more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Rob McMillin <rlm () pricegrabber com>
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2005 07:33:01 -0800
To: <dave () farber net>
Cc: Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt () aclu org>, Esther Dyson
<edyson () edventure com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport

David Farber wrote:

> ------ Forwarded Message
> *From: *Barry Steinhardt <bsteinhardt () aclu org>
> *Date: *Sat, 25 Dec 2004 12:09:01 -0500
> *To: *Esther Dyson <edyson () edventure com>
> *Cc: *<dave () farber net>
> *Subject: *Re: [IP] DO READ THIS DJF -- Aggressive Searches Pat-down
> Searches/Sexual Harassment at the Airport
>
> Esther,
>
> Happy New Year!
>
> We met with the TSA last week and astoundingly they have no statistics
> on how many searches have been conducted at each airport or what the
> ratio is between men and women.
>
> They did tell us that the TSA screeners had been told to pick out
> passengers with an "unnatural physical form" -- a judgement that seems
> to be entirely idiosyncratic, albeit  skewed to women as the screeners
> seem particularly focused on breasts.
>
> We have logged a hundred + complaints from flyers around the country.
> The TSA admitted last week that they have received 400.  All of ours,
> so far, have been from women, who range in age from 23 to 93. Many of
> them are business travellers, who report repeated instances of
> "groping" --the most frequent word we hear.
>
> My 16 year daughter having read all the news accounts is now refusing
> to fly anywhere for vacation. Apparently she is not the only woman to
> have made that judgement and the airlines are not happy either.
>
> Please do let me know if you have any troubling experiences.

Nothing nearly this bad, but returning home from Arkansas yesterday, I
had a TSA officer complain -- with great hostility -- at the way I took
my boarding pass back from me! Good lord, they ask us to take our shoes
off, take off our coats, and now they think they're tin gods? No wonder...

Still waiting for an explanation how any of this is improving actual
security...

------ End of Forwarded Message


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