Don’t Let Strip-and-Grope Become the New Normal starts off with a scary scenario:
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The middle-aged man in the blue shirt spoke gently, but directly, to Tabitha, as if he had done this a thousand times before with 12-year-old girls like her. In words tailored to her understanding, and designed to make what he was about to do seem normal, not creepy, the man in the blue shirt made it clear that if she didn’t do as he instructed she would not get to go to Disneyland. He merely wanted to show another man what was under Tabitha’s blouse and panties. Her refusal was so firm, and her face so alarmed, that he backed off and tried another tactic. If Tabitha would merely stand still while one of the man’s friends touched her body all over (caressing her in ways that no one ever had) then that would be the end of it, and she could go to Disneyland.
If this were a “real” story, it would likely end in prison terms for the man in the blue shirt and his friends, and a lifetime of psychological problems for Tabitha.
It’s not real … but it is true. It’s an intentionally provocative fictional dramatization of the new airline security protocol used by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
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Go read the whole column.
In an effort to "protect" us, the government is becoming more and more invasive. I'm not sure how to effectively oppose this, but for now I may contact a few airline companies and tell them I am cutting back on my use of their services.
(Hat tip: Instapundit)
3 comments:
Could I suggest including a quick one line warning above this post for young readers and readers who may be upset/triggered by that sort of dramatization. I know you mean well, I haven't missed the point, but as a victim of childhood abuse I would have been better reading this post at another time, when in a more safe mindset.
As for the actual airport thing, isn't there still rules about strip searches only being conducted by same gender officers? But it's still quite a scary thing. In Australia, despite popular belief we don't actually have the same freedoms as America. A police officer here has the legal right to search a car or anywhere else except the home without a warrant, and a home can be searched with a good reason and a justice of the peace signature. At least you guys have a constitutional argument against it.
Sadly, the government is imposing regulations that will, in the long term, hurt the airline companies. Of course, none of the cretins in the TSA will lose jobs over it. And many Americans are restricting their flying--another imposition of government into our private lives. Make flying inaccessible to those who refuse the profane abuse of privacy and maybe we'll all just stay put.
There is NO WAY i would take my kids on a flight with this. And I wouldn't go either. Ridiculous.
abba12, as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse I understand what you are saying.
When we take my mother to the airport after a visit we will no longer be able push her wheelchair to the terminal. We used to have to furnish picture ID, including the 12 year old. I guess now we will have to wait for an airline employee to take her, but they will not sit with there and make sure she eats her snack and generally drink in the last minutes of her before she is off again.
The last time my mother's undergarments triggered a pat down, she is almost 80 years old, in a wheelchair. She survived bombings in WWII, and saw her country become a democracy where she thought she would be free until her last days, but now that she can barely walk she presents a threat?
We will not be flying. Does this curtail our activities, our lives? Perhaps. But we are prepared to live with our decision.
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