The TSA

[tahnan]

I hate flying. Not, as it happens, the actual act of being on an airplane; I just hate the hoops involved in getting onto one, from ridiculous ticket pricing to paying for checked bags to Security Theatre. Though the last one has mostly always bothered me in principle; in practice, fine, fine, shoes off laptop out no metal walk walk and move on, at least it's painless.

But the new "body scanners or patdown" policy...for those who aren't keeping track, the TSA policy is now that you have two choices at security. You can walk through the full-body look-through-your-clothes scanner, which raises some questions about radiation risks and a whole lot of questions about invasion of privacy. (To give you a sense, the pilots' unions for both USAirways and American Airlines are telling their pilots not to go through the scanners.) Or you can submit to a patdown, which is no longer the usual quick patdown but is, instead, a front-of-the-hand groping that usually requires at least dinner and a couple of drinks. (Not really an exaggeration; the flight attendants' union for United Airlines is complaining about the "invasiveness" of the technique, which rather explicitly includes touching the breasts and genitals. And which seems to have been designed not for security but to look as humiliating as possible so that people won't opt out of the scanners.)

And this makes me sick. I really, really don't feel like submitting to these alternatives, to the point that even the thought of the prospect going through airport security upsets me. Unfortunately, the remaining choice seems to be "don't fly", which doesn't work when you have family in Minneapolis and Atlanta who are very much expecting you to visit in a month and a half. And for all the news reports (and there are many) about the "protests" and "backlash", there also just doesn't seem to be anything at all that can be done.

Comments

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

OMG yes. As anyone who's flown with me in the past ten years knows, nothing in modern America makes me as angry as the TSA. NOTHING. It's not just the body scanners, it's the whole "Papers please", search-and-seizure, guarding-the-barn-door-after-the-horse-got-out mentality. The whole conflation of "security" with "freedom" confounds me. *grits teeth*

This issue came up recently in someone else's LJ, and I discovered (through subsequently googling "fight the TSA") a nice proto-movement website called The TSA Choice (http://www.thetsachoice.com/), pointing out just what you do here. They don't have much but some nice links, including this piece in the Atlantic Monthly (http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/11/-are-any-parts-of-your-body-sore-asks-the-man-from-tsa/65482/). A useful primer since I am flying to Chicago and back this weekend.

[(Anonymous)]

I find this a bit upsetting too, and all the more so as I didn't know about it, and I'm flying next week. I suppose if they advertised it widely then there would be a REAL backlash.

Gareth

[mizkit]

Actually, no, not so much with the backlash, because an improbably large number of people actually believe all that shit is making us safer. I hear it every time I'm in security lines, and I can never believe it.

[tahnan]

It's hard to tell. In this case, it's possible that the options "pose naked or get groped in public" may be a step too far. I hope so.

[jadelennox]

BigSis said "I really don't care if they see me naked through the machine". *facepalm*

People really are stupid about security theater.

[mizkit]

Not that this question is at all useful to you, but do you happen to know if flying in and out of Canada and taking the train or a car over the border ends up with equally offensive behavior from Canadian security?

[tahnan]

I've no idea; I haven't traveled to Canada in five years or so. I think the scanners are in use in London, though they may offer a better alternative than groping; it's possible that they're also in use in Canada. What happens when you try to enter this country by car is another matter; the story of Andrew Feldmar sticks with me. (He's the Canadian psychologist that has been barred from ever entering the US because he took LSD once in 1967 as part of a research project.)

[jordanwillow]

i'm not an expert, and i think it depends a lot on which airport, but in my experience, the hassles comes when you're returning from canada (or any other country) to the USA. i've noticed a trend recently of having to go through security twice when flying back to the USA from another country -- once for the airport's normal security, and once more by officials working for, or in collaboration with, the american TSA.

i flew out of canada to the USA a few weeks ago and don't remember any extreme measures, but that was before this backscatter thing started to happen, i think. so, again, maybe not helpful!

my parents drive in and out of canada regularly (most recently, a few weeks ago) and have never gotten asked more than the occasional question about whether they're carrying any alcohol and so on at the border.

ETA: i fly (and my parents drive) with an american passport, in case that's relevant.

[tahnan]

It might be; Kit's a foreigner, who has either an Irish passport or an Alaskan one, so I don't know how the US will treat those.

[jordanwillow]

oh, well, then i see that my response was full of all sorts of assumptions. *facepalm*

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

An Alaskan passport...?

In any case, the last time I had occasion to notice (earlier this year), flying within Canada was still pretty civilized, as was flying from Canada to Europe. Flying from Halifax to Newark in August involved a TSA-style choice between scanner and patdown (with, it should be acknowledged, very pleasant and laid-back security staff). So it might be worthwhile to avoid flying to or from the U.S. if that's an option. It's been a while since I've crossed between Canada and the U.S. by land, though, so I don't have a clear sense of what that's like these days.

[tahnan]

Wait, is Alaska part of the US? Do they use, like, US passports and US currency and stuff up there?

Of course, since the last news I saw from Alaska was that Lisa Murkowski doesn't seem to be spelled "Lisa Murkowski" (scroll down for images of ballots that at least one Alaskan is claiming do not say "Lisa Murkowski"), I assume they have their own unusual writing system or the like.

[jordanwillow]

mizkit, apologies -- i unthinkingly assumed you meant "flying in and out of canada from the USA," even though you didn't say that! my bad.

[jadelennox]

based on my experience an hour and a half ago, no. In fact, they smiled and nodded and let me into the country with an expired passport, which is now kind of freaking me out, because as nice as Canadian immigration is, in a couple of days I have to GO HOME. And that means United States TSA.

(as far as airports, one story I've scene linked about is that the TSA is actually so intent on using the new grouping style patdown as a means of shaming everyone into going to the backscatter machine that they have started -- against all the rules! -- using opposite sex staff for the pat downs. While I'm sure you can request otherwise, I'm equally sure they will be aggressive about you doing so. Since they've attempted to arrest people who tried to leave the airport rather than submit to either the groping or the backscatter, after all.)

[stigant.livejournal.com]

Do the full body scanners speed up the line? At the end of the day, that's what I want... a faster way to get through the unpleasantness. I don't really care if someone takes a gander at my bits and pieces, and my understanding of the radiation exposure is that it's minimal.

[jadelennox]

Apparently a number of physicians say that the jury is out on the safety of the backscatter, especially to certain groups of people, such as women with a predisposition toward breast cancer. Aggravatingly, I can't currently find the link.

[tahnan]

Yeah, when I said "some questions" about radiation risk, I meant to imply "though not very many, really". (Cell phones raise some questions about radiation risk, though I gather the answer to those questions is "Oh, give it up".) On the other hand, while I may not mind people checking out my naked body, I'd rather be able to choose who does it and when.

I'm also not remotely in favor of giving up privacy for convenience.

In the end, though, I can't imagine how it could be any faster. Anyone who opts out is going to slow the line down; and since you have to stand in a particular pose or two, it seems like it ought to take longer than simply stepping through a metal detector.

[lapak.livejournal.com]

Having been through one recently, I'll add that you also have to remove more stuff from your person for the full-body scanner. My belt was fine in a metal detector; had to go for the scanner. I could carry my ticket in my pocket through the metal detector; NOTHING was allowed in my pockets going through the scanner.

And then you have to stop, and pose, and wait, and then go. So no, definitely not faster.

[jordanwillow]

about the cell phone radiation. i listened to the most terrifying this american life on that issue a few months back, and have since taken greater care to use a headset. studies have shown that the radiation is dangerous and studies have shown that it isn't; the main factor differentiating the two results seems to be whether or not the study was paid for by the cell phone industry. i just did a search; i'm pretty sure this was the episode.

[in_parentheses]

Yeah, my understanding is that the jury is very much in on cell phone danger; it's just that we're all so attached to our phones that no one's willing to do anything about it. Whee!

[stigant.livejournal.com]

I guess I have a more laid back view of this. What bugs me is the continued draconian policies like "no water bottles" and having to remove my shoes. Those are real inconveniences since they slow down the line, actually have an effect on my comfort during the rest of my travel, and don't (seem to) really have any substantial benefits. But, the reality of the situation is that searches are a necessary evil in order reduce the risk of some jacka$$ bringing down a plane to an acceptable level. If there's some new technology that reduces the physical inconvenience of a search while at the same time speeding up the lines and catching more contraband (ex: weapons stored in cavities), then I don't see how you can be against it. Now, if the new machines don't improve in those areas, then you have a point.

As for choosing who sees you naked, I look at it this way: (with the exception of my wife) I'd rather have a stranger see me naked than someone I know and with whom I would have to interact after said viewing. And I'd rather that stranger be one who has seen 1000+ other naked people in the last hour, is probably inured to the titillating aspects of his/her job, and therefore concentrating on finding weapons rather than leering at me. (Again, this assumes that someone seeing everybody naked is actually going to reduce the other hassles of traveling)

[tahnan]

...technology that reduces the physical inconvenience of a search...

No. For one thing, this doesn't reduce the previous inconvenience, i.e. there was no particular inconvenience to metal detectors. For another, if I opt out of the scanners, fondling my genitals is not a reduced physical inconvenience, nor particularly necessary. (It won't catch weapons stored in cavities, for instance. And an opt-out is necessary because there are always going to be people for whom the technology is not an option, for health or medical-implant reasons, if not religious or moral ones.)

For a third, it doesn't really matter that some people are OK with being seen naked, given the reports coming in about the trauma this is causing rape survivors. And children. And so forth.

[jordanwillow]

i am confused by the TSA's list of airports currently employing imaging technology. the reason i'm confused is that in the past few weeks alone, i've flown out of 3 of those airports, and i was never subjected to a body scan machine or a pat down. do some people get whisked right through? did i because i'm white and female? (the other possibility is that i was so afflicted by airport malaise that i don't even remember a body scan happening, but i think i would remember being asked to stand still for a few seconds and raise my arms.)

[tahnan]

It's possible that those are airports where machines have been placed, but not necessarily airports that have entirely switched over to the machines. Possibly you were lucky enough to be in a line that didn't have them.

[jordanwillow]

it also occurs to me that two of the airports were big ones with many terminals and multiple entry points within each terminal. maybe not all the airports that have these machines have them at every security point in every terminal? but one of the airports was a small one with only one security entrance; i think i would have noticed body scanning happening there, even in my cow-brained, herd-me-wherever-you-need-me-to-go airport state. i'll pay more attention next time.