When do the rights of a terrorist outweigh yours?
Al Ritter
The answer lies in when the TSA gets involved. Mandates for how air passengers get searched is reaching a frenzied pitch now, and with holiday travel rapidly approaching, some sort of compromise must be reached.
Just last week a passenger was randomly picked out for a further screening, concerned with the x-ray emissions from the full body scanners he refused the test. The resistance to the test sent TSA employees into a downward spiraling aggressive conversation with the passenger.
The TSA employee told the man they would be doing a “groin search.” The traveller said that “if they touched his junk” he would call police to report a sexual assault. They gave him the choice of either subjecting to the grope or be escorted out of the airport, to which he chose not to fly and return home.
The aggressive nature of one of the TSA managers however wasn’t finished with just that. He told the traveller that if he left the airport he would be formally charged (with what wasn’t certain,) but the manager knew the fine was $10,000! The traveller asked the manager if the officers escorting him out of the building would be charged too as their actions weren’t of his choosing.
His argument seemed perfectly logical to any normal citizen. He was singled out at random, had serious reservations about exposure to the amount of x-ray, and he refused to be sexually groped. The arrival at this decision was tantamount to treason to these employees who refused to see logic, only rules.
There is now a boycott brewing for the Thanksgiving and Christmas travel time to have ALL travellers refuse to the full body scan and force them to do full body pat downs, which would virtually drive the security lines out the door and create a huge headache for travellers.
Something has to be done when we can’t even profile Arabic passengers, but we force citizens to do a virtual strip search!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7txGwoITSj4&feature=share
