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Female Passengers Say They Were Targeted For TSA Body Scanners
wiedzmin writes "TSA agents in Dallas singled out female passengers to undergo screening in a body scanner, according to complaints filed by several women who said they felt the screeners intentionally targeted them to view their bodies. Allegedly, women with 'cute bodies' were directed through the body scanners up to three times over by female agents, who appeared to be acting on a request from male agents viewing the scans in a separate room. Apparently this was done because the scans were 'blurry,' possibly due to autofocus problems with agents' smartphone cameras."
After hearing the claims, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced plans to introduce legislation that would require the presence of "passenger advocates" at airports to deal with complaints like these.
Because what we need is not less invasive and less humiliating scanners, but additional people on the payroll so that all this useless technology can continue to have nearly zero impact on actual flight safety.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
After hearing the claims, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced plans to introduce legislation that would require the presence of "passenger advocates" at airports to deal with complaints like these.
Passenger advocates, eh? How about plain removing the scanners. That'd be some Passenger advocacy right there.
You realize the patdown (which is considered more invasive than a police pat-down) isn't really an acceptable answer for a lot of people either. You don't get to say a punch in the nose isn't an assault just because you offered to substitute a kick in the crotch.
After hearing the claims, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) announced plans to introduce legislation that would require the presence of "passenger advocates" at airports to deal with complaints like these.
No, no, no!
Just stop with the scans!
The correct solution to this problem isn't to add more and more layers of complexity on top. It's to simply accept that this whole thing was a bad idea and drop it.
It's like some bizarro world where the obvious answer is starting everybody in the face but nobody wants to reach for it, so they try to find ways around it.
I love going to the USA, but your government really isn't making this a pleasant experience.
when you hire...pretty much anybody...and give them a badge.
You realize the patdown (which is considered more invasive than a police pat-down) isn't really an acceptable answer for a lot of people either.
This is a non-violence approach as best as Ghandi himself would have come up with. If the everyone opted for a pat down, then there would be massive queues as the TSA sods could not keep up with the folks in line, that gives them bad press - which is the last thing they want coming up to an election. Therefore, they put more and more and more staff on to keep up with the growing queues refusing the body scanner. Their budget blows out significantly and their methods are seen by the pollies as more and more asinine. Going into an election, the more noise and bad press that can be generated, the less politicians will want to touch it.
I live in outsde the US, but I can only implore you folks in the US to fight tooth and nail for all you can. Beat them at their own game - you have the numbers and you have the media there more than ready to take any hot load that will make the masses agitated. Use it to your (and by that defnition, everybody's) best advatage.
Take the invasive pat-down and blog about how violated you felt. If you are interviewed by someone else, be sure to portray the raw emotion, this will find a bond with all the voters out there who haven't personally experienced it. Contact your senator and write a lengthy letter outlining your outrage. Contact the airport directly and voice your objections - if they have enough complaints, they will (if they are not already) turn to be on the side of reason and common sense - make it bad business to support his TSA guideline and bring them to your side. Make yourself the martyr, and be proud, for you will be serving the betterment of your peers.
The only thing in a capitalist world that will serve your freedoms and personal liberty is bad business through bad press for those that seek to make money by taking it away from you.
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I always ask the groper, "how do you feel about your mother being treated this way"
They've already done it, by locking the cabin door. The cheapest and most effective fix to the problem possible.
At my home city airport, we still have the normal meta detectors and non-mandatory pat-downs. Why? Couldn't a terrorist just drive to my city and fly from there? This whole premise makes the entire current system worthless.
A possibly more effective solution: Refuse to fly. Take a bus, take a train, drive, or forgo travel, but don't pay into the system by buying a plane ticket.
I totally agree, but this isn't always an option - and it doesn't send a direct message. Lower numbers of passengers can be spun as a downturn due to the economy, it can be spun as more people who are scared to fly due to the terrorist attacks. A long queue of people unwilling to accept an invasive body scanner is much harder to sell as a positive if you are trying to sell body scanners.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Or you might not know what you are talking about.
Body scanners may provide a person with a skin direct concentrated dose of radiation that is 20 times greater than previously thought.
This is particularly dangerous to kids.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1290527/Airport-body-scanners-deliver-radiation-dose-20-times-higher-thought.html
You get more radiation from being in a high altitude, unshielded aircraft (a LOT more, IIRC).
I don't see radiation as being a point of controversy.
You're a moron, and the TSA and the government love you for being one.
The scanners are operated by untrained monkeys.
The scanners are not calibrated.
The scanners are not tested.
The scanners are not maintained.
And of course, the radiation you receive on the flight mostly passes through you. The radiation you receive from the scanner is all absorbed in a few milimeters of your skin. You get orders of magnitude more radiation expsure from a scanner than you do from a flight, even if you believe the scanners are outputting the "safe" amounts of radiation that they claim.
It's almost pointless to argue against this kind of disinformation. The x-ray scans are about as good as a digital black-and-white photograph. I would definitely enjoy looking at those images of hot girls all day long and so would my right hand. The millimeter wave scans are not quite so good, but I'd still consider them in the titillating category. As far as the x-ray images the TSA themselves have finally admitted that they are pretty explicit, after having denied it for so long.
Think about it for a second. If the images were not explicit they could publicly release a whole bunch of them to prove it. Of course they haven't done that and the few images that have been released based on the original machine testing have been altered to reduce their resolution or even blur the genital area. The x-ray images are in fact really, really good. Good enough to detect small plastic blades or whatever underneath clothing. If the images were as low quality as some people claim the machines wouldn't be of much use.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
What is also sad is Schumer's fix is to hire more people. How about call TSA's chief in and tell them it either stops or their funding stops. Schumer always was a tool.