Our family detests the organization.
I am pleased that an article written by a former TSA employee has hit the main stream airwaves.
In January our family traveled through LaGuardia. B-real refuses the scanner, based on principle, so he had to wait for more than 10 minutes for his personal pat down. I felt like they were penalizing him for choosing not to do the scanner -- by making him wait. B-reals personal items had gone through the x-ray belt and were sitting there for the taking. His wallet, his passport, his work computer. All just sitting there as he was backlogged for exercising his rights.
I inquired as to where he was, because I was able to go through the metal detector with the kids. For some reason the body scanner is not appropriate for children but o.k. for adults? One TSA agent told me had been taken in the back. I asked why and they said because he had refused the scanner. I asked where they had taken him and my latest favorite TSA agent, Victor, said, "I didn't need to worry about him. My husband wouldn't leave me and that he had married me for better or for worse." I was appalled that someone would speak to me in such a way and in front of our children. I told him so and he got in my face. He told me that my husband had to wait if he was going to refuse the scanner, that they had changed and no longer took images of private body parts. He's telling this to me about my husband who has traveled nearly 1 million miles in the past six years. Like he's not up to the date on the technology.
When Victor drew the lucky card to give B-real his pat down, he spoke so rudely to him. Barked at him to remove whatever was in his pockets. Turned out to be his subway map. B-real asked after the pat-down if he could return the map to his pocket. Victor said no and proceeded to rub down the map with some cotton pads. Victor read B-real a riot act about suffering the consequences of refusing the body scanner. Something about how they didn't have enough resources (aka agents), which resulted in his lengthy wait time.
The woman working the x-ray machine continually barked at me to take my husband's stuff off the belt. What would have happened to his stuff had I not been there? It could have easily been taken.
The whole system was/is a joke. I feel embarrassed for people who stand in those body scanner machines with their arms held above their heads, like they are criminals. It won't change unless people start raising a ruckus though, until more people refuse the scanner based on principle. I am proud of my husband and the message he is showing our girls. I am also proud that people stared at our family as we vocally objected to the way we were being treated by these agents of our government. I am proud of my veteran father who refuses to fly and chooses to drive because he vehemently objects to the treatment at airports. How a man who served our country during war time and was given the highest security clearance our government offers can be subjected to such ridicule is insulting.
Stand up for your rights folks. It's the only way the rules will change.
