I’ve been posting up a storm about why the new TSA body scanners are unethical and arguably illegal (and I’m not done yet). If you agree that the TSA has violated a line that should not be crossed in a democratic country that ostensibly values human rights, here are a few things you can do.
Right now, you can complain (politely) to the chair of the Senate transportation committee, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (WV), at 202-224-6472. The committee is holding an oversight meeting on the TSA tomorrow morning (Wed., Nov. 17) at 10 a.m. I just called and they were very nice to me, even though I’m not a West Virginia constituent. You can also go to the National Opt-Out Day website and see if your state has a senator on the committee. The site provides contact info for all committee members. I’ll probably call at least a couple of the senators from the states where I’ve got a personal history (North Dakota and California).
I just mentioned National Opt-Out Day in passing. This is a concerted effort to get passengers who are outraged about the TSA’s procedures to opt out on November 24. I don’t know the fellow behind National Opt-Out Day, Brian Sodegren, but he appears to be just one guy, not an organization, which makes me tend to think he’s just a fed-up citizen and not a minion of the Freepers, for instance. His website doesn’t sound any obvious right-wing dog-whistles, and a quick Google search doesn’t flag Sodegren as any flavor of extremist. Even if he were a Freeper, though, I’d be happy to make common cause on this issue, because civil liberties don’t belong to any particular political constituency. I’m staying home for Thanksgiving, but if I were traveling, I’d definitely join in. I hope the protest will call attention to TSA abuses and wake up some Americans who up until now simply trusted that everything the TSA does should make us safer.
Some people are choosing to boycott flying until the new policies are rescinded. I can’t do that because I need to visit family on the other side of the country, but if you want to join them – or even if you just want to follow breaking news on these issues – check out their Facebook page, We Won’t Fly. I agree with commenter Mark (who brought the page to my attention) that we need to act on a number of fronts. The intent of this tactic is to put pressure on the airlines and other branches of the travel industry, which will then put pressure on the government.
When I fly on December 2, I plan to opt out. I’ll politely but firmly state that I do not consent to having my breasts or genitals touched, I’m merely not resisting. I’ll also decline my “right” to be hand-screened in a private space, which only removes accountability. We have the right to a witness in private screening, but I’m flying alone, and I don’t consider a second TSA screener an impartial witness. Let the world see what the TSA is doing! The violation is in the invasive touching, not in the view that onlookers will get. If I’m subjected to invasive screening, I will document it. I’ll ask to lodge a complaint with the TSA. I’ll register it with the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s incident reports. (EPIC is suing to have the scanners removed from service). I’ll also report it to the ACLU. I’ll call my senator, Sherrod Brown. And of course I’ll blog about it!
I also thought about wearing only a swimsuit under my coat the next time I fly. This would underscore the ludicrousness of patting someone down when every curve and bump is visible. But overt protest actions only make sense if you can get them filmed, and I’m unfortunately traveling solo. (Also, I really do need to get to California, so getting kicked off the flight is not an option.) It turns out that one of Germany’s fringe political parties, the Pirates, beat me to the idea.
If you’ve got more ideas, leave them in comments, and I’ll do a follow-up post.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
I love it! (Maybe I just love Berliners, who knows. I should go back some time.)
Somehow I thought you’d like this, since you were already on the trail of the nekkid protest. I lived in Berlin during the 1990s, and I get back there most years in the summer because I married a German. (We live in Ohio now.) Just seeing Tegel Airport makes me stupidly sentimental.
Sungold, as you know, I’m as furious about these abuses as you are. I wrote (via their websites) my Senators and Congressman today, and I continue to keep blogging about it, no matter how annoying it may be to some people who can’t get it through their thick skulls what’s at stake here.
But though I won’t give up, there are times when I think that this country is getting exactly what it deserves. And reading this comment in the NYT was one of those times:
3.
Gimme a break
Chicago
November 16th, 2010
10:46 am
This past Thursday while waiting to board a flight from Tucson to Chicago I witnessed two women who were thoroughly patted down per the new regs with a new twist, both women were asked if they minded a quick peek into their panties. The looks on their faces spoke a thousand words. They both apparently submitted to this intrusion, but were very unsettled. One women was 40 ish the other, older at maybe 65-70. Give me a break.
By the way men were not observed being checked this way.
http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/15/the-full-body-backlash/?scp=3&sq=tsa&st=cse
Cool. Our congresscritters need to hear from us. (Lieberman excepted; he is just a pissant and that’s all he’ll ever be.) I actually had a really nice talk with the kid representing Byron Dorgan – laid out my North Dakotan heritage, and I think my comment might make it through the non-constitutent filter.
Thanks for the link back to 538. I read so much stuff today, and I later thought of that panty comment for a possible future post, but I’d forgotten where I saw it.
I’m not so sure sex discrimination is the only thing at work here, though, because men are getting the same treatment. My own son (who was then 8 or 9) got it from a Belgian security agent. He’s still upset about that, and I’m still pissed.
Re: getting what we deserve: Why did no one speak up when those women were forced into a panty check?
Oh, of course I know men are also being abused by this, it’s just that this comment popped out at me.
You’ll be interested to know that I’m engaged in an email exchange contretemps as we speak with a friend who’s a well-known TV journalist but who’s also a security cheerleader. I quote from her email: “I don’t believe that for one second.”
My response: “I know. Because the concept of people abusing their power is so unheard of.”
My next reply when she writes back with yet another clueless, TSA-defending message will be five words: “Philip Zimbardo. Stanford Prison Experiment.”
Zimbardo was my Psych 1 prof in college. What I remember best is the day he tried to hypnotize all of us in a lecture hall that held 500. I was in the front row but it still didn’t work.
Gosh, I’d love to hear what Zimbardo would say about this business.
I can’t imagine it’s easy for every TSA screener to sleep at night these days. Surely some of them are troubled or disgusted or just pissed off at their lot. But Zimbardo’s experiment suggests that many – or most – will be seduced by their newfound power.
Wow. You were actually in his class? I’m not fit to touch your hem!
But it’s great to hear that somebody else out there knows who Zimbardo is and the significance of his famous experiment. I’m going to post it on the Cogblog in case other readers don’t know about it. As for his opinion on all this TSA bullshit, I can’t believe he would see it as anything but the abuse it is.
Oh, and the TV journalist friend wrote back insisting that because she flies several times a week and has never seen any abusive behavior, therefore it doesn’t happen. There’s great logic for you: because it hasn’t happened to me, therefore it doesn’t happen! Reminds me of Katie Roiphe when she wrote her notorious first book — ‘well, none of my friends ever told me they were raped, therefore how could so many girls be getting raped?!’
Well, I flew on October 21 and 24, and also saw nothing amiss – but the pat-down procedure only changed on or around Nov. 1. So if your journalist friend hasn’t flown in November, she hasn’t seen the new pat-downs.
But journalists have become a funny breed. So many of them are timid, intent on not rocking the boat at all costs.
Oh, and I took Zimbardo’s class along with about 500 other students that quarter. That definitely makes me a special snowflake!
Hi Sungold,
Today I read of a spontaneous protest that took place in Belgium on a Ryanair flight. The flight had been delayed 3 hours on the ground forcing a redirect to Belgium at which point the passengers all missed their connecting flight to Paris. (most were French) The passengers then refused to disembark from the jet, staging a 4 hour protest. Something like that has to happen here in the U.S.
Here is the link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101117/ts_afp/belgiumirelandprotestairlinecompanyryanair
Oh, you gotta love the French! If they’d had a mountain of butter in the galley, they would have used that in their protest too – some way, somehow.
Sometimes I think the demonization of the French after 9/11 has something to do with the fact that the French populace acts a lot less like sheeple than we Americans do.
Sungold, can’t get embed code from YouTube, but watch:
New Jersey Legislators Take on the TSA
Hmm, somehow this managed to embed anyway. Good! I loved this at your place and will make use of it in my next post, I think.
[...] Action you can take (as of mid-November 2010) [...]
Traveled from Kauai, HI to LA yesterday and opted out of the radiation machine. Submitted to an enhanced pat down. I was touched on my genitals inappropriately. No, not touched, more like pressing inwards. I am a older woman, very American, never in my whole life treated like this. What can I do? I have logged a complaint with the TSA and ACLU. Government sanctioned sexual assault. What next – full body cavity searches?
So sorry that you were mistreated. I’m glad you filed complaints. Lately I’ve been hearing from friends that have passed through airports where the body scanners were roped off and out of commission, and I had hoped that the TSA was quietly backing off on these abusive practices. I’m very sorry to hear they are still going on in some airports.