Time To Fly Out Of Texas
That is, until we can use civil disobedience, with travelers in large numbers acting up (sobbing, for example, as they're being searched) as our only hope of getting the TSA pulled back.
As a pilot told me when we spoke at the airport, bureaucracy doesn't usually get revoked. In fact, bureaucracy protects itself, which is why it will take extraordinary (emotionally flamboyant) measures by large numbers of travelers to maybe lead the way to change.
The need for that seems even more evident after my last sexual assault by a TSA lackey (they aren't "officers," although they call them that to encourage our sheepleness), and after talking to the TSA airport supervisor who was called. More in the next few days on why showing a lot of emotion is the key to civil disobedience in the TSA line (without them being so able to arrest you -- which isn't to say the power-mad McDonald's workers in faux police officer uniforms won't do it or try).
Unfortunately, when I'm searched, I hear other travelers around me being searched and being polite and compliant. Even pleasant about it. There's a time for incivility, and it's when your Fourth Amendment rights are being violated. (And no, the fact that I need to travel for my work is NOT probable cause.)
And yay, Texas -- the land of "We aren't just going to stand there and take it like big wussies." CBS/DFW posts an AP story that says the Texas House passed a bill criminalizing inappropriate touch of travelers by government employees:
Approved late Thursday night, the measure makes it illegal for anyone conducting searches to touch "the anus, sexual organ, buttocks, or breast of another person" including through clothing.It also prohibits searches "that would be offensive to a reasonable person."
Time to order a order a "Serenity" T shirt with Capt. Mal's immortal words, "I aim to misbehave."
BlogDog at May 14, 2011 7:41 AM
"You know, your coat is kind of a brownish color."
lujlp at May 14, 2011 7:54 AM
Gregg, when he went through the TSA line yesterday, blurted out, in the middle of his groping, "My dad was in the Battle of the Rhineland."
And then, when the guy was done, he said, "I feel safe now."
Amy Alkon at May 14, 2011 7:54 AM
Amy, the TSA groper probably had no idea what the Rhineland even referred to.
FYI all, latest from Elliott:
TSA Watch: Napolitano tries to frighten travelers, but lawmakers tighten her leash
MAY 14, 2011
http://www.elliott.org/blog/tsa-watch-napolitano-tries-to-frighten-travelers-but-lawmakers-tighten-her-leash/
Lisa Simeone at May 14, 2011 8:09 AM
Stingray over at Atomic Nerds had a satisfying encounter with TSA.
Robert at May 14, 2011 8:20 AM
Here's the comment from Stingray at Atomic Nerds:
“And as soon as you fucking little thieving perverts decide whether or not something shiny in my wife’s carry-on is banned all of a sudden or not, I’ll be on my way. Now either get a real cop and charge me with something or go fuck yourself you petty little shit.”
Robert at May 14, 2011 8:32 AM
Robert, I just went over to read his account. Too fab.
(oh, and here's the link: http://www.atomicnerds.com/?p=4667 )
Lisa Simeone at May 14, 2011 8:35 AM
On the other, part of good manners is to be civil to those doing their job.
You can do the potty-mouth routine to some lowly TSA agent. Woo-woo. The guy is working for what, $20 an hour, to support his family? Is he supposed to risk his job and let you in without a search? The frontline agent is not responsible for policies made by higher-ups. You are just abusing some fellow human being--very rude. Petty-rude. You know the guy can't respond or slug you. Punky-rude. You are just making as ass out of yourself.
Write to your Congressional Representatives (if you know who they are) and express your concerns. That is the way the law may get changed.
Personally, I just walk through the scanner. Big whoop. Some people want to bomb airplanes. We have to take precautions. So we do. Your rights are not being violated. You are only being an ass.
BOTU at May 14, 2011 9:09 AM
The frontline agent is not responsible for policies made by higher-ups.
And yet we still charged concentation camp gaurds as accessories to murder
lujlp at May 14, 2011 9:20 AM
Pushback! Hooray for Texas.
I thought this writer's reaction reports of a baby-frisking was spot on:
http://www.loweringthebar.net/2011/05/tsa-says-baby-frisking-justified.html
Christopher at May 14, 2011 9:21 AM
"Personally, I just walk through the scanner. Big whoop. Some people want to bomb airplanes. We have to take precautions. So we do. Your rights are not being violated."
We've pointed out only a few dozen times that just because you acquiesce to going through the scanner doesn't mean that you won't also be pulled aside for a grope. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
The "big whoop" is that no one has a right to take nude pictures of you without your consent. The TSA is compelling citizens to submit to this. (And those of us who go to nude beaches don't need to be lectured by the supposedly enlightened on what constitutes strip-searching or forced nudity.) Refusing to go through the scanner is at least a small act of resistance. Citizens understand the concept of resistance; sheeple don't.
And yes, our rights are being violated. A virtual strip-search is a violation of our rights. Unwanted genital groping is a violation of our rights.
And in this case, the guy wasn't even a passenger -- he was simply trying to watch his wife go through security to make sure she wasn't assaulted or robbed. He had a right to stand and watch, no matter what bullshit the TSA minion tossed out about "loitering." Or are we supposed to accept that we've now lost the right to use our eyeballs as well?
Lisa Simeone at May 14, 2011 9:48 AM
Take Gregg with you and have him punch out the first TSA Gangsta that cops a feel down there.
(And yes, I'd be happy to do it if I were your boyfriend.)
mpetrie98 at May 14, 2011 12:08 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/14/time_to_fly_out.html#comment-2137815">comment from mpetrie98Gregg, like me, is merely hostile (at appropriate times), not violent.
Also, he flies to Detroit every two weeks for work. If he gets jailed and banned from flying, he'd have to hitchhike or take a Greyhound. From Los Angeles.
And thank you!
Amy Alkon at May 14, 2011 12:22 PM
"On the other, part of good manners is to be civil to those doing their job."
No, it's not. Not when their "job" entitles illegal searching of my body parts.
momof4 at May 14, 2011 1:11 PM
Amy - et al - I've been looking through the archives on here for a while, and one thing struck me about this topic.
I said back in 2007 that TSA measures would only get more intrusive. I was right.
Now, look carefully at our Orwellian world. A President, with no qualifications, with a Nobel Prize awarded merely for good intentions, is continuing involvement in Arab states' affairs. The news is actually morphing into our desire, intent and methods of killing Khaddafi now. The American administration, successfully maintaining the total mirage that the President is responsible for tax law and spending, is now crowing that they have the plan for reducing spending - while having CAUSED immense debt while perpetuating the myth that a cut in PROPOSALS is an ACTUAL CUT.
Winston Smith reads aloud: "The purpose of the war is not to win. The purpose of the war is the consumption of human output."
Though I do not expect to find out just what the human race is being held back from achieving, I DO expect to see a tall black dude in a leather duster asking what color pill I want.
-----
I see no evidence that the public today is any brighter than the one that allowed the Civil War, WW1 or WW2 to start. The improvement in communication today has merely allowed the USA to follow the Romans into the same mistakes more quickly. I also think the signal/noise ratio is too low for the average American to even recognize the handcuffs slowly tightening around her wrists.
Radwaste at May 14, 2011 1:15 PM
"On the other, part of good manners is to be civil to those doing their job."
No, it's not. Not when their "job" entitles illegal searching of my body parts.
momof4 is exactly right.
Amy Alkon at May 14, 2011 3:07 PM
Newsflash to BOTU:
Not a single terrorist incident has been thwarted by the actions of the TSA.
Not. One.
What they're doing is not only a violation of our rights, it's useless as well.
jimg at May 14, 2011 3:36 PM
Hey, if it were me, I would give airline pilots shotguns with frangible bullets, and very solid locking cabinet doors. Problem solved, cost maybe $500 million, No Iraqistan, cost $3 trillion.
However, our elected officials have chosen a different path. We elect these guys. We are a democracy. I have written e-mails to my representatives and I have voted, and I have sent $25 checks to candidates I like. Big whoop, but it is what I can do.
Insulting the TSA schlubs who search people before they get on airplanes...oh please. Now, how will that change anything? It is childish, selfish, puerile, snotty and rude.
There is a saying the longer a string goes on in the Internet the odds approach 1 that Nazis will enter the conversation. Yes, TSA guards=Nazi war criminals. Oh, I think that is a reasonable comparison.
Are the airline searches "illegal," as Amy Alkon contends? Perhaps so. It seems to me that someone would have litigated that contention, and the courts would have ruled on it. Meaning, it is not illegal. The courts have approved the types of searches that happen before you board an airplane.
Perhaps the courts will rule in Alkon's favor someday. Then, you will now the taste of real freedom!
In the meantime, be adults and be polite to some person who needed a job and took one with the TSA.
BOTU at May 14, 2011 10:09 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/14/time_to_fly_out.html#comment-2138917">comment from BOTUFreedom of speech rights are for the obnoxious and the civilly disobedient, not those who comply with violations of our rights.
There are times for incivility, and this is one of them. Those who take jobs that entail the violation of millions of Americans Constitutional rights do not deserve to have an easy day at work. It is only by acting up by the thousands (and I have a plan for this, based on my recent experience enroute to Colorado Springs, and a talk I had with the TSA head at LAX, who came down after they refused to continue groping me while I sobbed). More on that as soon as I can write it -- and as soon as I can talk to a Constitutional lawyer. If any happen to be reading here and want to weigh in, please email me (see the Contact link).
Amy Alkon at May 14, 2011 11:11 PM
Notice that the TSA goons often use blue rubber gloves... two by two hands of blue. :)
Yes, BOTU, be nice to the peacekeeper enforcers and yet one day there might be a mix up and you'll have co-mingled with someone they don't like and are thus contaminated, to be tossed in prison just the same. Or worse, getting shot in ones home by a swat team 70 bullets to 0 fired because of "drug crime" suspicions. Oh, that just happened in Arizona to a husband and father, a vet by the local swat team. They let him bleed out for over an hour before allowing medics in.
Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.
Sio at May 14, 2011 11:27 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/05/14/time_to_fly_out.html#comment-2138933">comment from SioTell them you want them to put on fresh gloves before they sexually violate you. They stick their hands in people's waistbands. I don't want to be a Greyhound bus for somebody else's DNA.
Amy Alkon at May 14, 2011 11:33 PM
"Yes, TSA guards=Nazi war criminals."
God, this gets tiresome. No, BOTU, nobody said that. We seem to have to keep explaining not only TSA regs but also basic rhetoric. Analogy isn't equivalence. An analogy is a comparison; it's not an equation. Nobody equated TSA thugs with Nazi war criminals. Somebody made an analogy. Somebody made an analogy to make a point, because making the point in plain English wasn't getting through.
And -- again as we've pointed out several times on this blog -- there are about a dozen lawsuits making their way through court or that have already been adjudicated in favor of the plaintiffs, meaning the innocent citizens who brought suit against their TSA abusers and won (Phil Mocek, Robin Kassner, Lynsie Murley, to name a few); the others are still in court.
But if you need the courts to tell you how to make up your mind, you're in trouble. You'll be waiting a long time, for this and any other issue, while lawsuits drag on for years. Seems a rather timid way to live. But then timidity is exactly what our overlords want.
Lisa Simeone at May 15, 2011 3:31 AM
Everyone should start claiming to be allergic to latex
lujlp at May 15, 2011 1:49 PM
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