On this flight? You must be a criminal
No one likes unwanted touching by strangers.
There are a variety of good reasons. They might pass on an illness, it makes you uncomfortable, it hurts, it’s humiliating, it’s against your religious beliefs — the list goes on.
When police arrest a suspect, they pat the person down in public, touching very private areas, to insure the suspect has no hidden weapons. They must have a legal probable cause to conduct this type of unwanted touching.
What if all you did was purchase an airline ticket for $1,000 to attend your brother’s wedding, sister’s college graduation, take your child to Disneyland, or escort middle school students on a field trip?
Would you tolerate receiving the same treatment as a gang member being arrested for suspicion of a drive-by shooting?
Of course not. You would be angry. Maybe a little angrier if the stranger is touching the private parts of your wife, mother, husband, or son.
The Washington Post recently wrote about the public backlash over the addition of full body scanners at airports and what happens if you decline to be viewed nearly naked by a stranger.
If you decline, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents will force you to leave the line and be “patted down” to make sure you are not a terrorist with explosives in your underwear.
“The examinations routinely involve the touching of breasts and genitals, invasive searches designed to find weapons and suspicious items,” the Washington Post reported.
Some passengers are writing to newspapers and on their blogs about how the TSA staff make the decision to avoid the scanner as humiliating as possible, yelling, grabbing arms and forcibly escorting passengers to another area to be patted down.
Then there are the reports of women crying over the invasive and rough pat-downs by indifferent security staff.
I faced the threat of a pat-down once by a non-government security officer in Vancouver, B.C. I made it through security screenings leaving Tokyo and twice while changing planes in Portland, before I arrived in Canada.
The man asked if he could pat me down after going through a metal detector and sifting through my suitcase — a fourth time on one trip. He was gloved and ready while standing in the terminal. No privacy at all.
I declined politely.
“Then you are not getting on the plane. Your ticket is void,” he yelled a few times.
“Then you are paying for my $1,200 ticket from Tokyo and back,” I replied.
He continued to yell and threatened to get his supervisor. I asked to see his supervisor in agreement.
She tried to persuade me to allow the man to pat me down. I agreed on the condition that I would be allowed to pat her down in the exact same manner in the same public place.
She waved me through security and onto my next plane.
I do not wish to receive an x-ray to ride on an airplane. I do not want to be fondled by a stranger. I will not accept my wife being sexually molested to make other passengers feel at peace.
If you are so afraid of terrorists, please stay home or take a train or bus.
To agree to the scanners or pat-downs means you have given up your privacy. You have agreed to be treated as if you are guilty of a crime without any evidence or any reasonable suspicion that you are carrying an explosive or a weapon. Perhaps you want to be treated worse than a tattooed gang member suspected of murder.
I don’t.
Marc Moniz, of Poway, Calif., was planning to accompany his daughter’s eighth-grade class on a trip to Washington, D.C. His comments to The Washington Post were poignant.
“It’s more than just patting you down. It’s very intrusive and very insane. I wouldn’t let anyone touch my daughter like that ... We’re not common criminals.”
Absolutely. Now I need to write my Congressman and U.S. Senators.
Bill Stevenson is the Columbia Basin Herald managing editor. He has flown to and from eight nations on three continents in the last seven years and finds American security to be the most humiliating for passengers.