Your alternate plan which makes this acceptable? A heavy pat down, which involves 3 separate pats to the front and back of your personal space, for a hold of 3 seconds, and the right to strip you immediately there in a crowded room if they have an suspicion or have any difficulty. (its been done to children, elderly people, wheelchair bound, and cancer patients).
Doesn’t look like much of a choice does it? The pat downs were enforced even more after a large protest against the TSA scanners, the idea from the government is to make the pat downs so grimy and discomforting that in the future you plan to simply just walk through the revealing scanners.
Here is the problem: radiation. Sickly, elderly and people with lots of exposure to radiation are forced to go to the pat-downs and here do not have a choice for a less invasive process. (so they not be stripped like animals in front of the travelers in line)
Here our first good news: the government is double downing after fighting hard for several months that there is nothing wrong with such processes (which they are exempt from) but now that airports are against them (probably due to decline in air traffic) the government is starting to take a new tone. Now instead of replacing all metal detectors with the TSA scanners, they are actually considering to remove most of the scanners in the airports.
No details were given. I am curious if they will spread them out as an alternate route for passengers to go through the lines much more speedily. Still invasive, but if they can get you to give up privacy for comfort they can break you into it slowly so you don’t even realize you are giving up your rights and freedom.
[conversation i stumbled across on a facebook wall]
