Sex Offenders In Uniform : The TSA BSA
68Over The Line By A Mile
Picture this: You've persuaded a little girl's Mommy to hold her while you take a magic wand and touch the three-year-old all over her young body. She's screaming, crying,
"STOP TOUCHING ME!!"
But you don't stop touching her. You're over six feet tall, you have a uniform, and even after the mother picks up her daughter from the floor and holds her more tightly, you keep on touching her. The little one is swatting at your intrusive wand-thingie, very vocal. It doesn't even slow you down.
Luckily for that TSA agent, the child's mother wasn't Sarah Palin. Go try that with any Mama Grizzly's baby and see how far you get.
Now: If you or I were to try something like that, we'd be in prison...if the enraged mother or any nearby redblooded American male didn't end your life on the spot. If you did live long enough to land inside a Gray Rock Hotel, you'd find youself the bottom of the bottom feeders. Cons don't like child molesters any more than the rest of us do. They particulary don't like government-sanctioned child molesters.
But it's not us doing it. It's the TSA personnel, Transportation Security Administration guys with spiffy uniforms, government salaries, and licenses to molest. TSA, baloney. This is the BSA: Bull S**t Arrogance. As far as I'm concerned, any airport securigoon who believes this little girl may actually be Abdul in disguise with a bomb in her teddy bear ought to just go drown himself in a pool of toxic waste and improve the human race.
Fox News--specifically Bill O'Reilly--just played a video showing exactly what I've described above. I was in the middle of writing a totally different hub when that happened. Right now my blood is up, that hub is shelved for a time, and I'm on a rant.
Options
It's not like America doesn't have options which could keep us relatively safe from suicide bombers without flushing LIberty down the toilet. Such as:
1. Adopt Israeli-style security procedures which use racial profiling to great effect. We might need to include a special "profile" category for hard-Left liberals; those do tend to scream louder than any violated three-year-old girl when they don't get what they want (which is most of the time).
2. Quit flying. I did, several jumps ahead of full body scans and enhanced pat-downs, in July of 2006. It wasn't having to take off my shoes at the airport in Butte, Montana, that did the trick. It wasn't even the rabid female flight attendant in Salt Lake City who thought my color was "off" and wanted to know who was flying with me (apparently I was profiled as a dying senior who'd mess up her safety record). Nah. It was the fool BSA folks in New York City who, all unseen by me, cut the locks off of my suitcase, trashed the locks, and tossed the contents. Haven't flown since.
We're spoiled, you know. We've come to regard the speed of air travel as a given, something we'd never consider being without. But look at the advantages we could gain by eliminating flight altogether. Heck, look at just one: If President Obama hadn't been able to jet around the globe, America could have saved many millions of dollars (some say a billion or more) by keeping him home...instead of humiliating himself in that disastrous 10-day hop around Asia.
In the meantime, it turns out these TSA goons refuse to identify themselves to members of the public. Afraid of retaliation, no doubt, as (sadly) well they should be. No problem. All we need to do is pass a law requiring all TSA agents to register as sex offenders. Guilt by association if nothing else.
And when she grows up, give that little girl a job tracking those suckers. She'll be on 'em like John Walsh is on America's Most Wanted.
CommentsLoading...
Yes, that would be good. In fact, it would even have a sizeable benefit in case of a terrorist attack: Six people going down in a Cessna would be bad, but not as bad as 200 people in a 737. Plus, flying a single engine prop plane into the Twin Towers probably wouldn't have dropped 'em, either.
Of course, our excuses for NOT doing that on a massive scale would likely include higher cost per passenger mile, air traffic congestion, and the dearth of qualified private pilots. But as the onetime Saturday Night Live character (Roseanne Rosana Danna) used to say, "It's always sumpin'".
If all TSA are considered sex offenders you would also have to include every police officer, every deputy, every jail/prison guard, every Doctor, and every tailor.
It is what it is. Either change or make a new law getting rid of the searches, don't fly, or comply, its your choice.
Will searches stop terrorism? No they will find ways to either get weapons/explosives on board (bribe/threaten ground crews, pilots, flight attendants), or begin placing materials inside their bodies. A good start would be forget about PC and learn from the best, Isreal.
Men and women who work for TSA, on the whole as nothing is 100%. Try to do a tough job, and have to put up with people treating them like Dog S**t. Disagreeing with the policey and speaking your mind is okay, but do it with respect. I for one do not think it is right for anyone to threaten, and degrade any law enforcement officer doing their job, or anyone doing their job to the best of their ability.
Threaten? I guess if I had the power to hang a "sex offender" jacket on the TSA gropers, that would be a threat. Since that's clearly not the case, it's hardly a threat. And as for the "tough job" issue, hey, it's a job like any other. Don't keep it if you can't hack it.
Degrade? It's not me doing the degrading; they're degrading themselves.
As for respect: Ain't happenin'. Yeah, I will give (and have given) respect to the individuals who deserve it, but I'm more than willing to call down any supposed public servant I see crossing the line. Any Highway Patrolman will do the same for me if I'm speeding, of course.
Respect is automatically granted (by me) to anyone putting themselves in harm's way (such as a soldier or police officer)...until or less that individual earns my disrespect. But the terrorists have been working to blow up planes, not security guards at the gates. I'm not impressed with the argument that the guards are, in fact, in deadly danger from moment to moment.
I've also faced down more than a few incompetent and/or arrogant doctors over the years, so yeah, you do have that right.
As for the tailors, I can't quite remember even one of them who continued to touch a screaming child as if her (the child's) opinion were of no consequence whatsoever. And if he did, then yes, off to prison with the fellow. More than anyone else, it is the little girl in the video who received no respect. How about a bit of respect for HER?
Now, where we are in TOTAL AGREEMENT:
1. Absolutely, forgetting PC and emulating Israel would upgrade our system remarkably.
2. As you say, "don't fly" is a choice, and in fact my own personal choice.
3. Yes, the law does need to be changed. As it happens, we're working on that.
Living in the land of the free . Does not mean secure .
Treating American's like cattle . Or like they are in prison . Is nuts . And coward .
Kids in the armed forces lay there life down . And we as a whole sell freedom for peace because we are scared . Treating American's like this in their own Country is bowing down to terror .
Absolutely, Tucker--"free" and "secure" are anything but synonyms.
On the plus side, America does seem to be (rather suddenly) waking up to the depth and intensity of this problem...and it looks like we're getting ready to solve the problem. It may not get fully resolved until Obama is booted out of White House in 2012, but the mess is NOT likely to be swept back under the rug, either.
These new "procedures" do not accomplish anything but to make people feel like something is being done. I agree, stop the PC crap, profiling should be used. Does this mean racial profiling? No. It means looking at who have committed the terrorists acts. They have not been committed by 90 year old ladies in wheelchairs or three year old girls. If you type in a passengers name and see that this grandmother has flown to see her kids in Butte Montana every Christmas every year for the last ten, she is not a terrorist. Sexual assaults do not need to be preformed on people becasue they want to fly.
Boy you guys really get off on the rights thing, get real, if the checks were not carried out fully and comprehensively then your people would be dying in droves, or have you forgotten 9/11, terrorists would not stop at using grandma or a three year old or a baby to destroy an aircraft, and they can use them without that peson being aware they have been used, items slipped into toys, hand luggage, strollers or even pockets of unsuspecting bystanders are what is being searched for just as much as items being deliberately carried through.
Come down to earth for all our sakes, just because you are American does not give you inalienable rights to do as you wish, your rights are forsaken everytime you obey a law no matter how simple such as just walking across a road, these searches are required to protect pig headed people from their own self rightous self, and the general public at large.
Be brave and post this comment, lets see you allow the right of free speech, and please do not launch an attack on me just because I am a Brit, I can cross the road here any way and any where I wish, we dont have that kind of law, so before you reply to this, stop and think about all the little petty laws that you do obey as a matter of course, where are your rights there.
imjustmusing, I can't add much to what you've said here.
Briton, we Americans do indeed "get off on the rights thing". Had we not done so in the 1770s, in fact, we'd still be singing God Save the Queen as our national anthem.
However, your further comments don't seem to be all that accurate. Isael-style profiling would pretty much keep us from "dying in droves". Of course terrorists would use a baby (or whatever) to carry a bomb. But that aspect is fairly well covered by every air traveler's awareness that luggage, strollers, etc., must NEVER be left unattended anywhere near the airport. We get that.
The flip side, though, is that all four of the 9/11 attacks were carried out by young men of Middle Eastern descent. The abortive shoe bomber, ditto. Even our home grown Major Hasan (the Ft. Hood shooter) fit the profile...and his own FATHER had tried to warn authorities about him.
The enhanced pat-downs to which we so strenuously object are not exactly a matter of checking to see if a stroller or even a pocket has been loaded with something nasty. It is a matter of, very specifically, the groping of genitals that would literally result in felony prosecutions of the gropers ANYWHERE ELSE in civilian American life.
As for the petty little laws that we do obey as a matter of course, there's a clear line--not a fine line, either. So, to take just one example (no need to write pages upon pages of such), let's look at that need here (but not in Great Britain, apparently) to walk to the corner instead of crossing the street in the middle of a block:
1. Walking on down to the corner may mean taking another full minute out of my day to reach my destination. However, it's an extremely minor inconvenience without, for the most part, anyone looking over my shoulder to see whether I'm complying or not.
2. The airport groping is a direct sexual assault on my person. Some folks are not bothered by having complete strangers fondling their genitals, apparently, but it's not high on my list of recreational activities--and yes, I do find it deeply offensive, the more so when it's applied to a young child who's quite often been properly taught that a stranger touching her all over is NOT a good thing.
In closing: Yes, I'm approving your comment--but neither because of the "right of free speech" nor because of your inference that to deny the comment would be something other than brave. This page is not a public debate forum, but rather an opinion piece. No, I'm letting it stand just because I felt like it...this time...AND because I found it ironic that you asked me not to launch an attack on you just because you're a Brit.
Ironic why? Oh, let's see...perhaps the "attack wording" YOU used. Little things like, "Be brave" (apparently I'm a coward by nature who needs bucking up), "Come down to earth" (apparently since my viewpoint is at variance with yours, I'm an airhead), "little petty laws" (indicating American rule of law is not important), "protect pig headed people from their own self righteous self" (clearly I'm a total jerk, really), and of course, the finest of all,
"...just because you are American does not give you inalienable rights to do as you wish...." Wow. It's virtually impossible to know where to even START with that one. You can bet your booties that if we all believed THAT, we wouldn't be working to change the TSA procedures through legal and political channels.
Note to all: This was fun--sort of--but please note: Additional comments similar to the one posted by Briton will most likely be summarily denied/deleted.
Ghost, excellent reply. Good to see rational arguments.
So true, so true.
Thanks, y'all.
It's interesting to watch this issue gain steam. Saturday Night Live had an excellent sketch last night, a supposed commercial in which uniformed TSA agents were "selling their services" in a sense. That is, they were urging sex-starved folks to book a flight in order to get groped for the pleasure of it. Hinted that you might get a groper who was a real hottie...but admitted that, nah, you were PROBABLY going to end up with some ugly, hairy dude doing the honors.
If SNL is on the case, we know it's gone mainstream!
Big difference between following street signs and allowing TSA thugs to manhandle your child as you stand idly by. That little girl's screams represent the instinct in all of us, regardless of country,race or background, to protect our body from harm and invasion. She KNOWS how to fight for her freedom and I hope we will ALL DO THE SAME when faced with this blatant grab at our personal freedom and dignity.
Exactly, Ana. I'm actually encouraged by the levels of outrage we're seeing publicized out there now. Of course, we still have a long way to go, what with the Obama administration still attempting to tell us to just deal with it like good little sheep.
But we'll get there. Too many born warriors in this country to allow for anything else.
Security has become pretty ridiculous. I just flew back home from Las Vegas and I was shocked to find that TSA cut the zipper tabs on my very nice travel bag. The bag came with a combo lock attached to the side that the zippers clipped into so they couldn't be moved and TSA just cut the tabs so now my lock is completely useless...
What TSA does is completely illegal and nothing is ever done about it.
Hang in there, Jared. One thing we need to remember is that, while it definitely does pay to learn from history, the past is NOT the future. In other words, not to disagree with your comment in any way, but simply to, um, REFINE IT just slightly, it might be most accurate to say:
1. Up until now, nothing HAS ever been done about it (and yes, it is definitely illegal).
2. There's an Alpha Wolf prowling the land these days, the Biggest Baddest Dog of all--namely, the American people as seen on everything from Fox News to articles like this one to Tea Party activity to John Tyner's "Don't touch my junk!" declaration of independence.
3. Putting it all together, it is NOW safe to say that something WILL be done about it. Improvements against ferocious reistance don't always happen overnight...but this issue will NO LONGER be swept under the rug.
Guaranteed.
It's Terry's comment from four days ago that gets under my skin. Isn't "they're just doing their job" the defense used by members of the SS during the events beginning in the 1930's that led to the events of the early 1940's. I am encouraged that the World Wide Web allows us to speak out and speak up and know that we are not a lone voice.
After reading many blogs, posts and articles about the TSA and the groping, I think this is an issue that is truly uniting moderate liberals, like me, with the right. I don't like the terms "hockey moms" and "Mama Grizzlies"--but some TSA dude lays a hand on my 10 & 11 year old boys or my 13 yo daughter, and we'll be in line to file charges.
Just 18 months ago, our daughter (12 at the time) was placed in a glass box in Orlando because she had a cast on her wrist. It was the 2nd flight of her life, as we headed home from vacation. The 6 ft 4 giantess was rude for no reason, and I have expected them to demand the cast come off. God only knows what it would be like to travel by air now.
I hate flying as it is--and these newest measures are enough to keep our family traveling on the road. Sure, it might take us a bit longer, but in the end it will be cheaper, and we can do site-seeing on our way to where ever we are going. As my dad used to say "Let's go see America!"
BTW: I totally agree that profiling must be done in airports for effective security. Pulling a 90-year-old white guy or a 2-year-old African American child into enhanced screening is insane. Granny has fake knees and the scars to prove it. Let her go. I totally agree on the Israeli method of background screenings and intelligent profiling.
We may not have a "right to fly", but we all have 4th amendment rights against unwarranted search & seizure. If our boys in blue can't do something, then the TSA sure as hell shouldn't be able to, unless through intelligent profiling/background screening there is a reason to check more thoroughly.
Momlindax, I wondered about Terry's comment a bit myself. And I agree with your "just doing their job" insight--not just the SS, but even our own people (at My Lai and at Wounded Knee, as 2 examples), have tried that excuse over the eons. That is a VERY slippery slope.
I became curious about Terry's vehemence on the matter, instinctively suspecting that his own background might have something to do with his perspective. So I clicked on his profile...yep. Many years in law enforcement and as a prison guard. So he's seen the worst from that side of the desk, and from where he stands, he's correct.
Back in early 1968, I met a young deputy serving in a rural northern Montana county. He had about 5 years behind a badge at that time, and he was already extremely jaded. I recall one thing he said, verbatim:
"The ordinary residents have NO CLUE what sort of scum walks by their front doors on a daily basis."
All of which doesn't mean I agree with Terry on this issue. Not at all; I most emphatically do NOT. But I do get it; I know "where he's coming from".
And yeah, the World Wide Web is a blessing in many ways...as long as the Obamas of the world don't manage to shut it down.
Caroline, I agree; we of the right and you of the mid-left (if that's a real term) ARE finding common cause on this one. And if I happened to witness some TSA dude laying a paw on one of your youngsters, I'd be on the stand (freshly shaved and in a 3 piece suit, no less) to testify against the offender, too.
posted to my fb wall.
Cool.
Good for Mandy! The guy who said that she should have been looked at with "a little bit of difference" should lose his job. He should be looked at with a microscope.
Ana got it right:
AnaGortuen 41 hours ago
"That little girl's screams represent the instinct in all of us, regardless of country, race or background, to protect our body from harm and invasion."
My guess is that the TSA will very soon demand all cameras off during security checks
but in the meantime, we need to be videoing everything. The TSA personnel who do their job in a respectful and professional manner will appreciate it--they don't want to work with idiots any more than you or I do. Our motto should be, "All cameras on at all times!" Post the good and the bad on YouTube daily until there's only the good to post.
Oh, on top of everything else they use the same nasty gloves on everyone, protecting themselves, of course, but potentially endangering everyone else, perhaps especially the elderly and children. (The worst place I saw this happening was in a hospital emergency room's security check...person after person's belongings and bodies being touched by the same nasty gloves. It was criminal.)
The TSA may very well be trying to figure out how to get away with turning off cameras. Of course, they'll have to tackle cell phones while they're at it--turns out it was that little girl's Dad who filmed that with his in-phone camera function. Which was mighty good thinking on his part. He obviously couldn't just punch out a TSA agent (or 10 of 'em) on the spot without having a jail problem, and this way he was still doing something about it.
"All cameras on at all times!" That does sound like a really good motto for now!
I hadn't realized they weren't changing gloves between passengers. Yech. Our local convenience store puts on fresh gloves for each new customer's hot dogs (when they take 'em out of the package to be nuked). You'd think a major waste-ocracy could do as much.
Ghost32,
This Hub shines a light on one of the most outrageous intrusions of government going on today.
The ironic thing about the whole TSA program is that it is actually putting the lives of travelers more at risk. As I point out in one of my own hubs with evidence provided, there is a cancer risk from the scanners themselves. Also as the outrage over the gropings continue it is probable that there will be more people who drive themselves if possible to avoid the groping and cancer causing/ nudist scanners. As any transportation expert would agree driving is statistically way riskier than flying. Way mor car wrecks than plane wrecks!
Yep, driving is definitely riskier than flying--just got two letters from our state's Motor Vehicle Dept. advising me I've been driving without insurance for the past 40 days, no less! Turns out I missed the renewal date, and the agency's renewal reminder letter never reached our P.O. Box.
Which, according to the agent, may turn out to be a huge deal. Perhaps they'll require an auto-groper installed, grabs me every time I put my key in the ignition, yells in a robotic, computerized voice: "Where's your proof of insurance, turkey?!"
Or something like that....
I agree with you. That video was simply disgusting and I just wanted to go and kick the fat tub in her big butt or show her another use for that wand! And all that BS about racial profiling! That is the problem here...to many blankety-blank liberals sticking up for everyone except the law abiding citizen! The poor child should have just starting kicking that woman until she stopped.
The Israelis are right. They don't mess around with people they know are possible troublemakers or some terrorist member! If the U.S. got tough with these people and really nailed them, the terrorists would not be so bold and blatantly go through our airports.
Be that as it may, instead of flying, terrorists can just sneak over the Mexican border with the illegals and get in that way...no muss, no fuss. In fact, they may as well apply for government assistance and medical care. Then when they blow themselves up, they have guaranteed medical treatment.
I am sure going to keep my eyes open from now on. Since the TSA knows that any old lady or child under 5, of course the child is probably a midget with some C4 strapped to his leg and AK47 hidden in his trousers, is a likely terrorist! I guess that will mean that when the tall, heavily accented, can't speak decent English gets stopped in the line because of the alarm going on, that person will be just waved through since we don't want to offend our foreign tourists.
You put it well--says the guy who lives a mile from the border in a hand-crafted dwelling we call the Border Fort.
Hey man, I am counting on you to take care of those invaders!! We need someone like you to do what the government jokers won't! We need some old fashioned, good ole American justice like it used to be! Nailing some of the real terrorist instead of scanning decent Americans and wasting our time while the real bad guys and gals, practically got a free pass to get in our country! I think Obama should have to pull some Border Patrol duty on the AZ border!!! Point man!
Oh man, don't do that to me. We've got some good BP officers in our area, and you just made me picture the Obamanator out there at the end of our driveway in a green-striped SUV in the middle of the night.
Must...not...sleep. Avoid...nightmares...! LOL!
ROFLOL - I would LOVE to have a picture of that SUV and you armed to the teeth like Arnold Schwartzenegger declaring war on the drug lords! Ah, a new superhero...
Obamanator!!!!! Sounds like a winner to me!!!
Must be all that armor, makes you feel all invincible and stuff. :)
The more armor the better, and of course armed to the teeth!...like a tank! !! :)
Just don't rust. You know, like the Tin Man.
Gotcha! I will make sure to have a oil can stashed someplace close! :)
Excellent.
Just thought of something. Betcha back in the day of chain mail, "click on the link" meant the sound of an enemy's weapon bouncing off, not some silly website...no, wait. That would be CLINK! on the link, wouldn't it.
Ghost- this is a useful service to the rest of us who are sick of the fact that the terrorists have succeeded in changing our free way of life. All of the security measures designed to protect us are traumatizing our children and ourselves. We are doing the bidding of the terrorists for them by our excessive reaction. No one who lives in continuous fear is free.
Yes, that's pretty much the definition of successful terrorism: Get the folks to live in fear.
Fear is a powerful thing, as you all know. That is what terrorism is...causing terror or fear! It is successful, unfortunately as we have seen when 9/11 happened. Just remembering the TV photos and videos of that day is heartrending and of course, thinking something like that can happen again causes some fear. We all live in some stage of fear. Our country and leaders are doing nothing that is effective...seems we are on our own for the most part. Whatever happened to America, like it was in the Revolutionary War? They banded together, untrained for the most part, and defeated the invaders, the illegal alien superior trained British army. We need the kind of spirit again!
That kind of spirit is alive and well...in the Tea Party. Even during the time of the Revolutionary War, Tories outnumbered rebels. Today, as then, we have what we really need. That was shown on Election Day in 2010 and will be further proved in 2012.
We all know there are excesses and bad individuals involved. That said, lest we forget, these measures were instituted because of horrors like 9-eleven.
The people who hate us would not hesitate one second to use an 80 year old or an 8 year old to down a plane.
You are properly outraged. I too want to see the egregious errors stopped, but I also want our planes and people to be secure. Profiling is an excellent tool and should be used....but how would you feel if the profile said to stop and detain all old guys with bandanas and beards?
There are always "logical reason" for suppressive governmental activity. I know the surface reason for "why" the measures were instituted...and I might be less outraged if they actually worked.
As for being profiled, I've had my tennis shoes and socks investigated thoroughly in Butte, Montana, been accused of preparing to die from a heart attack on Delta because I apparently looked unhealthy, and had my checked luggage tossed in New York, complete with the luggage lock disappearing entirely after they cut it off. And THAT was all in 2006, before the current intensity had ramped up to this level.
I quit flying after that. Period.
Ivorwen Level 1 Commenter 18 months ago
I'm thinking it is time for more private planes and smaller airports...
You know the kind, they don't have buildings, just a portable stair rail, and you keep your luggage with you.