Why is the TSA taking out nipple rings and pantsing amputees?

CBS2 Chicago has a good roundup on the trend to "X-rated" TSA searches at airports wherein travellers are forced to strip in public, remove their nipple rings; a child amputee recounts the humiliation of having to endure a full pat-down every time she flies:

In Chicago, people like Robert Perry are subjected to exhaustive security checks. He was patted down, his wheel chair was examined and his hands were swabbed, all in public view in a see-through room at the security checkpoint. Perry, 71, is not alone
"It's humiliation," Perry said.
Perry was also taken to a see-through room by a TSA agent when his artificial knee set off the metal detector.
"He yelled at me to get the belt off. 'I told you to get the belt off.' So I took the belt off. He ran his hands down over and pulled the pants down, they went down around my ankle," Perry said.
At that point, Perry was standing in his underwear in public view. He asked to see a supervisor. That made things worse.
"She was yelling 'I have power, I have power, I have power," Perry said. The power to stop him from flying to Florida with his wife that day to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Fliers Complain About X-Rated Security Screenings

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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manicbassman

you all need to go on “strike”… refuse to travel by air…
Luigi Rosa

It’ sad when someone uses his/hep power against people who cannot defend themselves, very sad. Is even more sadder when a police/security agent behaves like this.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
MarkHB

I kind of have to agree with everyone else here. When you put this kind of power in the hands of people, then you’re going to get abuses. And other passengers can’t really do anything because, let’s face it, flights cost money and arriving is all anyone really wants to go. Argue, and you get squashed.

Because they can.

It’s disgusting, and it’s loathesome, and what worries me is that some people will be looking for jobs with the TSA so they can do the exact same thing to people.

Gich.
Anonymous

Out of 2 billion, only 110k abuse complaints. I’d love to know what number of that 110k resulted in policy change.

The stats don’t matter – 110k complaints about ABUSE is still a hell of a lot of abuse.
Santa’s Knee

I would pay GOOD money to see Obama promise to dismantle this agency. Good Money…
Foolster41

This is just horrible. I thought strip searches were done privatly, aare they really done in full view of everyone as this article implies? (I havn’t been through airport security in years, before 9-11.)

#4, ChaosRob: I agree. I don’t fly much for another reason (too expensive), but if more people made enough noise about this, and were able to boycott airlines, then I’m sure there would be change. The trick is getting the word out and finding an alternite way of travel for those who need to frequently travel for work.
spokehedz

For everybody who is saying “You need to stop using air travel” can just STFU.

There are jobs where you need to travel long distances where you simply cannot drive. There is no other way to do them. You cannot telecommute when a new building design in NY requires you to fly from your AZ home.

The reason that the TSA sucks so bad is that the angry people who used to work in Lost Luggage now work for the TSA–and they tend to be a bit bitter when it comes to how people treated them for years.

And at this current juncture, you can’t do anything to stop the TSA. Complaining will only get you more and more humiliation–or even put on the no-fly list.

The founding fathers are spinning in their graves.
minTphresh

they can have my rings….WHEN THEY PRY THEM FROM MY COLD, DEAD NIPPLES!!!
Dillenger69

I’d love to say “I won’t fly” but if my company says fly, I fly. I won’t fly for personal trips though. I haven’t gotten on a plane for a personal trip since this asshattery 2001.
Santos

Flying to Hawaii is worse than flying to a foreign country. The asshole factor is high. TSA also overreacts to beards and non-whites …

Shame.
arkizzle

if this is the society they have chosen for themselves…

I see what you did there.
arkizzle

Modus, you will notice that Ken and Al are never seen in the same room together.. suspicious enough? :D
AGF

My mom is in a wheel chair. She always gets patted down and swabbed and her wheelchair is examined. The TSA have always been really polite and nice to her. The only problem we’ve had with them is they can be super slow and occasionally they ask her to walk through the metal detector – so yeah not very smart!After explaining that she has the wheel chair because she can’t walk they resort to the pat down and swab. Oh well – I guess we have been lucky.
SamF

ONLY 110,000. And that’s out of 2 billion fliers. Which makes it sound like such a tiny percentage. But what percentage of fliers even does anything that requires any extra TSA attention? When I flew earlier this year, I’d say that almost everyone passed through the checkpoint unmolested except for the occasional “you have to take off your shoes first” or “please take the laptop out of its bag”.

I’d be much more interested in what percentage of people complain out of the number of people whose experience with the TSA goes beyond the typical wave-through.

Also:

@#30: The nipple ring incident occured in March of this year. These are NOT things that were only occuring when 9/11 was fresh in everyone’s mind. These are things that still happen today. As I noted, most people just get a wave-through. But even a few violations as eggregious as these are simply unwarranted.
OM

…The problem is that, according to other State and Federal agencies whose traversing employees have been on the receiving end of this sort of abuse, and whose bosses have contacted TSA officials demanding heads on platters, something like 85% of the TSA employees who are hired for the pat-down position are nothing but hire-a-cops who failed at least one attempt to gain employment as a regular police officer. Most of those were for inability to pass the physicals, but among those were a large percentage who couldn’t pass the *psychological* exams – the common problem being inabilty to deal with insecurity issues and the desire to become a cop not to serve and protect but to ride a power trip. It was also found that many of the male TSA checkers whose backgrounds were researched were either school bullies while growiing up, or had at least one assault charge filed against them outside of the workplace.

Or, to put it bluntly, TSA stands for They’ll Staff Anyone.

…This explains the problem that we’re seeing with the airport checkins run by the TSA. The need to ramp up security following 9/11 has produced the same situation as we’re seeing in the tech support industry. They’re simply grabbing anyone they can off the street to fill the slots. Unlike tech support, the TSA is clearly using all the various 9/11 “laws” passed to hide behind as a form of damage control, rather than actually doing their jobs and hiring properly trained *and* psychologically-sound people to perform their duties with logic and common sense.
Kieran O’Neill

“only 110,000 abuse complaints”

Print *that* on a t-shirt. (And wear it through a TSA screening if you feel like joining the statistic.)
Takuan

TSA assault video
http://www.gadling.com/2008/07/27/tsa-pulls-pants-off-of-elderly-man-during-search/print/
Takuan

http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/news/2001/e20010327questions.htm
Takuan

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/tsa-pilots-millimeter-wave-technology/story.aspx?guid={D60B8D75-974F-4D97-B5FD-4FDB58495F93}&dist=hppr
Anonymous

My mom has cerebral palsy, can walk short distances, but uses a push wheelchair to go on airlines. They give her the full pat-down at security and it takes about 10 minutes from start to finish.

Every time they put her through this, we have the same conversation. Why are they singling her out? What can a woman with cerebral palsy possibly do to other passengers on an airplane? If she were trying to hide something dangerous in or on a hospital wheelchair, couldn’t they simply visually inspect the thing and send her on her way? Why the humiliating pat-down and making her stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, etc.?

Real security is about assessing real risks and taking appropriate measures. A 66 year old woman with CP in a wheelchair is nowhere near the types of risks they should be singling out. This isn’t real security. It’s Dumb and Dumber.

I support our troops and what they’re doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the rest of the world. I think that their efforts are what is keeping us safe here in America. The TSA is a smokescreen for something else more nefarious.

We need a serious uprising in this apathetic nation. People, we need need to get biblical, rend our clothing, and get PISSED. We need to use those damn video cameras in our cell phones to document TSA abuses. Imagine 100 people taking video at either end of the security line of some TSA stooge feeling up a 15 year old girl or 65 year old grandmother and then broadcasting that directly to YouTube.

We need to show up, indignantly, unexpectedly, but peacefully with our message in an organized fashion and in overwhelming numbers at venues where our representatives will be speaking, eating, drinking, recreating, kissing babies, signing legislation, doing backroom deals, etc. It’s time for us to take back our country before non-representative government takes away everything we have, including our dignity as human beings.

(Ha! My Captcha words for this post are “homely leaders”)
Leslie

My favorite part of this article is the quote from the TSA spokesman who says there have ONLY been 110,000 abuse complaints since 9/11.

My mother-in-law has artificial knees and has undergone various levels of search from a simple wand pass to full pat-down. I don’t think she has been subjected to a strip search…yet… but she says some of the folks have been rough and rude.
jgriffiths

if this is the society they have chosen for themselves…
mdhatter

I liked it better when they worked for the Post Office.
Anonymous

On a flight from NY back into Canada a few years ago a TSA agent felt it necessary to search the young gentleman before me in line. He pulled him in an open cubicle about 10′ from where I was instructed to remove my shoes (a pair of Birkenstock’s) for inspection. While passing the time of my shoe’s passage down the conveyor belt there was nothing for me and the rest of my fellow passengers to do but watch the boy (i’d guess between 14-17, oh and yes he was Brown in case you were wondering) first remove his belt then drop his pants. Luckily he was wearing spotted boxers and we were all saved the sight of having to view tighty whities. WTF?! was the expression readable on most of our faces. In the name of airport security we were forced to watch an underage boy (amazingly the only person of colour in line) strip to his scivies. On the flight home, 2-3 rows or so behind the TSA’s victim, I felt a warm safe feeling that all was still incompetent in the world.
DocFish

This is why I have not flown in over 5 years.

I was LEAVING for IRAQ in 2003 when we first invaded ( didn’t have a choice) I was in FULL uniform. I was in Cammies with my medical equipment and a sea bag. There was 27 of us in all, escorted by ARMED Marines.

I was pulled to the side, made to take off my BDU jacket, my boots, undo my hair, empty my medical and sea bag WHILE infront of everyone.

They pulled 10 Corpsman out of the line, to then “pat us down” I had both breast and my crouch groped. I asked to see my CO ( who was with us) and the guy told me to be quiet or I’d miss the flight.

Excuse me? I was in the Military and they did that to me. MY Co finally found out what happened and “rescued us” only after everyone else had made it to the boarding gate, they were doing a head count when they suddenly noticed that TEN MEDICS! Were missing.

I only ride trains, take a boat or drive now.
A train ride is cheap, and AMTRACK doesn’t give you a purple nurrple.
Takuan

110,000 actual complaints means 1,000,000 offenses.
How many TSA employees have their windows broken and their tires slashed?
tgjerusalem

>>Drive, walk, take the bus, telecommute, just stop already.<<

I very rarely fly, because I’m poor. But for those occasions where it’s necessary, how do you suggest anyone in the US who has to travel outside North America accomplish this?

Flight isn’t just a convenience. Restricting flight, either overtly through “no fly” lists or by making it so humiliating, threatening and degrading that people avoid it, means it is effectively impossible for Americans to go to other countries that aren’t Canada or Mexico.
SFRT4

I live in Canada with my Chinese wife, and we travel to Asia once a year or so. We could save a few hundred dollars and sometimes a few hours by using Northwest or United instead of Air Canada. But that would mean entering the US by plane, and we both agree it’s just not worth the aggravation.
Modusoperandi

arkizzle “Modus, you will notice that Ken and Al are never seen in the same room together.. suspicious enough? :D”
And they both hate America. And they don’t wear little American flag pins. And I’m quite willing to make stuff up about both of them.
I’m only doing it for America…and the rockets red glare/the bombs bur-sting in air/gave truth mumble-mum/that our flag mum-ble there…
risser

Stop flying goddamnit.
Drive, walk, take the bus, telecommute, just stop already.

Peter
kln_nurv

The solution to these problems is logically simple: take control of the technology and the infrastructure. All that is needed is for the inventors and makers of the world to build a safe and affordable flying car with high mileage. I dont know what technology would be used. There is a range of ‘different but similar’ technologies that are often placed under the banner of ‘anti-gravity’. If all of them get sufficient determined effort and enough funding, it is guaranteed that at least one of them will be safe and efficient enough for private everyday use. Think about it. It is time for the airline racket to go. The technology exists to allow people to travel wherever and whenever they want, without kowtowing to any government or corporation. As the saying goes, “if you want a job done properly, do it yourself!” Governments and corporations have abdicated their roles. So its time for ‘we the people’ to do things right, and go on without them.
John Markos O’Neill

“A spokesman said that out of 2 billion passengers screened nationwide since 9-11, there have been only 110,000 abuse complaints.”

That’s not 2 billion *passengers* — it’s 2 billion *flights*. By the same logic, McDonalds could claim that it has served over 100 billion customers, which is absurd, considering that there are only 6.5 billion people on Earth. So really we’re talking about maybe 200 million passengers. Of those, roughly one out of every 2000 files an abuse complaint? That’s pretty bad.
Takuan

@44 Om, good stats, we should print t-shirts of them to wear while flying
Daemon

“But experts have said it’s important to use common sense when balancing security and customer service.”

Now, if only they had common sense.
Tensegrity

Don’t wear underwear when flying, so if they force you to drop trow then we’ll see how they like a little shirtcocking.

Hey, I’m just doing what you told me to do.
- Major Variola (ret)
  
  I have thought about intentionally lowering the front of my
  pants when told to go through the magnetometer, just to be
  helpful. No PETN here!
  
  I think TSA needs to see the pubic hair of a lot
  more fat middle aged men. Whether they want to or not.
  Just being helpful.
Anonymous

What strikes me is the fact that TSA seems to best target frail, feminine, meek and harmless people for high security. Surrealistic. Lack of profiling is a problem, let alone terrifying good people.
ridestowe

back in 2004 i broke my leg and had to go to a family reunion the weekafter. while at the airport going through security, they put me off to the side(behind the glass so everyone can gawk) then made me stand on one leg with my arms spread out to either side while they took their time swabbing every nook and cranny i had. about 5 minutes into it one guy got near my leg which i informed him had just gotten out of surgery and that he should be careful. he then took a cotton swab and stuck it into my cast, rubbing against the fresh stitches i had received two days earlier. then they finally let me get on the plane, after giving back my crutches that they had dismantled and put back together haphazardly. on the returning flight i had to go through the same procedure.
Takuan

how many TSA staff have been beaten, stabbed, shot or spat on by the people they outrage daily?
Mister Staal

Someone needs to make underwear with ‘TSA Abuse’ written all over them. Make sure to wear a belt with lots of metal in it and very baggy pants. When the belt comes off, the pants fall down, the fun ensues. You might want to pre-lube your exit hole.
chromal

Don’t you all feel safer, now? What this country needs is more people with authority and a sense of entitlement to do as they please in the name of ‘security.’ Rip out those nipple rings, rsc ths fk bbs, do what it takes to keep Saddam from repeating 911!

*cough*
The Unusual Suspect

People ARE refusing to fly (at least, when they have the option). Each year there are millions fewer flights out of U.S. airports.

The airlines’ response to this is to seek revenue elsewhere – by adding fees and surcharges, forcing carry-ons into checked baggage then charging for those, charging for customer service requests, etc.

All this has to do with the airlines’ bad behaviour and their even worse response to customer backlash against such behaviour.

The airlines don’t have any say over the TSA. If they did, they’d probably have them charge you for the privilege of being searched.
Anonymous

Anonymous comment #36 -

Feeling up under the bra is the routine standard pat down. If you have underwire, then you will get your boobs lifted and separated. I have asked them to buy me dinner first.

You have a point with her filing sexual assault charges, especially if she is a minor.
Anonymous

This just reconfirms my decision not to fly to this country in particular. Never again :)

Though I have to drive from B.C. to California mid August. I’m uneasy about it. Not bringing my Ipod or Notebook. :(
RikF

“he then took a cotton swab and stuck it into my cast, rubbing against the fresh stitches i had received two days earlier. ”

When they do this you scream sir. You scream your bloody head off. You make it very clear to all around that what is being done to you is unacceptable. Put the spotlight on the bastards.
MarkHB

@59,

I’d love to agree with you, I dearly would. However, there are a large number of people who have to fly to do their jobs. On top of that, when even a Republican administration’s bailing out (for example) banks, then all it’s going to lead to is government subsidies to prop up the system. If you see that behaviour being different under a Democrat administration, well… nah.

I have to be really careful these days, as the stupidity and abuses world-wide really leave a fertile field for my inherent distrust of authority to grow Really Big Crops of paranoia. I keep telling myself that the people in charge aren’t really evil, they’re just stupid.

But it really does sing loudly of 1984, and the adage of “keep ‘em frightened and keep ‘em angry to keep ‘em under control” seems all too fitting.
chgoliz

I’ll bet the rate of complaint is similar to rape; i.e., only a small percentage of victims dare go to authorities. There’s no way there’s only been 110,000 abuses of power. I know I’ve never made a formal complaint: anyone else here? Yet we’ve all experienced or witnessed TSA abuse.

Mine involved being separated from my two young children, including a 1 year old, who were left to wander the airport alone while I was dragged off to the glass room because I showed surprise and hesitated for a second when they asked me to remove my flat beach thong sandals while holding the baby. This was back before taking off shoes was part of the drill.
idunthinkso

So oil is up but lets get at the other reason airlines are struggling…
No ones wants to deal with the TSA!
Less and less people are flying because of these ridiculous standards.
bpt

Ready for the full-body x-rays yet?
Angstrom

“She was yelling ‘I have power, I have power, I have power,”

They hate us for our freedoms.
IWood

#12 spokehedz:

The reason that the TSA sucks so bad is that the angry people who used to work in Lost Luggage now work for the TSA–and they tend to be a bit bitter when it comes to how people treated them for years.

Yeah, that must be it. 8-)
mdhatter

CHGOLIZ, if you assuming you were raped by the police themselves, then you have a good point.

To flog your metaphor: Complaining to the TSA is commonly perceived as equivalent to wearing a micromini and 6 inch heels, then slipping yourslf a mickey at a strip club in a seedy part of Miami.
Tensegrity

But to answer the titular question of why this is happening. It’s really darn simple:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Clay

Ah, I’m going to attempt to expand that revealing little exclaimation:

“I have power, I have power, for the first time in my life, I have power! You don’t know what this means to me, to at last be granted carte blanche to channel my rage from being forced to live on stagnant wages with a skyrocketing cost of living while executives at the top collect the difference! Even though none of them will actually be walking through here because they all fly via private jets, being a casualty of the educational system myself allows me to overlook these distinctions and gleefully direct my misanthropy at all in a truly egalitarian way.”
Takuan

amen brother ,been there!
Lea Hernandez

Speaking as someone who worked security and helped bust a drug dealer and prevented a fire from burning down the only wooden building at a fire testing facility no, businesses don’t want smart security.

I was told, in the case of the dealer, not to call in suspicious vehicles any more, they might be tenants.
In the case of the fire, I got in trouble for calling…that fire department. Instead, I was ordered to put it out myself. We’ll leave how well that turned out at “steam burnt my throat” because I had no fire training.

Employers hire dumb security, wonder why things go wrong, hire smart security and fire them for initiative. If a site manager, and I have no evidence this is any different for the TSA, is on hand when there’s an emergency, their choice will be to do nothing.

I’m SO looking forward to flying the day after tomorrow.
WeightedCompanionCube

Notice the total lack of dates in that story. I get the feeling some of these cases date all the way back to 2001. The last line of the article even nodes that the policy on removing piercings has changed.

That’s what poor journalists do on slow news days: They dredge up old muck about something and make it look like it’s news.
Takuan

“effectively impossible for Americans to go to other countries that aren’t Canada or Mexico.”

ten bucks a gallon will take care of that.

“The construction of public railways will only encourage the lower masses to move about needlessly”
Takuan

oh TSA’ers, the pay-back you are all piling up for yourselves…. How are you going to hide your history when judgment comes? You live among your victims.
tgjerusalem

Boycotting the airlines is pointless. It’s not like we can take our business elsewhere – if someone in the US wants or needs to travel to a country that isn’t Canada or Mexico, flight is their only realistic option.

And millions of people have stopped flying, whether because of the abuses of power or the cost. It doesn’t matter – most Americans don’t even have a passport, flight is treated as a voluntary luxury of the privileged class, and if the number of travelers drops the airlines can just compensate by charging those who still have to fly more, and getting the government to bail them out. It’s not like they’re going to be allowed to shut down entirely.
Todd Sieling

> “She was yelling ‘I have power, I have power, I have power,”

Bin Laden could not have hoped for a more complete capitulation to his world view.
Baldhead

I liked the “common sense” bit. Near as i can tell, people with common sense are not popular in the security industry. They do things like point out that a nail file is as easy to use for violence as, well, ones own hand (jab someone in the neck with a nail file or stiffened fingers… both can kill..) and the near- impossibility of making a liquid explosive bomb triggered by an iPod in the bathroom.
bobert

I watched one of these yesterday at SFO. I had just made it through security and was putting on my shoes when I heard an “official” sounding voice nearby. A 60-ish gentleman was sitting in a chair getting a brief discourse from a TSA agent. The gentleman, who was wearing shorts, then stood up, and his left leg was entirely made of visible metal struts and joints, ending in a tennis shoe. I stayed in the vicinity and watched to make sure nothing untoward was going on. While he was not required to disrobe at all, the TSA agent was astonishingly thorough, and indeed checked every bodily crack and crevice through the clothing, with (it appeared) the sole exception of the gentleman’s crotch.

The gentleman bore it with more equanimity than I would have. If I were in that situation, I would prefer the coming digital X-ray machine.

Following up on a recent post on Bruce Schneier’s blog, has anyone done a cost-benefit analysis on this? (As if…)

And after all the years the government has been doing this, and all the money that’s been poured into it, one would think that they would have come up with a better, less humiliating system, at least for use at major airports like SFO.
Purly

Yes, they do insist you take off articles of clothing even if you have nothing underneath. No they will not do it in a private area even when asked.
Zombie

No matter when this story happened, it’s still terrible. There is no reason for one person to go on a power trip and humiliate another. And a disabled person at that …. with a mother who is severely physically disabled, I know I’m a lot more sensitive to abuses against disabled people then is probably necessary.

Really does the TSA screen candidates to hire only those who are most unsuited for a job working with people? Do they have questions on the application that include “would you step on a newborn kittens skull?” and hire only those who say yes? If you know the meaning of dignity, respect and humanity are you overqualified?
teckels

I wish I could say “I told you so!”. I sent e-mails to everyone I knew. I signed my name to every petition. I joined every anti-bush group out there and I screamed at the top of my lungs! Yet Bush is still in the white house, and this country is defeated. The terrorists have won the game because we now have a president in office who does not think twice about running this nation like the totalitarian state that Iraq used to be, and who has no qualms about violating the constitutional bedrock that our laws and liberties stem from.

We fucked ourselves because nobody took the time to see the reality, instead choosing to buy into the lies of the Bush regime. Now everyone suffers.
Anonymous

I know this might be an overreaction, but at least in the case of the girl that is routinely stripped and groped because of her leg, what would happen if she whipped out a cell phone, dialed 911, and claimed to be being sexually harrassed? I can’t see any reason to do a full body pat-down if the only place that triggers an alarm is her clearly prosthetic leg. I can understand having her remove her pants (although not in public), but feeling her up under her bra (doesn’t that go a little beyond a standard pat down?) is over the line. At the very least, it would be more effective than a standard complaint, and get someone with just as much authority as TSA involved.

I suppose it could backfire if the police decided she filed a false report, but that seems unlikely. If someone’s hands are on your breasts, and you do not want them there, it seems like a resonable claim. Maybe it wouldn’t hold up in court, but I don’t think they could accuse you of lying.
mjc

“out of 2 billion passengers screened nationwide … there have been only 110,000 abuse complaints.”
desiredusername

My girlfriend has panic attacks at the security checkpoint 66% of the time; always the return trip. It’s the only time she gets them. It’s disheartening.
justONEguy

Well, this is depressing.
OM

“In 1 month, if people stopped flying to demonstrate our distaste for these antics, the airlines would be begging congress for another round of bailout funds.”

…Nice in theory, but it doesn’t work in application. The problem is that there isn’t an alternative that supplies the same results with the same expenditures of time and resources. Some people can’t do without air travel for their professions, and are willing to endure the humiliation resulting from these “hire-a-cops” and their attempts to masturbate their egos in order to reach their destination. A boycott of this kind would only work if:

1) Every single air commuter would agree to and adhere to it, with absolutely no exceptions. Mom is dying in California and you’re in NYC? Better call Mom and tell her to not go into the light for a few days, because you’ll be driving or taking the train to get to her bedside in time.

2) The second any of the airlines start whining and begging Congress for funding to help them stay in business, everyone needs to start flooding their respective excuses for “representation” with carefully worded promises that they will not be reelected if they give the airlines one red cent. And at the same time make it *VERY* clear that the only way that air travel will return to normal usage is for the basic rights of air travellers will be unconditionally restored, and that the TSA will be purged of all the “hire-a-cops”. In other words, if you want us to keep the airlines in business, eliminate the hassles that aren’t keeping the airways safe anyway and send the ego-tripping wannabee Gestapo agents back to the malls.

…Of course, this isn’t going to happen. Again, too many people need air travel to do without, and the only thing they *can* do is bitch and demand for change. Voting with your wallet is a nice theory, but in practice it just doesn’t work unless everyone’s subscribing to it. The only compromise would be to continue flying, but every single person who encounters a former school bully now pretending to be a cop at the checkin counter needs to not only file formal complaints against the schmuck, but also needs to file the appropriate lawsuits. Two or three lawsuits the TSA can ignore. 30 to 40 thousand they could not. And remember, for every complaint that is made, there’s at least 15 to 20 that are not.
Cowicide

@ #57 posted by teckels

I think many of us feel the same way and can commiserate with you.

When I feel that way, I tend to listen to this song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiSkyEyBczU

Afterwards, I listen to this song and get back to work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpMuCrbxE8A

Hang in there, the fight’s not over yet.
Oren Beck

Krystallnacht for all approaches.
Caroline

“She was yelling ‘I have power, I have power, I have power.”

I’m really stunned by how pure that is. It’s really not about anything else, is it?
Modusoperandi

The Unusual Suspect “If they did, they’d probably have them charge you for the privilege of being searched.”
I’d pay extra for a happy ending. Heck, the glass walls would just enhance the experience…for everyone. “If you’ve got to fly, put on a show.”, I say.

Ken Hansen “I ask out of curiosity, if I wanted to open a small, private airline (charter?) and run flights arounf the country, would my passengers have to go through TSA inspections, as they do at major airports?”
I had a theory, many moons ago, that Al Qaeda did 9/11 so that they could do that very thing. Now, I’m not saying that you are a member of Al Qaeda. What I’m saying is that since I’ve mention you and Al Qaeda together on the internet, you are now on the No Fly list.
You can thank me later.
Takuan

what is to be done? Extract a promise from your favorite presidential candidate; “I will flush the TSA!” Make lapel pins of a toilet tank handle. Wear them when you travel to show solidarity.
ChaosRob

I will never, ever give an airline another dime until they begin aggressively lobbying for TSA reforms to prevent these insane, unproductive procedures and implement checks on the unaccountable behavior of their agents. You hear me, United? American? Southwest? Not another damned dime.
Peggie

My husband has an artificial knee and has a card from the dr. attesting to such, yet every time we fly they give him the third degree. It is like they want to and get pleasure out of doing this to people.

There is need for safety, but when it goes too far something needs to be done.
Dr Benway

Why is the TSA taking out nipple rings and pantsing amputees?

Because they can.
osifanatic

Ya know…we have the power to stop this.

Don’t fly.

(I can hear the sniveling already)

Seriously. Stop flying.

In 1 month, if people stopped flying to demonstrate our distaste for these antics, the airlines would be begging congress for another round of bailout funds.

My dad has been driving to every cross-country interview, appointment, funeral, etc for over 30 years now (he hates flying). So it’s completely do-able. Yes, we all know gas is not free, but seriously…suck it up. Have some cahones.

If anyone has a distaste for this errant megalomaniacal behavior… stop flying.

I have.

I personally feel just fine about it too.
jazminecat

Why is the TSA taking out nipple rings and pantsing amputees?

because people keep letting them do it. because the rest of the sheeple just stand in line and let it happen.