Slashdot Mirror
Denver TSA Screeners Manipulated System In Order To Grope Men's Genitals
McGruber writes: The CBS affiliate in Denver reports: "Two Transportation Security Administration screeners at Denver International Airport have been fired after they were discovered manipulating passenger screening systems to allow a male TSA employee to fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers." According to law enforcement reports obtained during the CBS4 investigation, a male TSA screener told a female colleague in 2014 that he "gropes" male passengers who come through the screening area at DIA. "He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female. When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows (the male TSA screener) to conduct a pat-down search of that area." Although the TSA learned of the accusation on Nov. 18, 2014 via an anonymous tip from one of the agency's own employees, reports show that it would be nearly three months before anything was done."
If we spin this as the TSA allowing for homosexual acts (especially on God-fearing straight folk!), could we use this to convince the GOP to support shutting it down? Toss in some terms like "limited government" if necessary.
I'm not at all comfortable with the current screening procedure madness, but I'm far more comfortable when the TSA agent groping me is just as uncomfortable with the situation as I am. When they're taking pleasure in it, it's a good indication that the system has let us down.
That strikes me as pretty fast for an organization that size.
This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
What is unclear is why the TSA still exist.
Because, in the unlikely event of another terrorist attack on a plane, any politicians voted to eliminate the TSA will be blamed. Modern politicians spend all this time and effort trying to get elected, then they're too scared to do anything where they can't pass the buck.
Giving people legal authority to see and touch both men and women's private areas attracts creeps to the job? Never would have guessed.
Not that, but my wife once had an undergarment trigger the TSA sensors as an "anomaly" and had to be subjected to the full pat down routine. By a female employee who, I hope, wasn't just doing this because she found my wife attractive. This likely wouldn't let a male TSA agent pat down a female in the line as I believe they have rules in place that only the same-sex individual must do the pat down. Then again, this IS the TSA we're talking about, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was abused as well. They have been caught sending attractive females through the "naked scanner" and ogling the resulting images.
The TSA: Protecting Us Against Imaginary Terrorists*
* But Not Real Ones**
** Also, who protects us against the TSA?
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
This is why we can't ignore male sexual violence, it's a real issue and we need to look at just as hard as female assaults.
Many, MANY years ago, since you type "oh" for "zero". In both the subject, and (the different) body.
You gotta love the cognitive dissonance. We are perfectly 'okay' (societally) with same gender patdowns because you know that can't be 'sexual' or exploitative, yet we no longer consider homosexuality to be deviant behavior to the point we largely support marriage equality.
My take on its government should not be allowed to have it both ways. You either don't believe in homosexuality as a normal state, or you can't support TSA patdowns. Sexual assault is sexual assault no matter what gender or sex the other persona happens to be unless its invited. And the TSA procedure meets every definition for assault. Do you feel free to turn around and leave if you are selected for an enhanced search? I don't I'd be considerably afraid that if I they suggested they needed to do a patdown and I responded "no thanks I'll just head back to my car" that I would find myself detained shortly their after.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Seems like it is sexual assault.
It is. Unambiguously.
Why didn't the TSA refer this to law enforcement?
Because TSA is law enforcement or at least thinks they are.
Every single GOP person I know were either anti-TSA from the beginning or turned anti-TSA when they were groping nuns and little children while waiving muslims in full Haaj regalia through (so as not to be accused of racism). It was only the big-government whacko GOPers in Washington who were big supporters of yet another centralized government agency. TSA should NEVER have been created; In a true free-market system, American Airlines and Boeing would have been sued into the dirt after 9-11 for allowing their planes to be used as weapons - The taxpayers were the injured party, NOT the irresponsible airlines who got a multi-billion dollar bail-out. By making TSA governmental, it was guaranteed to be political (and therefore politically-correct) by virtue of being controlled by gutless politicians. Had the airlines been forced to be accountable, they'd each be forced to come up with their own programs to produce ACTUAL safety.
The TSA is NOT about security at all; it's "Security Theater". The agency exists to simultaneously fool the public into thinking they are safe, shift blame for any future failures off of the giant corporations who build and operate the planes (and bribe, errr contribut to the campaigns of, politicians) and bulk-up the number of unionized government employees who will vote Democrat in all elections. Note: When the Bush admin pushed to create the TSA they wanted it no be non-government, but the Democrats wanted it to be governmental - they compromised Bush agreed to make it government and Senate Leader Reid (D-NV) and House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) agreed it could never unionize. As soon as Obama became President, Reid, Pelosi, and Obama Unionized the TSA. Yet another reason so many GOP-ers do not trust any deals with Democrats.
For the dude doing it...what's the penalty again for punching out a TSA idiot?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Or because as long as people are OK with that bit of intrusiveness every time they travel, they'll be more accepting of other restrictions on their freedom as well.
that's too dumb to respond to.
yeah... sexually molest innocent muslim women to end terrorism. you should run for president.
I wish - and I know this would never 'fly' - that we would make their lives as uncomfortable as ours - or even more so. they are really offended when their women are even looked at by westerners. what I would love to see is that we go OUT OF OUR WAY to fondle and embarass all the muslim women - ALL OF THEM - that enter or leave any western country. yes, its payback and its meant to inflict a return feeling for all that have 'done' for us.
WHAAA???!? This is modded "insightful"?
the fact that we let them ruin our way of life - and they got away with it - means that they are boldened to keep doing this crap to us.
What the heck? Who is doing this to whom? We are doing it to ourselves. Who does the TSA work for? Our government.
We did this to ourselves, and for nothing. Is there any evidence whatsoever that the TSA has prevented ANY terrorist attacks since it was instituted? NO.
There are countries that have experienced REAL terrorism. Places where random buses get blown up periodically, or random bombs go off in the downtown area of a city -- from a coordinated effort of terrorists. (See, for example, situations in Israel/Palestine, or England when the IRA was particularly active.)
We have NOTHING like that. If there were any significant number of Muslim terrorists out there just dying to "ruin our way of life," they could easily do so -- bomb some malls, bomb public transport, heck -- shoot up an area right outside the security zone at an airport. Remember after 9/11 when people were actually freaked out about such things? I remember people afraid to go to malls -- afraid that someone would put some chemicals or poison into the water supply, etc., etc.
How much of that happened? Nothing really. We just forgot about it. We didn't really make "security" around any of these things any better. Hell, we can't even keep our weapons-grade uranium safe with any real security.
We're doing nothing for any number of major terrorist targets, and the terrorists are doing nothing to attack them. Therefore, the only reasonable conclusion is there aren't a significant number of real terrorists. (Well, except for the retirees that the FBI entraps by hanging out with them at Waffle House for months and convincing them they should attempt a terrorist act...)
So, given that it's clear we've done this whole TSA thing TO OURSELVES, why exactly is it that you want to lash out at Muslims everywhere, as if they were ALL represented by a handful of folks who plotted 9/11??
if we do a tit-for-tat (as childish as that might initially seem) then maybe the escalations and wars would come to a stand-still.
"Tit-for-tat" implies that there's some sort of actual targeting of people who did something. If a red-headed guy goes on a murder spree in a subway, and afterward the police start just randomly searching and beating the crap out of people on the subway to instill fear and dissuade anyone from attempting a similar act, your response is, "Let's go and starting beating the crap out of all redheads everywhere! That's tit-for-tat, and it will show them!"
(Don't get me wrong here -- I know the analogy is not exact, and there are militant Muslim extremist groups, whereas I don't know if there are militant redhead groups... but hopefully my point is clear. The ones doing the bad stuff at the TSA are our own fault, and saying we should use them to harass others because we allow them to harass us is one of the stupidest things I've seen modded up on Slashdot, and that's saying something....)
Perhaps the fact that the victim can't be certain how the standard procedure differs from an unlawful sexual assault should tell us something...
Err, health care insurance. In fact, they are already for a group of people through medicare, and that seems to work well.
>> For the dude doing it...what's the penalty again for punching out a TSA idiot?
Gitmo?
Seriously folks - you may have a lovely country, but this sh!t keeps my tourist dollar in my bank and unspent.
I think you should learn what "makes a pass"means. If a person comes up and tells you that you are "cute", that is a pass. If you feel decking someone for verbal communication, maybe you should get into yoga and calm the fork down.
As for the physical groping, nobody should do that regardless, so I'm on board with your assessment.