A friend of mine who writes a column for the Denver Post and Dow Jones recently posted his thoughts on the TSA ‘pad-down’ procedure after undergoing a search at Denver International Airport prior to flying to Mexico for his birthday. In a post on his blog, Tell in to Al, Lewis describes his experience thustly:
“I’m sure glad I got through it without being recognized as the guy who wrote a column in The Sunday Wall Street Journal questioning whether the crotch-grabbing TSA has become a terrorist organization itself. Click here to read that.
Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed at what a police state America has become. I can’t believe that I – like many other fellow Americans – just stand there and take it as a gloved stranger goes into my … well … let’s not get any more graphic. You know what he’s doing.
Patting down the public with procedures typically reserved for criminal suspects is just plain wrong. And arguing that it’s for our own protection is ridiculous on its face. You could use all of the same arguments the TSA has mustered to justify cavity searches as well.”
While part of me agrees with Lewis, the other part of me thinks he is simply stirring the pot to attract readers. Was he really violated? Those of you who have experienced the TSA’s pat-down can chime in, but after having a pat-down of my own at Seattle-Tacoma International, I have to cry foul. The pat-down I experienced on December 23rd was less intrusive, in terms of the TSA agent reaching down my pants, than what we experienced from the TSA following 9-11.
I would prefer to avoid that radiation coming from the new X-RAYted machines until the science behind those machines has been proven. To date there remains medical skepticism. I opted out of that machine lightning fast when presented with it by the TSA agent at Sea-Tac – “pat me down,” I had said. The agent was very respectful, but obviously frustrated that I had opted out of her machine. She told me to stand aside and wait for an agent. It took a few minutes of standing around in the security area before the agent arrived. He took me to a waiting area around the corner where he informed me what was about to happen. One minute later, we were done. He was cool. He never touched my junk.
The funny thing is though, with all of this new ‘security’ the TSA still sucks at their job. During the confusion of me opting out I handed my iPod, which had been in my pocket, to my wife who had already gone through the traditional metal detector with our baby. It passed through without it having been scanned. Duh?
Let’s face it, the TSA is comprised of humans who run machines, and sometimes those humans make mistakes when working with those machines. Let’s just hope they don’t start outlawing music because of this incident.
Love your work Al and have been reading it since I was a kid, but was the pat-down really that painful?
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Tags: al lewis, dow jones, flying, grab my junk, pat down, security, tsa
January 6, 2011 On the TSA, Junk Grabbing and Al Lewis
A friend of mine who writes a column for the Denver Post and Dow Jones recently posted his thoughts on the TSA ‘pad-down’ procedure after undergoing a search at Denver International Airport prior to flying to Mexico for his birthday. In a post on his blog, Tell in to Al, Lewis describes his experience thustly:
“I’m sure glad I got through it without being recognized as the guy who wrote a column in The Sunday Wall Street Journal questioning whether the crotch-grabbing TSA has become a terrorist organization itself. Click here to read that.
Quite frankly, I’m embarrassed at what a police state America has become. I can’t believe that I – like many other fellow Americans – just stand there and take it as a gloved stranger goes into my … well … let’s not get any more graphic. You know what he’s doing.
Patting down the public with procedures typically reserved for criminal suspects is just plain wrong. And arguing that it’s for our own protection is ridiculous on its face. You could use all of the same arguments the TSA has mustered to justify cavity searches as well.”
While part of me agrees with Lewis, the other part of me thinks he is simply stirring the pot to attract readers. Was he really violated? Those of you who have experienced the TSA’s pat-down can chime in, but after having a pat-down of my own at Seattle-Tacoma International, I have to cry foul. The pat-down I experienced on December 23rd was less intrusive, in terms of the TSA agent reaching down my pants, than what we experienced from the TSA following 9-11.
I would prefer to avoid that radiation coming from the new X-RAYted machines until the science behind those machines has been proven. To date there remains medical skepticism. I opted out of that machine lightning fast when presented with it by the TSA agent at Sea-Tac – “pat me down,” I had said. The agent was very respectful, but obviously frustrated that I had opted out of her machine. She told me to stand aside and wait for an agent. It took a few minutes of standing around in the security area before the agent arrived. He took me to a waiting area around the corner where he informed me what was about to happen. One minute later, we were done. He was cool. He never touched my junk.
The funny thing is though, with all of this new ‘security’ the TSA still sucks at their job. During the confusion of me opting out I handed my iPod, which had been in my pocket, to my wife who had already gone through the traditional metal detector with our baby. It passed through without it having been scanned. Duh?
Let’s face it, the TSA is comprised of humans who run machines, and sometimes those humans make mistakes when working with those machines. Let’s just hope they don’t start outlawing music because of this incident.
Love your work Al and have been reading it since I was a kid, but was the pat-down really that painful?
###
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Tags: al lewis, dow jones, flying, grab my junk, pat down, security, tsa