I left the US on the first day of the new “enhanced” security procedures, and I haven’t been back yet. So for the last four months my parting memory of my government has been this:
I’m in line for the metal detector. A female TSA officer tells me I “need” to remove my (not bulky) overshirt and put it in the bin, leaving me in just a soft t-shirt. Now that I’m halfway stripped, a male TSO comes up and tells me that I “need” to leave the metal detector line and instead go through the new strip-search scanner.
At the scanner I say I “need” to opt out, and I’m told to wait in an unmarked but apparently very special spot. I’m scowled at and pointedly corrected when I don’t instantly understand where I’m supposed to go. From the very special spot, I can’t see my things on the X-ray belt. After I complain, the TSO lets me move slightly to the right. Now I can see the bin that I think contains my laptop, but I can’t see my laptop inside. Other passengers are passing by and often block my view of all of my things.
A female TSO comes to give me the “enhanced pat-down.” Other passengers watch as she rubs my butt and breasts.
At the X-ray, another passenger begins to place an empty bin on the bin that contains my laptop. I want to leave the very special spot and stop her but I’m in the middle of being groped. Luckily she notices her mistake and moves along, but it looks like a dandy way to steal laptops.
When my grope is done and I’m allowed to collect my things from the pile-up they caused on the X-ray belt, I hear TSOs barking angry orders. They’re yelling at a little old man who they’ve put in the strip-search scanner. He didn’t empty his pockets beforehand. He doesn’t understand English, so they yell louder.
Not surprisingly, when it’s time for him to go to the very special spot, he also can’t find it, and TSOs angrily point and yell, “STAND RIGHT THERE!” He’s hunched, feeble, tottering, smiling in confusion, trying to obey these inexplicably yelling Americans. Finally a passenger who speaks French is allowed to approach and translate for him.
My grope was pointless — the whole security show is pointless — but the way they treated that innocent old man was beyond offensive.
The ACLU and other organizations have collected many reports of the TSA seeming to prey on weaker people, including the elderly and people with medical devices.
Now I avoid US air travel as much as possible, because participation in the system is too much like approval.
My first challenge came when I needed to go from Mérida to London. To get from Mérida to anywhere north, you need to change planes in Houston or Miami. Instead, I took a 4.5-hour bus to Cancún and flew direct from there. British Airways and a Mexican bus company got my business instead of US airlines and airports.
Now I need to go to Florida, the midwest, and DC in rapid succession. Amtrak or driving will be too slow, so it looks like I’ll soon be watching my government’s representatives humiliate strangers. What a nice welcome “home.”
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