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DHS Official Considered Shock Collars For Air Travelers
"The Washington Times is reporting that the DHS wants to replace your boarding pass with a GPS-enabled shock bracelet. Plans for the device include subduing passengers remotely as well as onboard interrogation. There's even a promotional video."
Perhaps Paul Ruwaldt (the official named in this story) has been watching "The Coneheads" a bit too much, or not actually flying enough. Expressing interest is not quite the same as ordering mass quantities, but it's scary enough.
TFS liks to a blog post which itself links to part of a letter (page two, so we don't even get to see the whole letter). The video link tells us simply that a company called Lamperd Less Lethal would love to sell these devices to a government agency. There is absolutely no evidence presented that would justify the claim that "the DHS wants to replace your boarding pass with a GPS-enabled shock bracelet". Why did this fake story even get posted?
Caveat Utilitor
The truth is that another hijacking is unlikely to happen. With the memory of 9/11 anyone trying to take over the airplane is going to be subdued, if not out and out killed, by the passengers. The philosophy before 9/11 was to sit back, let the terrorists make their statement, and then everyone will be safe. Not any more.
So TSA's main job now is justifying their job.
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This system would help terrorists control all of the passengers on the aircraft. All the terrorist would have to do is take over the system and activate all of the wrist bands of the passengers to incapacitate them. After that resistance is futile.
That is just it... I can load just about anything I want into my private plane and fly anywhere in the US without having to go through security, without having to provide biometric ID, without having to take my shoes off, without having to wear shock collars, etc...etc...etc...
That is why this whole thing is security theatre.
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you're an airline pilot. A terrorist organization just used Semtex to destroy your reinforced door. I know my gut reaction is to look at a list of passengers and type in an id number to shock a specific individual.
As much as I don't like Tasers, it makes more sense to have a Taser gun than Taser wristbands. Those wristbands have to either be activated individually by number - not happening in an attack - or all at once - pissing everyone off.
For those that want to get outraged, this is an area where big business (airlines) can be your friends. The airlines won't allow this. Anything that makes flying more of a pain reduces their profits - even things like the new security fees on airline tickets reduce their profits. They aren't going to pay more money (I'm guessing at least $15-a-bracelet for the materials, location tag, and shock element considering that a Taser costs hundreds of dollars) to piss off customers.
So, this won't happen.
Yeah, go waaaay beyond "papers please" and treat *all* of your citizens as criminals when they travel.
Why stop at travel? Why not just have everyone wear these all the time? You'd probably have to randomly test-shock people to deter tampering, but hey, such is the price you pay for Freedom. Er.. Liberty? No, what was it the US government always swore to defend, again?
I'm not completely sure why the fear level is so high in American culture, but I'd hazard to guess that it's the result of a combination of being too used to being too comfortable and too safe too much of the time - similar to tyrant's paranoia - and the fact that the media and the current administration both cultivate fear (for different reasons).
A-Bomb
Unless the passengers are taken out by shock bracelets. Good job, TSA!
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Why does this remind me to the prison scenes in the beginning of Running Man? As another poster already pointed out, since 9/11 high-jacking a plane will no longer work as passengers know that they are doomed and that their only chance is to fight back from the beginning. Also listening to the video I don't understand how the terrorists are able to get explosives on board, but can't manage to get the bracelet off...
Complain about the 8 hour tarmac delay? zzzzzt
From an "evolutionary" standpoint,this is probably the beginning of the end for "big birds" and large long flights.
Fuel is an issue as well as alternative travel options,now we have DHS. I admire their enthusiasm but they lack in the brains dept.
I predict that the small aircraft industry and charter flights is gonna boom because of the added aggravation.
Big birds can't get any lighter without using toilet paper in place of aluminum and fuel costs are already killing the industry. I predict people will drive long distances now in silly little cars or motorcycles.Tents will replace campers.
People will chose comfort and peace of mind over cost and aggravation any day of the week.
So long 747,I might see you flying across oceans now and then,but your days are numbered.
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Just remember, the only thing we have to fear is...
Um...
Well, is our government it seems.
That's right, keep the conspiracy flying.
I don't think the passengers had time to watch the news, call their families, and say goodbye.
Right. Because the recorded phone messages of flight attendants and some of the passengers are completely fabricated. The families made them up after the plane went down to gain sympathy.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
To authoritarian people, the very idea that the masses have freedom is a scary.
Whether true or not, this story shows a very real reaction some people have to idea that they can't control other people. Freedom is, amongst other things, is also based on a "trust." At some point, a free people will rebel against an increasingly oppressive government. I think we are seeing the U.S. government racing to reach a state of control and surveillance BEFORE people start to rebel en mass.
The race is to get to a point where there is no way the people can rebel without losing their jobs, savings, houses, lives, etc. This is why students and kids protest, because they don't have a life's work of savings to lose.
The irony is that the corrupt powers that be had better fix the economy pretty damn quickly, as people with a lot to lose are easier to control that people who have lost everything. Once we have a major depression, the ideologies of abortion, gun control, "family values," become second to jobs.
If a mob of 1,000,000 people march on the white house with pitchforks and tourches demanding justice, there will be justice.
American culture doesn't have this level of fear. Nobody I know of has cut short travel plans because of the terrorism threat, though I imagine some people have. Nobody I know of thinks TSA is making air travel safer.
This whole fear thing has been manufactured by the government as an excuse to remove our civil liberties.
Don't ever EVER think that the American people are demanding it. We're not. This is being done TO us, not FOR us.
There will never be another hijacking of a plane with americans on it.
Exactly. That's why all four planes were hijacked in the same hour. Flight 93's reaction ("it's them or us") is now the default.
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Where are all of these scared people?
They are in the government, and they are scared of getting their budget cut, so they keep a constant state of fear in motion to grease the wheels of spending and reduction of freedom.
Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
What I suspect will happen is that this is a trial idea floated to the media and will be explained away as saying
These kinds of proposals aren't random; by making ridiculous suggestions like this, they move the boundaries of what is acceptable. Compared to shock collars, some of the other things they come up with will seem tame now.
What I don't understand is why people go for this bullshit. Why is it the government's responsibility to make air travel safe? Who cares? I've been flying for nearly 40 years, and the same risks we have today existed all that time and were just as obvious. And except for the fact that in 2001, the air planes plowed in a big building in Manhattan, 9/11 seems not much different from any of the numerous other plane hijackings.
People should just not vote for any president or representative supporting such measures.
I stopped flying specifically because of the TSA restrictions, NOT the fear of terrorist hijackings and bombings. I refuse to be treated like cattle by the airlines and shoved into a tiny tin can after being accosted by glorified mall security guards for hours at a time. They're making it as inconvenient as humanly possible to fly in this country these days and frankly, if I need to travel I'll just drive. If I can't drive somewhere and a ship is infeasible then I really don't need to travel there.
I'm sick of the "fear itself" line being used as an example of how the USA was less fearful in past years.
Here is an example of how fearless we were. This one was approved by the same administration that said we have nothing to fear...
I dig the fangs and the blood-drenched knife. Where are my posters of Muslims with blood-drenched swords to keep me awake at night??
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At least during WWII, there was something to actually fear; the world was at war. This fear of terrorism is a joke.
Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
Nobody I know of has cut short travel plans because of the terrorism threat,
I suspect far more people cut travel plans short because of the TSA.
You've obviously never worked in government. It's all about self-justification.
"Nobody shoots anybody in the face unless you're a hit man or a video gamer"- Jack Thompson
I agree with your conclusion, but not your reasoning. I think it is time that Americans (and I am one) wake up and realize that anyone, anywhere, anytime can be killed, intentionally or by accident. Put MORE fear into the bastards. It's kind of like the kids who grow up washing their hands every two seconds for fear of germs. When they finally do go outside they have chronic asthma and allergies and god knows what other health problems. All because their immune systems are overwhelmed by never being exposed previously. Me? I was force-fed mud pies by my siblings and now have the immune system of an ox. Same with fear. I realize just how fragile a human being is and how scary the world can be. But I don't let it paralyze me. I make smart choices, weigh the risks, and generally try to be a good person. If a crazed terrorist kills me then that sucks. But I will NEVER strap a f*$%ing taser to my wrist voluntarily.
Stop trying to bubblewrap the playground equipment or put every airline passenger into suspended animation before they travel or require cavity searches to enter a courthouse. There was a time when people took personal responsibility and that risk kept them from acting like total assholes to everyone else. While I don't advocate going back to vigilante-ism, I strongly advocate letting people take the risks they are comfortable with and not trying to make the government into a nanny state. Because that is exactly what this is pandering to, the idea that the big strong government will protect you from the monsters under the bed if you just do what they tell you and eat your vegetables.
I used to work with several guys from an Air National guard base.
One year they were way under budget, and the commander bought nearly 80 $50 leathermans for his ground crews. They didn't need them, each one was listed as a tool for the their tool boxes but in reality each tool was walked home and a gift to each of the guys.
you never come in under budget in a government job. doing so means next years budget will be slashed to that amount minus 10%.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
It's not so much that people go around wearing body armor in case some evil foreign-seeming type terrorist blows himself up in the local Starbucks. It's that nobody really protests when government officials say that such a scenario is A) actually plausible and B) can be prevented if we throw out just a couple of tiny little freedoms or spend vast amounts of money on whatever it is they're trying to sell. I have quite a few American friends, and except for a few, most tell me "it's worth it if it prevents another 9/11" whenever we discuss things like the TSA's idiocy, or illegal wiretapping, or whatever it is that goes on at Gitmo, etc.
I would call that a form of fear, though I haven't had much sleep so I'm probably just not coming up with whatever the better word for it is.
I wish I could mod you up higher than 5. Eisenhower warned us about the military-industrial complex, and we did not listen.
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E pluribus sanguinem
A serial killer is NOT a terrorist. A campus or mall shooting is NOT [necessarily] an act of terrorism. Just because a particular act invokes feelings of fear does not make it an act of terrorism. Your fast and loose use of the term "terrorism" minimizes the real acts of terrorism in much the same way our society has reduced the value of the word "hero" to anyone who performs the job they were paid to do.
I live in the southeast.
The region is packed full of these "scared people".
The flags on display here remind me very much of the prevalence of the swastika in nazi germany, and people here think bush is the next best thing since apple pie.
Interestingly and predicatbly enough, a large number of these people are also creationist, and in the past couple years a so called "psychic" on a nearby road bulldozed her tar paper shack and built a 6000 square foot mc-mansion because her business has taken off so much.
This region is where things like kinoki foot pads get shipped to by the train-full.
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Dude, that's a pretty scary illogical leap.
The question of what I might choose, or you might choose, in a hypothetical scenario is irrelevant to the matter of what actually happened. Even if I agree arguendo that it could be justified, that is not in any way evidence that that is what took place on 9/11.
Seriously.
And any pilot with half a brain knows that a cabin full of dead people is still better than a plane and building full of dead people.
None. Now. if you had asked how many people are willing to let the gov't snoop into their neighbors lives and bedrooms, then lots.
Je ne parle pas francais.
is that so mad? I remembe catching a train out of london that day, and being a bit nervous about the whole 'being in a packed capital city that jet airliners fly over every minute' until I got home (out of London)
It's easy to forget the uncertainty of that day. The first plane was an accident, the second and some heavy shit was going down. By the time I saw footage of the pentagon covered in smoke and rubble, I was on the phone wanting to speak to my family. Once a military icon like the pentagon is on fire, its not too many steps to see a nuke being lobbed at Afghanistan in response, and it all going haywire from then on.
Thank fuck it didn't go that way, but I don't blame anyone for feeling jittery on the day.
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While what you say is correct... in the current climate of eroding personal rights and increasingly invasive government, I think discussion of how gov't agencies COULD get out of hand is a useful exercise, in that it gets people thinking about the "What if" aspects, and how both current and potential gov't (mis)behaviour can impact their everyday lives. What could we do if the situation came to pass? How would it be implemented? how much will it cost us in tax dollars? what alternatives would we have? Better yet, how could we prevent it? In California, sometimes the best way to halt stupid legislative ideas is to show the costs (including failure of revenue) to the Appropriations Committee.
Far from being mental masturbation, this is good exercise for sheeple not accustomed to thinking in terms of how good technologies can become bad policies. And f protest rises against even a nonexistent erosion of our rights, it serves as notice to those we elect and appoint that this is not acceptable to the Citizenry, and if they do have any such thoughts, they'd best rethink 'em.
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Where are all of these scared people?
I'm right here. And I'm scared to death. Of my government.
Years ago, I laughed off an idea like this (tasers strapped to all air passengers). Surely, I said, no one would seriously consider this -- passengers would decline to travel rather than strap on one of these things.
How wrong I was. It seems that no idea is so evil that it can't find a proponent in my government. Fsck me.
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)