| BREAST
GROPING @ AIRPORTS
"What should I do if an airport security person insists on feeling my breasts. Is this is joke? Or do passengers actually have to go along with this intrusion? Thanks for your help." Allison
Dear Allison Women's breasts are sensitive and women are sensitive about their breasts. And we certainly don't want our breasts examined at airports, and especially not out in the open giving male screeners and male passengers an opportunity to enjoy the show. Last month, a female screener told a young mother: "I'm going to feel your breasts now." The mother begged, bawled, balked, and was finally denied boarding. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said its screener did nothing wrong and that touching breasts became a security priority in September 2004 after two Russian jetliners exploded, possibly from bombs smuggled in clothing of two women of Cechnya origin. After she was denied boarding, Ava Kingsford stuck by her personal principles and decided to drive a rental car from Denver Airport to her home in San Diego. It took 16 hours including too many stops with her little baby. In addition, Ava's luggage (with diapers, clothes, etc.) had not been retrieved by the airline (against FAA regulations, by the way), though she had waited at the airport several hours for it. In a phone interview, Ava told me that two female airport screeners had taken her to a back room to touch her breasts. To avoid being touched, Ava pulled down her tank top and bra-less said: "See, I'm not hiding anything." But, incredibly, the screener replied: "That's it. You just flashed us and you're not boarding your plane." This was obviously less about passengers terrorizing airplanes, and more about screeners intimidating passengers. For what it's worth, I believe TSA's boob groping policy is a ploy to intimidate passengers into accepting full-body-scan machines at all U.S. airports. At Orlando Airport, a technician on a prototype body-scan machine can examine breast and genital size and shape of naked passengers; even penile implants and other prostheses, and colostomy devices. Yikes! Of all places, one should expect privacy under their clothing. Body scans also irradiate us. I'd rather have a TSA screener touch my breasts than be irradiated. Some choice! Ava told me she'd rather have the X-ray and "The way I was treated at Denver Airport was like a criminal." In the U.S., passengers foot the bill for airport security with a $2.50 surcharge per flight, not to mention bailing out the airlines with our taxes. So why don't we get security screeners who are accountable to the flying public? If the presence of airport security screeners is inevitable, and it appears to be, the demeaning of passengers does not have to be inevitable. And here are four things you can do to make a difference. 1) If you believe you have been treated in a discriminatory manner, don't bother reporting it to airport authorities -- report it to the media. The TSA's so-called "resolution line" (866-289-9673) is just a recording that sends you to a website. 2) Make sure your bags are always in your sight. If a screener wants to move you to a side area or a private room and separate you from your hand luggage, politely insist that your handcarries must go where you go. They will comply. 3) Be polite. No matter how a screener behaves, control yourself and do not raise your voice as this could send you straight to jail. 4) If you feel tense at security, say to the screener: I appreciate that you are checking all the passengers thoroughly because I am also very concerned with safety. Diana Fairechild
"As someone who conducted pat-down
searches on many, many people over my 15 years in law enforcement, I think
I can safely speak for airport screeners when I say that it is no more desirable
for the person doing the patting than it is for the pattee. Probing the armpits,
crotches and chest area of strangers is not something to write home about
or something that professionals get giddy about, sharing stories in the bar
after work like excited teenagers. " -Mark Arsenault |
