On Tuesday, Gizmodo published a story regarding the first body scans leaked by the TSA in Florida.
This administration completely and utterly slacked off if they allowed any other government agency (let alone a blog) obtain images from what American citizens believed to be private documentation.
So much for the Fourth Amendment and in case you need a reminder, the Fourth Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights in our Constitution. The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. It was adopted as a response to the abuse of the writ of assistance, which is a type of general search warrant, in the American Revolution.
We have to ask ourselves: at what point do these body scans become an unreasonable search?
(Sighs) unfortunately, I have had such an encounter with the TSA. When we were coming back from our honeymoon last month I had to go through one of these scanners. I was wearing tight jeans, an even tighter t-shirt, and sandals. Granted I was still in honeymoon mode and my outfit left very little to the imagination.
However, after stepping through this scanner, a female TSA agent still ran her gloved hand over my clothing. There was absolutely no way I could have a bomb or any sort of terroristic device on my scantily-clad person. One could argue that this search was unreasonable.
Life as we know it was changed forever on September 11, 2001, but it’s been almost a decade and at some point our government needs to start applying common sense and practical reasoning to its security practices at airports. Airlines themselves are hurting economically and unless the government can make airline travel an enjoyable experience again the airlines will only continue to plummet into a downward spiral.
Can we have a revolution? One Blogger, "Johnny Edge" was daring enough to refuse both the TSA body scanner and pat-down, left the terminal to head home, and then was threatened with a $10,000 fine by a TSA official.
http://gawker.com/5689925/man-threatened-with-10000-fine-after-refusing-tsa-gropeIf anything, this proves that the TSA not only lacks clear standards but (like most government agencies) operates completely inefficiently.
(Sigh again) at this point, there's nothing I can do except refuse to fly. In journalism school we were taught to cry "foul" on behalf of the American public, a right bestowed by the First Amendment. Why isn't the national press calling foul on the TSA? No one owns pitchforks anymore so we can't crowd the streets in angry masses, pitchforks flying, and demand justice. But the press needs to use the right of the First Amendment. Newspapers, magazines, broadcast stations, radio networks, websites, bloggers - unite!
Someone, anyone, everyone, call foul on the unreasonable searches of the TSA!
No comments:
Post a Comment