The guy in the middle is a Jewish author.
When I am in that machine I always let my middle fingers do the talking.
Posted on 02/20/2017 3:05:56 PM PST by WXRGina
It was an excellent week-long trip my husband Keith and I took to Arizona to take the 250 Pistol Class from Gunsite Academy. The week ended, and it was time for us to fly back home this past Saturday, February 18th. While I have gone through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) regional airport checkpoints since its spawning after 9-11, I had not yet gone through a TSA checkpoint at a major airport. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is a major airport, and on Saturday, I was immersed there in one of those TSA "horror stories" about which I had previously only read.
My very dim view of the TSA has been shaped by all the reports of corruption, misconduct, molestation and sexual assault, theft, abuse of power and ineptitude by the TSA. To find these stories, you need only do an Internet search with any of those terms along with "TSA." In addition to all that, air travelers in the United States are now stupidly forced to remove their shoes because of one Muslim maniac.
Needless to say, as we stood in the moderately long line of the Sky Harbor TSA security checkpoint, I was not happy and only wanted it to be over. We finally arrived at the x-ray conveyor belt with all the gray plastic bins into which we had to put our shoes, belts, purses, bags, watches, cell phones, laptops and anything in our pockets. When flying, I always try to wear nothing that would cause the x-ray imaging machines to raise an alert. So, I wore no belt or any jewelry. I had nothing in my pockets. I only carried my small purse, and I wore blue jeans, a long-sleeved cotton t-shirt and simple leather boots. I removed my boots and placed them and my purse into two of the bins and pushed them on toward the x-ray screener.
I was directed into the – what I call a "rape scan" – body imaging machine. As you may know, we are forced to stand inside it for several seconds with our arms held up as if we're common criminals, and the machine does a circular spin around our bodies. When the scan was done, a black woman told me to step out of the machine. I'm guessing this woman was probably in her early thirties. She directed my attention to the human body outline image on a screen outside the machine, which displayed the supposed results of my scan. There were "warning" boxes superimposed directly on the crotch, one knee and one ankle area, which I instantly knew were bogus.
Because of those flags, she informed me I would be subjected to an enhanced pat-down. I numbly looked at the entirely phony warning box images on the screen, knowing that with the advanced imaging capabilities of that machine, it would not possibly have "seen" any kind of threat anywhere on my body, much less between my legs. Nevertheless, I stood there silently with a smoldering outrage welling inside me as this girl described the sexual assault she was about to undertake on my body.
I hardly heard what she was saying she was about to do, because I was so angry knowing that this was a fake result, either from the machine or from someone's arbitrary decision to subject me to this despicable, Fourth Amendment-crushing, far-beyond-unreasonable search. She finished her little speech by asking me if I preferred [my sexual assault] to be done in a "private room" or right where we stood in front of hundreds of onlookers. I was barely able to mumble a "here" with an indication of my hand gesturing down to the yellow footprint stickers on the floor where I was to place my feet.
She required me to assist her in my sexual assault. I had to lift my shirt to give her clear access to my waistband, into which she thrust her blue-latex-gloved fingers and ran them all around the front and back of it. She made me hold my pants in place from the top as she crouched down and firmly ran her hands from the top of my legs to the bottom, both front, back and sides. She firmly pushed and rubbed her hands between my legs, the entire area – THE ENTIRE AREA – from the front and back.
She finally directed me to hold out my hands, palms up, as she swabbed them with damp squares of white tissue, which she inserted into a machine that I assume "sniffed" for explosive residue. When it gave my hands the all-clear, she indicated that I was free to go.
At that point, I was fairly blind with rage. Shakily, gritting my teeth hard enough to beat the band, I went and retrieved my boots and purse from the end of the screener belt several yards away, where they had remained while I got the enhanced grope-down. I was glad no one had taken my purse. Keith had been moved along after going through security, and from his viewpoint was unable to see my belongings or what was happening to me.
Still seeing red, I slowly walked to a chair near the TSA checkpoint to put on my boots. I was shaking with rage, and my husband had to quickly talk me down from reacting to the powerful anger that was exploding in my mind. The sickening feelings of rage, helplessness and violation continued to roil in me for the rest of the day.
What can I do? File a complaint with the TSA? Yeah, right. Call my congressman? And get a nice form letter reply in the mail in a month or so? Yeah, no. I'm powerless here, as are the many other people who have been sexually assaulted by the TSA. Maybe you'd like me to tone it down a notch and call it "molestation" or merely "groping," but I know what happened to me, and in any other situation, it would be legally regarded as sexual assault. If an ordinary person did to me what that woman – by authority of bad law – did to me, he would go to jail.
The TSA should be dismantled. Airport security needs to be returned to the airlines and local airports. The federal government's takeover of airport security screening after 9-11 has only created yet another unaccountable, monstrous bureaucracy that continues to grow in corruption, especially under Obama's recent lawless reign. Free-born American citizens should not have to abide such degenerate despotism in the name of "security." The TSA has seized illegitimate power in its random imposition of unreasonable searches on innocent airline passengers. If the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution means anything, then the TSA must go.
Disinformation.
And to mock fake news.
I'm thinking...maybe Kuala Lumpur next week?
Well done, and I’m sorry that had to happen to you.
Looks like I missed the fireworks, I was busy denouncing
pedophilia and faggotry yesterday.
Looks like this thread would have been more fun..
Yeah, yeah, we get it. You are all-in on dehumanizing practices.
You will be a useful tool during the tyranny that arises after Trumps’ two terms.
Would you get on an airliner if you knew that terrorists had advance notice that there were open holes in the security that would allow them to easily get a weapon aboard that airliner?
I’ll bet the 9/11 airline passengers would now wish there was more thorough TSA screening on the day they all died.
Do you consider being asked to hold your hands up for 3 seconds is “being treated like a criminal?” If so, 80,000 criminals in Houston were cheering for their favorite Super Bowl team a few weeks ago
Do you think being scanned by an ultra low-dose x-ray is the same as being, (her words, not mine) “Raped?”
What then is a low dose dental x-ray to detect cavities in the few teeth you have left? Forced oral sodomy?
You may find it harder to answer those questions that to just make an ad hominum Alsisky-style attack as you often do.
And as YOU so often do, you put words in my mouth.
Yes, putting words in my mouth is ‘forced oral sodomy’.
I started to ping you to it, but I was busy catching “friendly fire.” I was accused of being a “drama queen,” only wanting to draw attention to myself and basically being a snowflake wimp for objecting to that invasive “pat down.” It’s for SECURITY, don’tcha know!
Those people were completely missing the point of my report: liberty lost.
I don't believe the backscatter machines "sniff" for gunpowder/explosive residue, but no, even if they did, all the clothes I wore were clean, not worn to the range. My husband wore "dirty" pants that he HAD worn to the range, but he sailed through.
I was pulled to the side twice on a trip a few months ago. Being me I never shut up. I talked and talked and talked. They couldn’t get rid of me fast enough lol.
Whether the trip was "that important" or not should have no bearing on my choice to fly (although I don't intend to ever fly again, unless there is a compelling emergency).
Like almost all others, I was not there to protest. As for being "subservient," I prefer NOT to go to jail, while at the same time--just like millions of others--I did not want to miss my flight and spend who knows how much more money on another way home.
That’s why we don’t fly anymore. My sister in law got the special treatment fairly recently.
I have Leukemia and am out of work. . What bothers me is over exaggerations. The media has is flooded with these reactions towards Trump.
Too bad you were afraid to answer the questions asked?
Would you get on an airliner if you knew that terrorists had advance notice that there were open holes in the security that would allow them to easily get a weapon aboard that airliner? I’ll bet the 9/11 airline passengers would now wish there was more thorough TSA screening on the day they all died.
Utterly immaterial. At that time, boxcutters were entirely permissable in carry-on luggage. The fact you raise this as a viable counterpoint is somewhat sad and entirely lame.
Do you consider being asked to hold your hands up for 3 seconds is “being treated like a criminal?” If so, 80,000 criminals in Houston were cheering for their favorite Super Bowl team a few weeks ago
Wow, you are really reaching here. Holding your hands up differs from holding your hands up in a scanning device.
Do you think being scanned by an ultra low-dose x-ray is the same as being, (her words, not mine) “Raped?”
I don't, but I cannot speak for other's perceptions, and they may not like being subjected to even minimal amounts of X-rays. Genetic damage is cumulative, so I won't fault them for this.
What then is a low dose dental x-ray to detect cavities in the few teeth you have left? Forced oral sodomy?
You decry my 'Alsisky-style attack'(sic) and then proceed to claim I have few teeth. Psychotic, heal thyself.
I personally have no problems with low-dose dental X-rays, but I cannot claim that others do not.
You may find it harder to answer those questions that to just make an ad hominum Alsisky-style attack as you often do.
Your questions were both easy and, in at least one case, utterly immaterial.
Oh, and it's "Alinsky" and "ad hominem".
Hope that helps heaps.
Laz, as you may know, “rape scan” is a take-off of the brand name of the backscatter machines: Rapiscan Systems. The images they produce show our nude bodies in detail. So, while not technically “rape,” it’s certainly a violation of our bodies.
Nice analysis of the trollish comments there, by the way. :-)
The guy in the middle is a Jewish author.
When I am in that machine I always let my middle fingers do the talking.
Laz, I respect your work here over the years.
This got a bit out of control. My concept was and is very simple. Security screenings are no fun. They are however, in today’s world a necessary evil.
Occasionally, shit happens, but having an x-ray pointed at a person is not rape. Being touched on the outside of one’s clothes in the search for a weapon is not earth shattering, and having secondary screening is not a reason to lose all one’s cool, especially if one expects to be thought of as someone with enough self-control to carry a deadly weapon.... and decide in a fraction of second whether or not to take someone’s life with that weapon.
If we expect to be heard and respected when we raise important points affecting our country, we all need to chose our battles and not go ape sheet over flea sheet.
With FRegards.
You did the right thing.
On a Minneapolis TSA frisk, I was so mad I didn’t think it wise to say anything.
We don't disagree on these, but I will grant leeway for those who do. Who are we to impose those judgement on others?
especially if one expects to be thought of as someone with enough self-control to carry a deadly weapon.... and decide in a fraction of second whether or not to take someone’s life with that weapon.
This one I totally disagree with. One set of priorities in no way intersects the other... just as, say, a germ-phobe should not be denied a right to carry.
This got a bit out of control. My concept was and is very simple. Security screenings are no fun. They are however, in today’s world a necessary evil.
To a point. I object when junk/genitalia get touched.
Well, not object. I think the term I'm looking for is more "look forward to". :)
But I totally understand a desire for others not to be touched in 'bad places'. Israel manages very well without this practice, because they ruthlessly profile.
We need the same here.
Oh and BTW: I accept your Non-Aggression Pact. :)
Thank you.
RE: Israel. Last time I was there, I had to request the hand check because I now have a pacemaker.
The Israel Security woman took one look at my passport, driver’s license and implanted device ID card, looked at me again, and simply said, “You’re Ok” and pointed for me to walk through with no checks.
You are right. Absolutely Israelis profile.... very well.
The time before, I went down to my undies. The guy simply said, (with a wry smile) “It was your turn” ... and I knew I was on a very safe flight.
At DFW last month, an exit-only doorway from the TSA-secure area (such as it was!) was being guarded by just one woman, wearing a Muslin headscarf, covering all but her eyes to her mouth!
FUBAR!
BTW, with Muslim males 18-35, one is not profiling, one is describing the suspects!
Be well.
I'm sorry, but I think WXRGina owes rape and true sexual assault victims an apology.
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