The answer to why I won’t fly is a simple one: I refuse to be treated like a criminal and am personally offended by the tactics of my government in what is supposed to be a free country.
If you doubt that that’s the case simply take a look at how Transportation Security Agency screeners position would-be air travelers – feet apart, arms extended as they search one’s body with beeping wands or hands. Then compare that with the ‘pat down’ procedures used by real cops. It’s demeaning and, worse yet, puts you in the position of having to prove yourself innocent of any evil intent. Get that? The American presumption of presumed innocence is now gone folks.
If that wasn’t bad enough, now the Feds intend to climb inside your mind. That’s right, a bad attitude toward the thugs who are making you miserable can now net you even more hassles.
TSA has announced SPOT, which stands for a program called Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques. It works by using "specially trained" TSA employees to pick out suspects who exhibit changes in mannerisms or changes in the pitch of a person's voice. If you exhibit those signs expect to be examined more thoroughly.
Let’s look at that more closely. Let’s say you are a woman and the arrogant, badly smelling, TSA screener is running her hands underneath your bra. You are justifiably ticked and you show it. A perfectly natural reaction. However, your gritted-teeth responses are just the thing to trigger SPOT. It’s your day, Cindy, you’ve just moved up a notch on the terrorist scale and your government is going to make the next hours of your life living hell.
I wonder just how civil TSA director Chertoff would be if some slug had his hands down in the Chertoff Jockey shorts? But then, agency heads generally don’t travel tourist class, so it’s probably not an issue.
And, don’t think TSA isn’t an equal opportunity harasser. The agency plans to put its program into train and bus stations. I just wonder what the response to the program will be when it encounters a smoked up schizophrenic trying to ride the hound from Mesa to Tucson.
Fact is, folks, when your government climbs inside your shorts, your bra or your head, no matter the justification, it’s gone too far. Way too far.
Arjay
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