TSA authorities can fine you $10,000 for leaving the airport
 

After refusing to go through the body scanner, and refusing to have his junk touched by a TSA agent, a man is threatened by airport security, who tell him he'll face a $10,000 fine and civil lawsuit.

They've gone too far. I'm actually tempted to action about this. Friends of mine are picketing/leafletting PHL the day before T-giving.

there's apparently quite a backlash about the scanning machines--pilots refusing, grass roots movement, etc. Although this guy went in there primed to make a scene, imo, so I'm not too sympathetic to him.

He says he went there because the TSA website indicated there was no xray there.

There were 13,531,058 commercial passenger flights in 2008. If you take that number and multiply it out over the last 8 years, when security had gotten a lot tighter since 9/11, you get about 100 million US flights since 9/11 with not a single plane taken down by terrorists.

The tightened security since 9/11 has worked. Not a single plane has come down. 100 million!

The numbers are not a compelling argument that we need these new extremely invasive security techniques.

Our founding fathers wouldn't be able to recognize us. What a bunch of pussies this country has become. We are so afraid of an infinitesimal risk of terrorism that we are willing to give up all our personal freedoms.

Amen !

TSA screeners pat down three-year-old, putting her into a screaming fit of terror. Do you feel safe now?

FWIW - Anyone think terrorists wouldn't use a kid?

And even at three she looks like a little Muslim, doncha think?

Shrug.
It's a three year old having a tantrum.
I'm not saying the checks are necessary for security, but if the checks are decided to be necessary then parents need to be aware and able to deal with it. I am assuming this child did not have any kind of syndrome that produced this reaction of course.

I've seen children in similar screaming fits in supermarkets/ shopping centres/ pubs - the culprits? Their own mothers.

I suggest that a certain amount of getting precious about children has lead to the increase in the compensation culture. Technically I am not supposed to hug or cuddle a child, touch their hair or help undressing (for PE) or dressing. In reality I do all of the above (inc wiping noses, washing off mud, admiring wobbly teeth etc) because children are people and in order to develop socially they need reactions to their behaviour.

(nods). oh . . . you mean the little girl?

I'd be happy to sacrifice my "modesty" in favor of not getting blown up. In fact, I'd prance naked through the airport if it would save lives. Don't be a pussy--go through the damn machine.

It's for crap like that is the reason I don't fly.

It's not sexual assault when the government does it.

As I said above - I remove children's clothes. It's certainly not sexual assault. At least draw the line at intention.
In which case, neither was the clip.

Based on the dude's description, he cashed in the ticket and was accosted by the TSA guys afterwards demanding that he return to the security checkpoint, which he no longer had reason to pass through, in fact, by TSA rules, since he wasn't a ticket holder, couldn't BE on the far side of the security checkpoint. I don't get how that would be a fine-able situation.

Do you ever put your hand directly on their genitals?

Quite possibly.
But it wasn't my intention.

I've never been in the situation where a child is screaming - I'd back off immediately if they were. But I've never worked in an airoprt where searching people has been deemed necessary.

I completely reject the idea that the person in the clip was copping a feel.

I agree. But the other side of the coin is that we should not overreact when terrorism does happen, which we do. Maybe we need to treat terrorism as a part of life.

As part of my job, I operate a metal detector, pass through and hand-held.

I also do physical searches. And you do have to "touch the junk" to complete them, otherwise you're not doing it right. I also search shoes, socks, and later in the process, property.

I find a lot of contraband, including drugs, knives and matches in areas that would be missed without a more thorough pat-down.

And no, I don't get that opportunity with dudes. You get a same sex searcher, although the observer can be opposite sex.

Are the full body scanners safe? There's honest disagreement on it, and even after I apply my skepticism filter, I can't say they're completely safe.

Especially for flight crews that have to go through them several times a day.

Well, those airlines had too many customers anyway. They could probably use a little less revenue at a time like this.


Just hurry up with the automated flying cars, already.

I'm sure they've been thoroughly tested and are at least as safe as:
Thalidomide
Diethylstilbestrol
Buformin
Ticrynafen
Zimelidine
Phenacetin
Methaqualone
Nomifensine
Triazolam
Terodiline
Temafloxacin
Flosequinan
Alpidem
Chlormezanone
Fen-phen
Tolrestat
Terfenadine
Etretinate
Tolcapone
Temazepam
Astemizole
Grepafloxacin
Troglitazone
Alosetron
Cisapride
Amineptine
Phenylpropanolamine

And so on.

Bruce will send you the link. Mr. Clod may need to go out mountain biking ;););) before you can afford one probably.:eek:

For a flying car? ...That can be arranged.

You're being shortsighted, do you really want all those morons you see on the road, flying over your house? :eek:

The video guy is going to be investigated:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...scan-resistor/

Looks like they want to make an example out of him. "Don't test us or our patience". I applaud the guy for what he did, I doubt he will have any trouble finding affordable legal counsel if this goes to trial.

Good. Bring it on. They just signed their own death warrant. So to speak.

. . .

Yeh - keep pissing them off. :neutral:
He's one car accident/gas leak away from disappearing permanently. :greenface

I also read somewhere that in light of the backlash against these more invasive security measures, children under the age of 12 will not be patted down. So no more incidents like shown in the video above in the thread (now removed).

Saw a picture recently of an old nun in full habit forced to get up out of her wheel chair to be patted down because she refused to be seen naked on the machine. Disgusting.

Well isn't it religious extremists we're worried about?

You prolly should work in there somewhere the number of planes hijacked/taken out from American soil also. You know, to justify all this extra security. I don't know how to begin to come up w/that number, but, I bet it's comparably small.

paraphrasing:

Where did I see that? The Cellar?

I'll never fly again. Fuck 'em.

Fuck who? TSA won't care.

Me too !

But this made me wonder...
Why are people willing to go through these invasions of privacy ?

1) Some may think it is to keep planes from flying into buildings.
But that can be prevented by a secure door into the pilots cabin.

2) Some may feel it is for personal security... i.e., I want everyone else on my plane to be screened.

But if an airline can guarantee (#1), then the only problem is (#2)
Paper is much cheaper than whole-body scanners.
So why don't we start our own airline where NO passengers are screened... passengers must just sign an "informed consent".

You don't even need that. You just need the passengers to remember 9-11, and you won't get any more hijackings. 9-11 worked because the passengers expected the planes to land somewhere, followed by some sort of hostage negotiation. That is no longer the case.

(bombs are a different issue)

Whatever happened to that guy who tried to check out of the hospital and got the shit kicked out of him by the guards? This guy got off lightly.

It's my understanding that this is what they're afraid of at this point. First, everyone on the plane dies of course, but second, if they time it right the whole thing comes crashing down into a major metropolitan area.

Yeh like that's EVER happened?

Next thing you'll tell me is that they'll fly one into a building or something. :rolleyes:

Personally I think the "bad guys" are being short-sighted. You could do just as much damage by blowing yourself up at a major sporting event or at the mall on a crowded weekend, and that sort of thing would have a much greater impact on our collective mental state, since it would convince us that it could happen to anyone anywhere, not just in heavily-controlled air travel. I'm honestly stunned that it hasn't happened yet.

I totally agree! Seriously.

........................................

Maybe because in their world people dying a sporting events is normal. Whereas planes falling is seen as an accomplishment, since all the enemies that have threatened them for the last hundred years have done so from the air.

So the American public is going to buy into these scanners, eventually at court houses
and government buildings, and sporting events and schools ?

I suspect that eventually it will be easier to scare American women about radiation
(genetic or cancer) damage from the scanners than to scare of them about suicide bombers,
and that will be the end of the scanners.

Actually, I said that kinda wrong. Ima try that again:

I have previously made the personal decision that I have taken my last airplane flight already, so, fuck 'em.

I know they still won't care, but, fuck 'em anyway.




Heheh, I said 'butfuck'.

The scanner at the courthouse is a different critter than the airport scanner, with much lower resolution. It doesn't show the naughty bits like it's big brethren.

Not yet, but coming to a neighborhood near you

Like this one?



Whoops - Linky dink

Shhhhhhh! They ightmay be isteninglay

WARNING: Next post may be NSFW

http://cellar.org/2010/inverted-body-scanners.jpg
Ok so there's this image making its rounds across the internet that has been presented as an actual scan from one of the airport body scanners now cropping up all over the globe in light of the recent staged terrorist incident. People in the truth and patriot communities have been using it as evidence that the scanners are more revealing than the mainstream media is telling us. While I have no doubt that the scanners are indeed more revealing than what the media is telling us, I've just learned this image is disinformation.
From Here:

http://cellar.org/2010/scanner.jpg

Love the pose!

You can tape a ceramic/plastic knife to the soles of your feet and get through this machine undetected.

You can keister as much plastic explosive as the underwear bomber and get through this machine undetected.

You can also take off from any international airport, as both the shoe bomber and the underwear bomber did.

And so it goes...
link

...and the other shoe falls ... AGAIN.
Ya think we'd get tired of this shit and do something about it.

If it's ineffective it will be dropped.
I'm not really fussed if someone gets to check my naked body. They'll see so many a day it'll be as exciting to them as it is to a doctor. Skin is skin - I wouldn't walk naked down the High Stree - and no-one would want me to - but I wouldn't feel violated by this any more than an X-Ray (suggested as two polar opposites).

I think it's sad that in the UK and the US (and probably eslewhere, I just don't know enough to comment) short-term knee-jerk reactions are all. Spend millions on detection, cut spending on prevention. But of course in both countries there's teh cry of, "Why should we help him? I didn't get that!"
Whichever progressive programme it refers to. People with a little bit more always resent those with less who get help. The response is always, "If I didn't work/ was a Muslim/ was black/ was an immigranthad too many kids/ didn't get married/ didn't have a car/ wasn't an addict [etc etc] I'd be much better off."

Put the money into proper schemes to integrate.
They might not work completely, but they are less invasive. And after all, this alienates far more people.

The terrorists that want to blow up planes, are a tiny minority of extremists. "Cut spending on prevention"? Not hardly, we're spending a fortune on prevention in Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

I'm flying to NJ next Tuesday. I'm hoping for a pat down and I plan on asking for a happy ending. ;)