TSA Outrage - GOP Fodder for the Feeble Minded

[litbrit]

9. Liberals SHOULD be concerned about TSA's unconstitutional unwarranted search & seizure

Last edited Tue Jul 31, 2012, 03:12 AM - Edit history (1)

I have a lot to say about this most unfortunate post by thecentristword. (And I am not "dumb".)

First of all, just because a conservative complains about something, one should not dismiss the issue out of hand. Set aside that Ms. Loesch is a "conservative mouthpiece", and consider the myriad TSA abuse heaped on ordinary, law-abiding Americans every day, people of indeterminate politics who simply want to get from Point A to Point B in their own country. Elderly people are routinely humiliated, forced to undergo gropings of their bodies and adult diapers. So are adults and children with disabilities. Breast cancer survivors report being forced to remove their breast prostheses in full view of the public, as the agent holds it up to "inspect" it. Mothers carrying bottled breast milk for their infants are forced to drink it; one mother, an attorney, was imprisoned in a glass cubicle so long while agents figured out what to do, she missed her flight, despite having printed out TSA's policies beforehand so she could show them--in case they didn't know--that it was indeed permissible to bring pumped milk on board. Children with cerebral palsy have had their crutches seized and been told to walk through the metal detector or scanner, unassisted by parents and caregivers. Same with children in wheelchairs. Parents are often separated from their children while agents grope them; some kids are frightened by the process, naturally, but parents are barked at if they try to hug or touch their child.

I could go on.

Second, the TSA are not deputized law-enforcement officers, and their policies do NOT, as the poster implies, have anything to do with "public safety". TSA have NEVER prevented a single terrorist attack. Their policies are reactions after-the-fact. They do sometimes find knives, throwing stars, and even weapons in carryons--virtually all were picked up by the metal-detectors--which were in use for decades--NOT the nude-scanners, which are useless and expensive DHS boondoggles, which brings me to my next point:

Third, the scanning machines--also fondly referred to as "radiation showers"--are as good as useless. They do not detect the kind of explosive the underwear bomber used that Christmas, which kicked off the rollout of the untested, useless machines. Jon Corbett, an engineer and activist, proved their uselessness: by secreting a metal object in a side pocket, as opposed to on his front or back, he was able to walk through to the gate with his secreted metal object intact, as the machines can't detect objects thus placed. Furthermore, the machines are untested, and no-one really knows the amounts of radiation they emit or its effects in the short or long term: the TSA refuses to allow independent peer-reviewed testing of the machines. TSA say they've tested them and they're safe; however, the data is extremely limited and did not sample enough machines to provide a scientifically sound result. TSA will not permit agents to wear or carry dosimeters so as to allow them to know if there is a higher level of radiation at any given time (unlike Border Patrol agents, who do wear/carry dosimeters). Unlike the x-ray machines at your local hospital or imaging center, TSA's scanners are not covered under FDA regulations and are not thus regularly maintained and calibrated. Doctors familiar with them routinely warn patients with history of skin and eye cancers to opt-out of the machines, as they concentrate radiation on the surface of the body. Finally, submitting to the naked-scanner will not guarantee you won't ALSO be groped, whether it is to resolve an "anomaly" or simply at the agents' whim.

Fourth, the physical "enhanced patdown"--aka groping--to which passengers must submit if TSA says so, would under any other circumstance qualify for sexual assault. Countless passengers report that agents put their gloved hand down their pants, under their underwear. Countless women report being penetrated through their clothes during aggressive gropes. As you can imagine, for the 1 in 6 women who are rape victims (and for the many men who are too), being groped is extremely traumatic.

All this, to "keep us safe"? Decades before the 9/11 attacks, the courts originally ruled that administrative searches--x-raying your bags and having you walk through a metal detector--were permissible at the airport. What TSA do is not covered under this. What TSA do is far, far beyond an administrative search: forcing passengers to choose between a naked scan with radiation and possible sexual-assault grope, or a guaranteed sexual-assault grope, just so they can fly that day.

Furthermore: so many people wishing to avoid the TSA have taken to driving to their destination. Apply the statistical likelihood of being killed in an automobile accident (versus an airplane incident) to them, and one can conclude that the TSA actually CAUSES more deaths, every single year.

Fifth, the TSA hire criminals. They have admitted that they have hired people without doing any background checks. You can imagine what has resulted. I've lost count of the number of agents arrested for rape, child pornography, child rape, assault and battery, drug possession, and grand theft.

Add to this the fact that TSA's hires--the ones who are given a badge despite no background check having been done on them--have access to "sterile areas" of airports, which should give everyone pause. Cargo. Food service. And so on.

And sixth, and finally, there is that pesky matter of the Constitution, specifically, the Fourth Amendment.

As for this poster saying "Take Greyhound", well, I have news for you: TSA are regularly showing up at bus stations, train stations, and more. They search the private bodies and private belongings of passengers before allowing them to board, and they do so without any probable cause whatsoever. As you'd imagine, immigrants, minorities, and working-class and poor are the ones who suffer most in this respect, and they are often scared to refuse the searches.

This is not America. This is a systematic conditioning of the populace to accept ever-greater intrusions into its lives as the concept of privacy is eroded to the point of nonexistence.

I implore fellow liberals (I am a proud Democratic Socialist, myself) to not fall for this "only the right wing are complaining about the TSA) garbage.

I'll close with a quote from Justice Robert H. Jackson, the former chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials: "Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government.”