Passengers uneasy with pat-downs

USA Today ^ | 12/14/2001 | Kitty Bean Yancey

[Utah Girl]

It's touch and go at the airport now. Just ask everyday travelers pulled out of line at security checkpoints in these days of ratcheted-up scrutiny and random searches. Pittsburgh grandmother Marguerite Petito was "totally embarrassed" recently in Chicago when a wand beeped, "and the lady asked if it was OK for her to feel my breasts to make sure I was not hiding anything," she recalls. "This she did in front of all these men that were in line. ... I thought, 'Here I am getting felt up in the middle of O'Hare airport!' " The suspicious metal turned out to be the underwire of her bra. Thursday, a passenger at Boston's Logan airport refused a screening and bolted after her bra set off a metal detector. She was let go after being questioned by police. Their close encounters are not isolated ones. With more wands waving at airports than in any Harry Potter tale, running the gantlet of newly toughened screenings can mean allowing the liberties generally accorded only to a date, mate or doctor.

[Mulder]

(Morons......I am completely surrounded by fricking morons....)

I know the feeling.

The frog continues to boil even under "Republican leadership"......

[wattsmag2]

Just eat some beans before you go and let em have it when they poke into your pants.

[Lurker]

Well not yet anyway.

Give them time my dear, just give them time.

Pretty soon you will have the right to have your 'body cavities' searched by someone of the same age and gender as yourself. I'll bet they will perform their duty enthusiatically.

Am I the only one this discussion is giving a headache?

L

[paul51]

Bizjet.com

I'd like to check this out but this address doesn't work. Is this the correct address?

[suijuris]

business traveler Karen Connolly of Birmingham, Mich., was ordered to remove her coat, then her suit jacket before passing through a metal detector, "the man behind me in line said, 'Have her take off her pants, too!' " He was not reprimanded.

Why should he be reprimanded. This isn't grade school; and while it may have been a crude joke or crass remark the problem is with the A-holes doing the pat downs.

It seems I get the pat down all most every time I fly. As a result I am determined to never fly for personal travel. Unfortunately it takes about all my stamina to fly the two times a month required for my job; usually to chicago O'Hare. What a friggen Zoo!

sui

[Utah Girl]

Yeah, I wondered what that "he was not reprimanded" comment was all about. He was a passenger, crude, but not breaking a law. I fly on business too, no choice. I've flown twice since 9/11. Once on business, once for a funeral. No patdown for me, but then I didn't set the alarm off or get the random search. Just waiting for that day...NOT!

[suijuris]

On the Southwest flight in which I was checked, my ticket had a specific mark, the same mark which every other passenger that got the extra search had

Cid: I seem to get frisked a lot and don't know why. What is the mark on the ticket you refer to? Suijuris

[holyscroller]

"add dogs in waiting areas. That might scare off some of the terrorists, Muslims think dogs are evil."

I'll bet the dogs think just the opposite.

[suijuris]

No patdown for me, but then I didn't set the alarm off or get the random search. Just waiting for that day...NOT!

I've been patted down almost every time I've flown since 9/11. Was stuck out in LA for two weeks during 9/11. Got out there on 9/9. On way back out of Orange County Airport on the 9/22 air travel was obviously off about 80%. Almost everytime I have flown since then I'm getting the pat down; usually going and on return flight.

One time I noticed that one of the screeners looked at my ticket and then signalled the guy with the wand.

Don't know why they might have a profile on me. I'm just your average late middle age, sightly overweight, out of shape, angry (only when I am frisked by strangers), white middle class male with grey hair.

sui

[supercat]

I'd rather have some people with hurt feelings than 4000 more dead people.

I how long it will be before, when a witness reports that he saw a black man commit the crime, the police call in a lineup of white males so as to avoid hurting the feelings of the black community.

[Lurker]

Wow, you and two other girls searching you....

Yeah baby!

L

[Utah Girl]

The most ironic part is that the black community thinks that profiling should be done on the Arab-Americans. April Ryan, a White House press reporter was beside herself the other day because a nationwide database hadn't been set up to check all highway stops against known Arab terrorists.

[Utah Girl]

Yikes, you're scaring me into not wanting to fly anymore...:)

[HiTech RedNeck]

Well, do think it will discourage terrorists 'for now'; and most passengers ARE willing to pay that price, for now. . .

What will stop terrorists are protections IN THE AIR as well as total screening of anything that approaches the plane for EXPLOSIVES. Why do we wand passengers to death but let the checked bags go unexamined? Also it's notable that of major airlines' flights out of Israel, which has darned tight security measures, only El Al has gone without a single hijacking. And that's because they seal off the cockpit in flight.

[womanvet]

The first time someone tries to lay a hand on my Amish daughter's body -- and they are not married to each other -- I will forget every single thing I have heard about non-resistance.

Come to think of it, I have already forgotten it all.

Actually, that goes outside the airport too, ;-)

[VaBthang4]

"Passengers uneasy with pat-downs"

Commonsense uneasy with passengers.

[technochick99]

I agre. He shouldn't have been reprimanded. But if I were in that line, the guy would have gotten an earful!

[technochick99]

I haven't gotten the pat down either. The wand though... My problem comes with my photo ID. When the picture was taken, I think I was a brunette. Now I have some major blond highlights. I simply have no loyalty to any specific hair color - what can I do? Get a new picture every 8-12 weeks??

[Skywalk]

We do have the hope that Constitutional challenges can now be brought to bear since the security people are now an arm of the State. If the courts throw the suits out, I suppose that is truly the end of being secure in our papers and possessions.

[Utah Girl]

LOL!