My Personal “Pat-Down” Experience

AIPNews.com ^ | November 28, 2010 | Kristia Cavere

[EternalVigilance]

The images on television of children, the elderly, and other individuals who pose zero threat to our aviation security experiencing “pat-downs” by TSA officials at airports is disturbing. This issue became personal to me as I was forced into a pat-down and threatened that I would never get through security until I complied, and I now believe that these demeaning acts are unconstitutional.

At O’Hare airport, returning to the east coast after the Thanksgiving holiday, I purposefully stood in the long line for regular metal detectors rather than the much shorter line of those willing to go through the full-body scanners (which show graphic nude pictures including all private parts). These full-body scanners are an illusion of security, which squanders our time, money, and civil liberties. They do not detect explosives or plastic, only metal, which makes them a very expensive metal detector.

I had read Dr. Jane Orient’s, Executive Director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, latest article, “The Medical Problems of Airport Screening.” She wrote, “The radiation dose is likely the least of the problems with airport screening,” as the airport full-body scanners use low-energy backscatter technology. This kind of scanner is effective for detecting explosives in cargo, but because this radiation doesn’t penetrate far it concentrates in the skin. This effect has not been properly studied, and Dr. Orient warns, “If you had a deadly disease, and the scanner were an FDA-regulated device that might save your life, your doctor wouldn’t be allowed to use it, because of inadequate study.”

I was also aware of the letter written to [Alleged] President Obama by University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) experts in biochemisty, biophysics, imaging, and oncology who warned of “the potential serious health risks” of the whole body scanners at airports. The scientists wrote that “real independent safety data do not exist” on the high doses that the scanners deposit into the skin.

As I was waiting on line and thinking of the many reasons why I would decline to go through a full-body scanner, a TSA official approached me and told me that I had been “randomly selected” for a pat-down. My family next to me was horrified, and the surrounding passengers were dumbfounded. I refused, and strongly pointed out that I was not opting out of the body scanner but that I was on line for the usual metal detector.

My protests were to no avail, and the TSA official grabbed my arms and forced me to walk unto a small carpet where the pat-downs were done. Threats of a lawsuit were ignored as a TSA officer began patting-down my arms and back, and then used their hands over and under my breasts. The most demeaning aspect of this intrusive experience was the pat-down of my groin and buttocks, in which the TSA officer moved their palms up my thigh, warning me that I would feel “tension” as their hands pressed upward against my crotch area.

America is moving toward a police state, under the guise of eliminating the risk of terrorism. But this false feeling of security is resulting in state-sponsored sexual harassment, and is clearly violating the Fourth Amendment’s restriction of “unreasonable searches and seizures.”

Israel has equal, if not more, security threats than America does at airports. Rafi Sela, former chief security officer of the Israel Airport Authority and with more than thirty years of experience, recently stated that body scanning machines are “useless,” which is why they are not in Israeli airports. Mr. Sela advocates the two security systems that are used in the airports in Israel: behavior profiling rather than “randomly selected” searches. And a “trusted traveler” system where pre-approved low-risk passengers go through an expedited process, and passengers with more risk are exposed to more security screenings.

When the September 11th Islamofascist terrorists used box-cutters, sharp objects were banned from carry-on luggage. When a terrorist attempted to use explosives in his sneakers, all passengers had to put their shoes through screening. When terrorists inserted explosives in printer cartridges, ink cartridges were banned. When another Islamofascist terrorist hid explosives in his underwear last December, the use of nude body scanners sharply increased. Last year in Saudi Arabia, a terrorist used their anal cavity for a bomb (albeit, not at an airport). Are body cavity searches next?

Incompetent left leaning politicians and bureaucrats are creating safety profiles to protect themselves from potential lawsuits and the politically correct press, but they are doing little to actually increase our safety. Profiling is done to eliminate crime, but the largest threat to people flying in airplanes, terrorism, is not subject to profiling at airports despite the decades of success such measures have had in countries such as Israel.

At the Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Museum, in the final room marking his legacy and leadership in war and peace, is a quote from Ike: “If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison.” Americans have always valued freedom above all things. But a randomly generated invasive safety procedure, without concrete evidence that such procedures are correlated to positive safety results, become nothing more than harassment of American citizenry and an infringement upon our personal freedom.

[Captain Kirk]

There hasn’t been a “free market capitalist state” on this planet for over a century. Some folks will do anything to rationalize Israel’s failings.

[conservativeimage]

Q: What are the charges?
Q: Do you have a search warrant?
Q: I would like to speak to a legal representative.

[ScreamingFist]

Some folks will do anything to rationalize Israel’s failings.

I'm not "rationalizing" squat. Israel's security works because they don't trust anyone that is "goy".

[cableguymn]

Couple this with the other gal that was singled out due to her breast size and you have yet another isolated, unrelated indecent...

right???

/s

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

“...the TSA official grabbed my arms...” Wh—a-t?

That’s an assault right there.

[ScreamingFist]

“Some folks will do anything to rationalize Israel’s failings.”

Just in case you forgot what “Goy” means....

As noted, in the above-quoted Rabbinical literature the meaning of the word “goy” shifted the Biblical meaning of “a people” which could be applied to the Hebrews/Jews as to others into meaning “a people other than the Jews”. In later generations, a further shift left the word as meaning an individual person who belongs to such a non-Jewish people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goy

[max americana]

“a quote from Ike: “If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison.”

Love Ike. Miss Ike.

[Cedar]

I thought only women TSA could pat down women. Is that not true?

[BigCinBigD]

“grabbed my arms’

When they did this the “screen er” committed assault. Call the police and demand to file charges.

[American Constitutionalist]

" Control the movement of a population, and you have put handcuffs on freedom. Food is the next target with the bill currently before the lame duck Congress. Take away personal property and the right to earn income and another freedom disappears. "

Prelude to 666 the mark of the beast ?

[InABunkerUnderSF]

I skipped the flight and drove to Arizona. Between dental work and a lot of airline miles I’ve exceeded my annual radiation budget and... well, how would you like being “inspected” by the Homeland Security boys at SFO?

Going down was OK but coming back, Sunday traffic was an absolute mess. First everyone was pulled over by the Border Patrol on AZ-95 about 30 miles north of Yuma. Next I sat for over 2 hours on CA-58 between Barstow and Boron for no reason other than the fact that the light at the junction of CA-58 and US-395 was favoring the 395 traffic. It took 3 hours in stop-and-go traffic (mostly stop) on I5 to get from Butonwillow to Kettleman City - about 50 miles, and the traffic on I5 was the heaviest I’ve every seen all the way up. I don’t think I’m the only one who was avoiding the national grope-fest.

[jonrick46]

When air travel has become so obnoxious that it becomes a method of last resort, the airline industry will be in dangerous waters. We must be fully aware that the present screening methods will not detect the deep body implantation of explosives. So, as days go on and more Americans learn that air travel is the least desirable method of travel, the airline industry will descend into a fragile economic state. This will have played right into the hands of the Jihadist. They are thrilled the airlines have reacted with the extreme action they have taken. Jihadists want to effect the most harm to America's economy with the least amount of effort. This is the way to do it.

When the negative reaction to the airline industry has brought its maximum economic impact, any little event would be just the tipping point that would bring the industry down. Imagine the impact if Jihadists, loaded with explosives surgically implanted in their abdomens with detonators hidden in rib bones that could be triggered by a circuit embedded in cell phones. Imagine several of these human bombs boarding several planes on a new 9-11 and they all go off taking thousands of passengers to their deaths. We will blame the arrogant bureaucracy of the TSA for their lie to the American people that they were providing safety. They are not providing safety. They are perpetuating a fraud at the peril of the airline industry. Because, if that new 9-11 happens, the airline industry is cooked because everyone will realize that it was all a fraud. And, their fraud being exposed, how will they gain that trust again?

They will fall in economic ruin before they make the turn to the correct explosive detection technology. That technology must be able to focus on those chemicals involved in explosives. Molecular spectroscopy using a swept-frequency radar detection method is the direction we need to go. Trying to feel or through X-rays see hidden explosive devices is a fraud so criminal, I can't understand why there has not been court action on it. It is destined to fail, so why spend the unnecessary effort on it?

[CharlesWayneCT]

I think it would be funny if someone showed up dressed as a girl, in the hopes of getting a female agent to for the “pat down”. Then, when she yelled “She’s got a gun in her pants”, the guy could yell back, “No, I’m just happy to see you”.

[zeugma]

• 
  You can't sue the federal government unless they allow you to by sovereign immunity. They just want to bully and intimidate. 

  It would seem that the individual TSA thug can be sued under  18 USC §241.

   

  Federal law establishes a right to air travel.
  

  See 49 U.S.C. § 40103 : US Code - Section 40103: Sovereignty and use of airspace, section (a)(2): "A citizen of the United States has a public right of transit through the navigable airspace."

  Hat tip to Lazamataz for this tidbit.
  

  The U.S. Supreme Court has weighed in on our right to travel in general. See U.S. vs Guest. It's pretty unequivocal.  The phrase "and other instrumentalities" is particularly important in this particular topic. 

   The District Court was in error in dismissing the indictment as to this paragraph. The constitutional right to travel from one State to another, and necessarily to use the highways and other instrumentalities of interstate commerce in doing so, occupies a position fundamental to the concept of our Federal Union. It is a right that has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized.

  Empasis mine. There are several other excellent references and quotes in the opinion.
  

  In Edwards v. California, 314 U.S. 160 , invalidating a California law which impeded the free interstate passage of the indigent, the Court based its reaffirmation of the federal right of interstate travel upon the Commerce Clause. This ground of decision was consistent with precedents firmly establishing that the federal commerce [383 U.S. 745, 759]   power surely encompasses the movement in interstate commerce of persons as well as commodities. Gloucester Ferry Co. v. Pennsylvania, 114 U.S. 196, 203 ; Covington & Cincinnati Bridge Co. v. Kentucky, 154 U.S. 204, 218 -219; Hoke v. United States, 227 U.S. 308, 320 ; United States v. Hill, 248 U.S. 420, 423 . It is also well settled in our decisions that the federal commerce power authorizes Congress to legislate for the protection of individuals from violations of civil rights that impinge on their free movement in interstate commerce. Mitchell v. United States, 313 U.S. 80 ; Henderson v. United States, 339 U.S. 816 ; Boynton v. Virginia, 364 U.S. 454 ; Atlanta Motel v. United States, 379 U.S. 241 , Katzenbach v. McClung, 379 U.S. 294 .

   Although there have been recurring differences in emphasis within the Court as to the source of the constitutional right of interstate travel, there is no need here to canvass those differences further. 16 All have agreed that the right exists. Its explicit recognition as one of the federal rights protected by what is now 18 U.S.C. 241 goes back at least as far as 1904. United States v. Moore, 129 F. 630, 633. We reaffirm it now. 17Although there have been recurring differences in emphasis within the Court as to the source of the constitutional right of interstate travel, there is no need here to canvass those differences further. 16 All have agreed that the right exists. Its explicit recognition as one of the federal rights protected by what is now 18 U.S.C. 241 goes back at least as far as 1904. United States v. Moore, 129 F. 630, 633. We reaffirm it now. 17   [383 U.S. 745, 760]     [383 U.S. 745, 760]  

   Freeper AndyJackson points us to this...

  18 USC §241. Conspiracy against rights

  If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

  If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

  They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death

  18 USC § 242. Deprivation of rights under color of law

  Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

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• 133 LAX passengers refuse body scans and get pat-downs, TSA says

  Thu 25 Nov 2010 12:18:38 AM CST · 33 of 51
  zeugma to huckfillary

  What a bunch of dumbasses ! To have any effect, the passengers are supposed to refuse the bodyscans AND the pat-downs. Until that happens, the system won’t be changed.

  Yup. People still don't get it.  IMO course in order to fully comprehend exactly what is being protested, you have to actually take the time to think about it, and do just a bit of your own research.  Most people aren't familiar enough to the concept of the difference between a citizen and a subject. The bottom line on all of this is very simple to me and boils down to that one fact. I have rights, by virtue of having been born a human being that are granted me by my creator. This particular line is one that I will simply not allow the government to force me to cross. I cannot, even by the laws of this screwed up former Republic, be required to waive one right to exercise another. 

  One thing I've noticed in a lot of the reporting, is that if you read very closely you will see that the government is attempting to accomplish through intimidation what it cannot through law. Even the stupid drones at TSA know that if you refuse to submit to them, and they are not able to bully or provoke you, that ultimately they have no real power. I'll be flying in less than a month, and am going to push this as far as it can be taken. Ultimately, it may well end up being a lawsuit if they don't recognise how far they can push without there being concrete consequences.

[ScreamingFist]

Oh what's the matter, they find out you're still P.O.'d you didn't "get laid"? Or did you "get laid" but the little Jewish girl you took advantage of wouldn't marry you?

Errrr, I have no idea what you are babbling about, try to lay off the wine dude....

[WildHighlander57]

Has Kristia Cavere filed assault charges against the TSA person for grabbing her out of the metal detector line and forcing her to go over to the patdown area?

Sounds like she wasn’t near the head of the line for the metal detector.

This @#$! has GOT to stop.

:(