York said she has also learned not to express her objections to the pat-down. "If you do," she said, "they really feel you up. And then [they] check every section of your wallet and every item in your carryon, including your makeup and toiletries. It's disgusting." Lu Chekowsky, an advertising executive from Portland, Oregon is another reluctant flyer now. She's been felt up so many times she now wears baggy trousers, flip-flops, and an oversized sweat shirt when she travels to make the pat-down get over quicker. "Routinely," she said, "my breasts are being cupped and my behind is being felt. I feel I can't fight it. If I say anything, I picture myself being shipped off to Guantanamo."
"If I take off my shirt," she explained, "I'm going to be exposed." Since LuPone was wearing a see-through camisole, she knew if she took off her shirt, she would be concealing absolutely nothing. The screener seemed to understand. He nodded, saying, "Okay." When she passed through the metal detector without incident, he flagged her for a secondary screening. "What am I doing here?" she asked him. "You said you wouldn't take your shirt off," he replied. LuPone said she told the New York Times, at that point, she wonderedam I in the time-out chair? Still in view of the other air travelers who were checking in, she removed her shirt and asked the screener what he wanted next. He did not reply. Instead, a female screener appeared and began to pat her down. According to LuPone, "...this woman comes and starts to give me a breast examnot using the back of her hands, using the palm of her hands." LuPone said she was shocked by what was happening to her. "I was not in a private environment. I was out there in the public, and totally taken by surprise, humiliated and shocked." LuPone, whose breasts were deliberately exposed by the screener because of his ordersbacked up by his badge, has grounds to sue because the female screener touched her breasts with the palms of her hands and her fingers.
Very soon the techbology Mica spoke of will be installed in all the nation's airports. And, it is a less intrusive devise. Less intrusive in the sense that screeners will not need to physically touch the traveler to determine Steve Smith, the inventor of the X-ray scanner (called the Secure 1000) admits that privacy will be the primary issue. Promoters of the X-rayscanner, however, would have travelers believe that it is not much different than the X-ray machine your local hospital uses. The new devise simply peers through your clothes, not under your skin like a medical X-ray. It will be almost as t Secure 1000 was ready for use as the world's most technically advance security system shortly after 9-11, but threatened lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU]which viewed it as far too intrusive and therefore, a violation of American civil rightsstopped Congress and the TSA from universally adopting the scanner for use not only in the nation's airports, but as the first line of security defense in all government buildings in the United States. But, it was not until England began reporting tremendous success using the Secure 1000 that the TSA tested it in 15 of the nation's largest airports. Screener Susan Hallowed agreed to be the TSA's first American guinea pig to prove to women that the Secure 1000 really doesn't "strip you naked." It's clear we have not gotten a single iota smarter since 9-11. If anything, we've gotten even more stupid. Because of political correctness and a fear of the ACLU and several Islamic lobbying groups, TSA issued instructions to seek out terrorists from the ranks of grandmothers, well-known non-Muslim entertainers, middle class white Christian travelers, and others who do not fit the profile of a terrorist as we know them to be in this country. Screeners at airports take care not to set anyone apart for secondary security checks if they appear to be of Mideastern origin. But anyway you look at it, it's very likely the "cheap feel" conducted by airport contract employees under the guise of making travel safer for Americans might end up becoming very expensive for the airlines and/or the security contractors who perform the screening searches for the TSA if Siegel's class action lawsuit gains legs. Let's get rid of the nonsensical "feel good" security at the airports and start targeting those who history has shown intends to harm the people and the infrastructure of the United States. Whether Mideastern, Asian, African, European or American, those who intend to wage Jihad in America are Islamists. We need to start profiling them. No one's going to care if overzealous screeners at LaGuardia, or BWI or Logan Airport strip search someone linked to Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda. In fact, if that happened, Americans would not mind the humiliation they must endure a the hands of TSA screeners when they decide to fly somewhere. When you look at the furor over the pat-downs or "feel ups" (the choice of the terminology that best describes the act is best left to the passengers who endured the embarrassment of a full body search either because they were randomly selected by an airport screener, or they failed to clear the metal detector at the airport check-inor thinking about being fondled by either a man or woman screener they never saw before, the passenger becomes nervous and triggers false warnings to the screener who suddenly suspects that person may have something to hide. In hindsight, however, it appears that perhaps the only people with something to hide are those within the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security who knew all along that the system that would ultimately be used to secure America's airports would be the Secure 1000 scanner system. And, when the public complains about the intrusiveness of being electronically disrobed whenever they go to court to pay a traffic ticket, or to pay their taxes, some womanremembering the airport pat-downs, will comment, "Well, it sure the beats the dickens out of being felt up by a five-and-dime make-believe cop with a license to grope you." Not only is Big Brother watching...he now has X-ray eyes. |
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