I am frequent traveler both within the US and outside the US. Due to my job, most weeks I fly out of BHM and into ORD and then back home so I go through security at least twice a week. And until this last week, I was one of those people that considered the security screenings, metal detectors, full body scans, pat downs and baggage checks as just a necessary evil. I even laughed at the casual travelers who interrupted my daily commute by not knowing the security procedures or by complaining about them.
I entered the security area and removed my coat and shoes, and then pulled out my laptop and generally made my objects on the belt as easy to scan as possible. Then I stepped through the metal detector wearing just my dress and hose. I cleared the detector with no issues but then was pulled from the line to go through a pat down. Since I was wearing a dress, the pat down went up the inside of my thighs and the agent had her hand in my groin and my dress pulled up to the tops of my thighs in full view of everyone else. She also had me spread my legs when doing the pat down across my back and then, without me having moved, when she proceeded to pat down my front insisted I spread them even further. I felt violated and still feel violated about this experience 4 days after it occurred. It has taken me days to get calmed down enough to complain about the incident. I have been over and over this and I can in no way justify what happened. This was clearly a violation of my personal rights. I would like to reiterate that I am an experienced flier that routinely goes through the full body scanners, additional pat downs and belonging searches with no complaints but I can not accept this level of abuse. I was offered a private screening room but had no idea how invasive the pat down was going to be nor was I given information about how invasive it was.
As a regular traveler throughout the world including hot spots like the Middle East, I am very familiar with “enhanced” security procedures but I have never felt as violated in any other country as I have been in my own. If I am pulled for this pat down again, I will opt to leave the line and not travel.
This is very difficult for me since my job as a consultant to a major airline requires that I fly out each week. I would like this abuse stopped before others are subjected this treatment.
But mostly I wanted to say “Thank you” for standing up to them, and for giving me incentive to stand up to them next time. I only wish I had been more aware before I let this happen to me.
Sorry, lady, you’re just going to have to put up with it. Unless you’re so rich you can afford to fly on a private jet (you can get started for around $25,000), you’ll just have to grin and “bare” it (pun intended) like the rest of us.
As for the law . . . The U.S. has never been a democracy, we have a representative republic made up of elected state and federal congressmen who make our laws for us. Your cries for justice will fall on their completely deaf ears, as their ears have already been bought and paid for with giant bribes. Of course, civilized Americans don’t call them ‘bribes’ — we call them ‘re-election campaign donations.’ Have you got $10,000 to donate? No? Then you’re wasting their time. Next in line, please!
Since the late 19th century, the U.S. has gradually turned into an oligarchy. Rich Americans can have and do whatever they want, no matter how unfair (or socially destructive) it is, and we support their wealth with tax and other laws that favor them. And you can bet your sweet bippy (which was inappropriately, but legally, palmed by a total stranger right in front of a long line of total strangers in a well-lit public area) that NO one in the wealthy class stands in scanner lines, or even stands in any line at an airport. The rest of us? Take your car or get fondled — your choice. Sorry about your kids being groped; they’ll be f***ed up for life.
No, you don’t have to put up with it. And any laws our representatives make are still subordinate to the Constitution, which they have sworn themselves to uphold and defend. That may not mean a whole lot in practice (their practice, anyway – we can still choose to practice our constitutional rights and freedom despite their dereliction of duty), but it’s important to understand that our representatives criminal actions do not abrogate the Constitution as the highest law in the land. WE THE PEOPLE are the ones abdicating our own rights, liberty, and authority when we passively comply and tolerate the abuses of the state.
That they are able to get away with fondling your sweet bippy does not make it legal. YOUR CONSENT MAKES IT LEGAL. Stop kowtowing to the unconstitutional decrees of tyrants. Govern yourself. You’re right that the state is deaf to our cries for justice. The state is the perpetrator of these injustices, so why do we appeal to the state to deliver us from its own evil? Each of us can defend our own constitutional rights and liberty by simply refusing to voluntarily hand them over every time some government agent orders us to. We have not yet passed the point of no return where we will no longer have a choice as to what we will or won’t put up with.
You don’t have to be rich to do the right thing. You just have to be willing to take risks, make sacrifices, maybe even get a little bloody. Or is it just not worth the cost? One way or another, we stand to lose something – what are you receiving in return for the price of your natural rights and freedom?