A Classic Lesson in What NOT to Do
I’ve read about all the people in the news complaining about our nation’s protectors of the air – the TSA. I’ve listened to the fears people have of the dreaded full body scanner, some resorting to alternate means of travel just to avoid enduring a full body pat down. Really I didn’t pay much attention…until yesterday.
Going through security at the Milwaukee airport, I was directed to go through the body scanner. I’ve been through them many times in many airports, and I don’t even think about it. But yesterday, with a pair of simple black pants with no pockets and a fitted, long sleeve shirt on, I stepped forward, put my hands on top of my head and watched the scanner run around the outside of the glass structure. I was scanned. I took my normal position waiting for the TSA (an official looking guy with a wire in his ear) to get the message from the person watching the screening in some undisclosed location.
Next thing I know the TSA official is calling out for additional personnel. I thought for sure he was calling in the heavys because of the person waiting behind me. But then they asked me (who me?) which bags belonged to me. Suddenly, 3 TSA personnel began picking up my things announcing (a little louder than I would have liked) that they were taking them into a private room. It was frankly an embarrassing scene. Then they told me I needed to have a full body pat down (also a little louder than I would have liked). I said, “fine, please do it right here.” But they insisted that I go into the private room with the frosted windows, behind closed doors, for a next level security pat down. I kept thinking –what are they looking for? Well whatever it was – they were determined to find something. There were 2 people in the room observing my pat down in addition to the 1 woman who was the chief patter. She told me exactly what she was going to do which honestly made me want to cry. Every crevice of my body was touched with the back and side of her hands. Every crevice. What were they looking for?
From a business perspective, if you were to watch the TSA rules being enacted, you may think their set of rules misguided, inefficient and extremely inflexible. How about determining a few suspicious locations to pat? I understand that the rules exist because they don’t want the individual TSA personnel making judgment calls. Everyone gets treated by the same set of rules. But that reality didn’t make the lack of flexibility and the over manned private room where, for 7 excruciatingly long minutes, I endured patting and then bomb residue scanning. Surprisingly… nothing was found. Me, the singled out suspect, embarrassingly called out in front of a busy security line, was left to go free.
If someone came into your business and analyzed your rules and systems would they say… ‘That doesn’t make any sense’ or ‘What a waste of staff time’ or ‘Isn’t there a better way to do this?’ Once a year it may be helpful to review your own systems to determine if you continue to have the best, most efficient and complete ways of doing things. You certainly want to make sure that your well-thought-out systems are smarter than the TSA’s, although that’s not much of a benchmark.
After it was all over, in disbelief, I call my husband to tell him about my TSA experience. I was looking for a little sympathy. Instead, he laughs and says, “Hey kids! Mom almost didn’t make it through security!!” Sure, laugh all you want – until it happens to you.
Thank you for sharing your story. I want to support you and say I regret your experience, which was one that no innocent person deserves to endure. Anyone who laughs at the terrifying reality that our government is systematically sexually assaulting us is a heartless traitor to humanity.
I was assaulted on the street by a man who ran up behind me, put his hands up my skirt and grabbed my private parts. I created an ear-piercing scream and kicked all my limbs every which way, and the man ran off. The only difference between what happened to me on the street and what these TSA criminals are inflicting on people in an airport is that in my assault, I was able to fight my attacker off and file a police report. At the airport, our attackers operate with police protection. We aren't supposed to scream and cry, or to physically defend ourselves, which is the only sensible response to strangers invading your private parts.
Please, write to the TSA, the ACLU, EPIC, and most importantly Congressional representatives about this. It is vital that we document our opposition to these worthless, degrading, and abhorrent procedures.
Posted by: Aris_A | 03/04/2011 at 07:31 PM
Actually, you have the right to have the pat-down conducted in full view of everyone else. It's on the TSA website.
Your husband's not going to be laughing when he watches a TSA agent touch your children inappropriately. It happens every day. As a mother, I cannot condone this gross violations our freedoms and I refuse to fly with my daughter until the DHS and TSA realizes that what they're doing is illegal and unconstitutional. I won't allow strangers to touch her nor have her grow up thinking it's ok for a government agent to search her without provocation. I will not stand by and watch her be sexually assaulted.
Posted by: Heather | 03/04/2011 at 05:07 PM
perhaps now others can learn from your sexual assault and the damage it can cause. and you do know those body scanners you think so little about going through are also a sexual assault, against child pornography laws, and a possible radiation health risk don't you?
for everyone else reading this: being sexually assaulted in private works in favor of the TSA. more people need to see what is going on in order to stop this denial of our rights, our morals and our health.
Posted by: todd sanders | 03/04/2011 at 08:27 AM