When the TSA is questioned on its procedures, its first go-to excuse is that they’re keeping us safe. If you press harder, a favorite second-line rationale is that they need to treat everyone the same – even toddlers and the elderly – because the alternative would be “racial profiling.”
Sure, the TSA may be treating everyone the same. That doesn’t mean they’re being treated equally, however. Some people are more vulnerable than others. I’ve already touched on the likelihood that a grope search would trigger a rape survivor’s trauma. Newsweek has a good in-depth analysis of this issue.
I’d argue that children are also vulnerable to being traumatized. Two nights ago, in response to an adult conversation that in retrospect I wish I’d postponed until after the kids were in bed, my eleven-year-old son, the Bear, said: “Do you remember when the security guy searched inside my waistband in Belgium? Are they going to do that to me again?” His eyes welled up. Granted, he cries easily – a trait he inherited from his mother – but he seemed deeply upset at the prospect of a replay.
Now, imagine a child who’s actually been sexually abused. How will she or he react to being groped, no matter how officially and “professionally?”
Today, TSA head John Pistole (is that a pistole in your pocket? … oh never mind) told an NPR interviewer that children twelve and under would be exempted from the enhanced pat-down:
We did not do frankly a very good job of communicating initially that there would be an exemption, if you will, from the thorough pat-down for children 12 and under. That was under review when the policy came out, and so we have clarified that. It does not apply to children 12 and under.
Frankly, I don’t think that this exemption existed until today. Goldblog cites an incident about ten days ago where an eight-year-old boy was selected for secondary screening after he went through the metal detector. Yes, the boy’s genitals were checked, and his father was appalled. I suspect Pistole’s volte-face (or flip-flop, for the Francophobes still out there!) is a reaction to the public anger about subjecting children to intrusive groping. I think he and Janet Napolitano realized that anything smacking of pedophilia could doom their program. Hence the age of thirteen, when, apparently, children are no longer children. But pray tell how, exactly, a thirteen-year-old will process the experience differently than a twelve-year-old?
While there’s been an upswell in outrage about children being groped, there’s been almost no public attention to another group that will suffer disproportionately: people who are trans or intersex, or who for whatever reason don’t conform to sex/gender expectations. A couple of days ago, GallingGalla left a comment here that vividly highlighted the real dangers and humiliations awaiting her:
Apparently, TSA considers us to be terrorists simply by our existence, as they have issued directives indicating that people dressing in what they, the TSA, perceives to be the “wrong” clothing are more likely to be terrorists. I guess, since they think that trans women are “really men”, we must be hiding bad things in our lady clothes.
Along with that, I shudder to think about the harassment and sexual assault that is *sure* to follow the discovery of “non-standard” genitals.
It is because of back-scatter machines and pat-downs that I do not fly. I don’t have the privilege to “opt-out”; I simply *cannot* fly, as my very person will be in danger.
How long will it be before photos of people stripped naked by back-scatter machines wind up on 4chan or local “she-male” porn sites?
Of course, the TSA policy both taps into and reinforces the trope of the “deceptive” trans person. It sets trans passengers up for public humiliation and violence. TSA personnel are not even trained to search a child with sensitivity. What are the odds that they will react calmly and reasonably to non-standard genitals?
Trans men are worried too, as evidenced by this anonymous comment at BoingBoing:
I’m a trans man (FtM transsexual), and I’ve NEVER packed when I go to the airport b/c I’m sure my dick would show up looking like plastic explosive in my pants. My home airport only has the n00dscanners, so now I am not entirely sure what I should do. Either way, it looks like I’m destined for molestation at the airport. Pack, and be singled out for a pat-down based on what shows up on the scanner, or not pack and have the TSO end up concerned/confused when the “enhanced” pat-down turns up the fact that I don’t have any balls for “resistance”.
I have a flight planned in January. I’m pretty nervous about it.
Those are pretty terrible choices. And in case anyone was reassured by the blurriness of the naked-scanner images that had been stored at a Florida courthouse and leaked yesterday by Gizmodo? The resolution on those is much lower than the machines are capable of delivering. The TSA has told the New York Times that the machines are able to image a sanitary pad. They weren’t able to say, however, whether the pad would trigger an enhanced pat-down.
Update 11/17/10, 11:10 p.m.: Edited above to add the material from Goldblog, where he notes that the war on terror is colliding with the war on pedophilia – and so far, terror is winning.
Update 11/22/10, 10:40 a.m.: See also this post by Rebecca at The Thang Blog on how the new procedures have effectively grounded her as a trans woman.
Update 11/22/10, 3:30 p.m.: … and similarly, this piece by Bridgette P. LaVictoire at Lezget Real, who stresses the humiliation and danger to which she’ll be exposed. The mainstream media remains (predictably) silent.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
Yes, I’d LOVE to know why it isn’t being considered, other than the obvious, bigoted, ignorant reasons.
I have an old friend who resettled in Israel 10 years ago. I asked him if he had been following the uproar over the nude body scanners and invasive TSA pat-downs. This was his response:
“The security in the Israeli airport is much different. They ask you a bunch of questions and profile you plus they have hidden sharpshooters around the place. It works. They also have security guards for malls, restaurants, banks, schools, etc. They just wand you up and down, ask if you have a gun and you’re on your way. It kind of makes you feel safe.”
I wouldn’t be opposed to profiling as long as it didn’t wear ethnic blinders. Generally speaking, I think the emphasis on intelligence rather than technology is correct. I don’t know enough about the specifics of the Israeli model to take a strong position, but it’s at least telling that Ben Gurion doesn’t have naked scanners.
Sungold, the new procedure for children under 12 is absolutely, entirely, 100% because of the public backlash. Pistole is trying to pretend that the under-12 exemption has always been the case. What a crock of shit. We’ve all seen the video of the poor 3-year-old girl being manhandled by a TSA goon, while her mother tries to hold her (and I don’t know how that mother kept her cool, I really don’t). Are we supposed to believe that, out of 2 million air passengers a day, that’s the only time this has ever happened? He really does think we’re fools.
And that interview he did on NPR?? My god, the sleaziness. As one commenter at their site put it, he should go on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ so adept was he at sidestepping questions and speaking for almost six minutes without saying anything. Except this: We have the power; you don’t. Deal with it.
I wanted to go scrub myself down with Lava soap after listening to Pistole’s interview, but I’m not even sure you can buy that stuff anymore. I just kept thinking, “weasel, weasel, weasel.”
It’s a *total* crock. That video of a 3-year-old is older than the new policy, I believe, but in any case it goes to show that the TSA hasn’t even a whiff of an idea how to deal with children.
Had I been that mother, I might very well be in prison. I’m a pretty mild-mannered person, but the closest I’ve ever come to violence is when someone has infringed on my children. I once nearly jumped on a guy in the Berlin subway who was getting kind of grabby in my kids’ general direction. He was at least drunk and probably pretty far removed from reality, but that didn’t especially reassure me. I can imagine dropping my child and lunging at that TSA goon.
Sungold, yes, any mother, I think, would be inclined to react that way, and for good reason.
I think this shows, really to a frightening degree, how cowed people are by the supposed authority of the TSA. The fact that not only that mother didn’t object, but also the mother of the 10-year-old disabled girl, already a victim of extreme abuse, at National Airport — I posted it at the Cogblog, can’t remember if I posted it somewhere here — if not:
http://inciid.blogspot.com/2010/08/tsa-violates-10-year-old-child-at.html
I can only hope the backlash continues. Did you see that the pilots have finally won the right to fly without being assaulted by the TSA? The pilots, for god’s sake. And it took them TWO YEARS of fighting! Though the recent nationwide backlash is what really fueled the decision. Pistole and his minions backed down purely and only because of the backlash. Otherwise, the pilots would still be fighting.
As for the flight attendants, most of whom are still, let’s face it, women, the struggle continues. They are still getting groped and assaulted by the TSA.
[...] No one – regardless of their physical ability – deserves humiliation. The TSA may appear to be applying policies “consistently” by not exempting passengers with disability or medical conditions, but the ultimate effect is profoundly discriminatory. If you wear a prosthesis or an ostomy bag, your choice is to face humiliation – or remain grounded, regardless of how far away you live from loved ones. The ableist impact of the TSA procedures is yet another instance of ostensibly “same” treatment resulting in gross inequalities. [...]
Ok, long rant, but I’d like to mention that intrusive searches and police monitoring and control of our movements extends beyond air travel, and the push for further monitoring and control at all levels of government continues. What’s happening at the TSA is just part of the picture of increasing police intrusiveness into our lives.
I will note that these automated strip-search scanners are in use at courthouses also, and while one can avoid flying, if one has a court case, one can’t exactly not go to court, especially if one is a defendant or witness or has been subpoenaed.
I wonder how long it will be before the Feds mandate the same screening for Amtrak.
Given the London Tube bombings of 7 July 2005 and the highly invasive “security”-theatre measures imposed by the British government, I wonder how long it will be before the Feds mandate intrusive screening of mass-transit passengers.
In my home city, Philadelphia, PA, the police (apparently taking their clue from England) have installed cameras on many street corners, supposedly to curb the drug trade. I’d like someone to tell me that there’s no racism and classism involved in the fact that most of these cameras are located in poor-to-working-class neighorhoods that are majority POC, including my neighborhood (disclosure: I am white; I live in a majority Black working-class neighborhood).
Not to mention that PennDOT has cameras and EZPass* detectors all over the freeways in this state, ostensibly to monitor traffic conditions and calculate average travel times, but there’s nothing to stop police from tracking people’s travel by this means. (It’s why I have so far refused to sign up for EZPass program; it gives the police one less tool to track me).
Also: Arizona SB1070. ‘Nuf said about that one.
*EZPass is the automated toll-payment system in place throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic states. To use EZPass (and similar systems elsewhere in the US), you place a tag on your windshield that is read by detectors; it allows you to pass through the tolls without stopping, and the tolls are deducted from your account automatically. It’s a great convenience, and obviously the detectors are needed at toll booths on tolled roads – but PennDOT is installing these readers on freeways – non-tolled roads ostensibly for calculating travel speeds. But it does so by tracking the progress of individual cars uniquely identified by the tags. As Pennsylvania at least is interested in removing the ability to pay cash fare and force everyone to use EZPass, there’s a problem here, yeah?
gallingalla,
I agree that TSA abuse and intrusiveness is on a continuum — beginning with the noxiously titled ‘Patriot Act’ — and I agree that the airport molestation follies are only the first step — coming soon to a theater, stadium, mall, bus/train/metro station near you. We need to fight this.
But I think we have to be reasonable. If you’re afraid of the govt — *or, more important, corporations* — tracking your every move, then you have to opt out of EVERYTHING. No credit cards, no bank accounts, no on-line shopping, no gas & electric bill, no water bill, no on-line persona (that, too, can be traced), etc. etc. Everything’s computerized these days; that’s the world we’re living in. So to compare EZPass to the stripsearch scanners is, I’m afraid, not only hyperbolic, but it detracts from the seriousness of this issue.
As a longtime vocal opponent of the nonsensical TSA procedures, I’m still a modern citizen. I love EZPass, I shop at eBay, I book hotels on-line, I use a cråedit card, I’m speaking out at this blog. My digital imprint — and yours — is everywhere. Unless you want to live in the wilderness, grow and harvest your own plants, raise and cultivate your own animals, provide your own energy and water, never use a telephone, certainly not a computer, and walk everywhere (can’t let the MVA see your info), then you have to make a distinction between gross abuse of our civil liberties and the rudiments of modern life. It doesn’t help the cause to conflate the two.
Point taken. You’re right, I’m not going to withdraw from modern life, and the TSA scanners are (at this time, anyway) a very serious threat and are nothing short of automated sexual assault, and I apologize for downplaying that.