Tag Archives: pat-downs

Emil Guillermo’s Amok: Since when did the “S” in TSA stand for sex? On pat-downs, victimization, and oh yes, that thing called the Fourth Amendment

So are you going through security this week in nothing but your birthday suit in protest to those pat-downs? Or do you want the pat-down?

Do you think some lonely people are taking red-eyes just for the late night pat-down?

Read my take on the TSA issue on the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund site’s blog at

http://www.aaldef.org/blog/

Strange how the new angle being reported this morning  is about the “poor abused TSA agent,” as if victimization will get them some sympathy. It’s not my fault they end up being the face and fingers of a hapless bureaucracy.

A frequent flyer I know today in Florida told me how clueless these people really are.  A lot depends on who you get and where you are. These people are human, not robots. So the chances of getting a closet sex offender is actually pretty high. The flyer I know said she went through a full body scan and then was told she had to do the pat-down too. A double dose of intrusion.

When the flyer protested, TSA backed down. So now it’s optional? Or were they overreaching for the pat-down? Do you get the sense they are making it up as they go?

So be assertive. Know your rights.

Funny how most stories never mention anything about the Fourth Amendment and illegal search. Is all that out the window? It isn’t unless you want to give up your rights freely.

Also note how the leading voices on this issue against the pat-downs seems to be Republicans. I haven’t heard many Democrats speak out against it. And Obama? From this weekends comments, he feels your pain, flyer. But the grope? The green light’s still on.