At the Airport, You Better Smile: 1984 + 23

[David Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: David Chessler <chessler () usa net>
Date: August 22, 2007 7:58:35 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: [AL]  At the Airport, You Better Smile: 1984 + 23

* Original: FROM..... Dick

Behavior Detection Officers.  The question is, once they decide you  
may be a terrorist, what happens to you in this Brave New World of  
the Unitary Executive, restricted rights and disappearing people...

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At the Airport, You Better Smile
‘Behavior Detection Officers’ are now watching passengers’ facial
expressions for signs of danger. ItÂ’s a new level of absurdity for
America.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Patti Davis
Special to Newsweek
Updated: 6:40 a.m. HT Aug 16, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20298840/site/newsweek/page/0/

It was bound to happen. Now even a frown or grimace can get you into  
trouble with The Man.

“Specially trained security personnel” will be watching passengers  
for “micro-expressions” that will reveal treacherous agendas and  
insidious intentions at airports around the country. These agents,  
who may literally hold your fate in their hands have been given a  
lofty, Orwellian name: "Behavior Detection Officers."

Did anyone ever doubt that George Orwell’s prophecies in “1984”  
would arrive? In that novel, he wrote, "You had to live -- did live,  
from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound  
you made was overheard and, except in darkness, every movement  
scrutinized.”"

In the study of “micro-expressions”—yes, it is actually a field of  
study and there are some who are arrogant enough to call it a  
science it has been decided that when people wish to conceal  
emotions, the truth of their feelings is revealed in facial flashes.  
These experts have determined that fear and disgust are the key  
things to look for because they can hint of deception.

Let's see, fear and disgust in an airport? I'm frightened and  
disgusted weeks before I have to show up at an airport. In fact, I've  
pretty much sworn off the whole idea of going anywhere by airplane.  
It's bad enough that I might be trapped in a crowded plane with no  
food or water and nonworking toilets for hours; now there are  
security agents interpreting our facial expressions. The face police,  
in place at more than a dozen U.S. airports already, aren't  
identified as such. But the watcher could be at curbside baggage, the  
ticket counter or near the metal detectors and X-ray machines. The  
Transportation Security Administration hopes to have as many as 500  
Behavior Detection Officers on the job by the end of 2008.

But what about the woman who is getting on a plane to see a dying  
relative? Or the man who is traveling to another state to see a  
cancer specialist in a last bid for extending his life? What about  
the guy who just had a fight with his spouse and now worries that a  
plane crash would mean their last words were in anger? We've all had  
the experience of having a bad day, being in a rotten mood --  
especially at the airport, which has become a modern-day chamber or  
horrors. On those days, doesn't it seem like everyone we meet looks  
sour and unpleasant? The opposite is also true. When weÂ’re happy and  
joyful, we look at others and see happiness in them. Or even if we  
don't, we look at them kindly and with compassion. It's human nature  
to look at others through the lens of our own reality.

Here's where it gets really absurd. Apparently, these Behavior  
Detection Officers work in pairs. One scenario is that an officer  
might move in to “help” a passenger retrieve their belongings after  
they've been screened. And then the officer will ask where the  
passenger is headed. If the passengerÂ’s reaction sets off alarm  
bells in the officer's well-trained mind, another officer will move  
in and detain them. Let's be really clear here. If a stranger moved  
in on me like that, I'd tell that person to go to hell, throw in a  
few other expletives for good measure and probably give them the  
finger as I stomped off. Of course, I wouldn't be stomping very far.

So while TSA employees are confiscating our scissors and water  
bottles, they're going to secretly be staring at us, looking for some  
telltale sign of terrorist intent in a grimace, a sigh, a crinkled  
nose? Who knows what? In the end, the Behavior Detection Officers are  
the ones who are really acting suspicious. Which is the truth of the  
matter anyway.




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