Spiff

Daily Breeze Article (picked up from NY Times)

Third weekly article by Joe Sharkey

"Most of the women interviewed said they did not make formal complaints, most saying that they assumed it would be futile to do so. Maurer said she and some other women she had spoken to were wary of complaining in writing, both because of the presumed futility and from fear of being singled out when they travel in the future.

"There is this thing about putting your name out there," she said. "Am I going to end up on some kind of list?"

So far, the protests have been mostly rumblings, but Norman Siegel, a prominent New York civil rights lawyer, has been retained by Rhonda L. Gaynier, who said she recently decided to go public with her objections to routinely receiving "a breast exam in public" at airports. He has assembled a legal team to research grounds for a class-action lawsuit."

Sign me up, even though I'm a male. I'll post if I can get Norman Siegel's contact information. This harassment has to stop!

JennyElf

You know it's interesting.
I flew only a few weeks after September 11th. I had an interview in Seattle, I live in Boston, didn't have a choice if I wanted to make it. Flying then didn't make me apprehensive (well the nice men with M-16s weren't exactly reassuring, but it wasn't too bad).

I've been flying ever since I was a little kid (like 1 or 2 years old). In general, I have loved it, I like travel and seeing new places and flying is the fastest and easiest way to get there. I now fly more frequently than I used to. I've managed to avoid secondary for the most part, I'm sure I've just been lucky. Reading about other women's experiences going through security though, flying has suddenly become something that actually makes me apprehensive. I have no desire to go through a checkpoint and be touched in places that only my SO or a doctor should be touching. I have no desire to be exposed in the name of security and safety. And I don't know what recourse I have if I feel I have been touched inappropriately or sexually harrassed verbally. If I'm verbally harrassed, it is my word against their's and who would believe me? If I'm touched inappropriately, I can only hope that it was caught on tape and that I can get a copy of the tape. And if I try to say anything while it's happening, I can be labeled as a troublesome flyer and who knows what "list" I may end up on.

It's funny, I didn't worry about flying right after September 11th, even though 2 of the planes took off out of my home airport. I worry about flying now because of what I might have to go through just to get on the plane. Something just seems very wrong about that.

bdschobel

This latest Joe Sharkey story appeared on the front page of today's NY Times. Here's an excerpt:

Many Women Say Airport Pat-Downs Are a Humiliation
By JOE SHARKEY

At a security checkpoint recently at the Fort Lauderdale airport, Patti LuPone, the singer and actress, recalled, she was instructed to remove articles of clothing. "I took off my belt; I took off my clogs; I took off my leather jacket," she said. "But when the screener said, 'Now take off your shirt,' I hesitated. I said, 'But I'll be exposed.' " When she persisted in her complaints, she said, she was barred from her flight.

Heather L. Maurer, a business executive from Washington, had a similar experience at Logan Airport in Boston recently. And a few weeks ago, Jenepher Field, 71, who walks with the aid of a cane, was subjected to a breast pat-down at the airport outside Kansas City, Mo.

These women and a good many others, both frequent and occasional travelers, say they are furious about recent changes in airport security that have increased both the number and the intensity of pat-downs at the nation's 450 commercial airports. And they are not keeping quiet.

In dozens of interviews, women across the country say they were humiliated by the searches, often done in view of other passengers, and many said they had sharply reduced their air travel as a result....
______________________

Good job, Joe! I hope that this level of attention brings about some changes in these disgusting, un-American practices.

Bruce

GradGirl

Joe Sharkey is my new hero. Thank heavens someone with a bully pulpit is using it to publicize our plight. I am newly energized at seeing all these indignant articles, and I'm writing a new letter of complaint to the TSA and Congresscritters today.

I will never stop fighting until legislation forbids the DHS ever to touch the sexual organs of another innocent person.

Analise

Amazing....

There are have been countless threads here on this forum about the groping of women yet there wasn't one person here who knew from where this female groping all started.

The blame for the excess attention to women is due to that STUPID 9/11 Commission....the one the so-called 5 Women of NJ (of course the only people who lost loved ones on 9/11... ) guilted the government into starting. This was news to me and it angers me. Heck this was on the front page of today's New York Times!! That commission was more concerned about labeling blame than actually doing anything to improve safety. So they think that groping women will somehow make us all safer? Great job, Tom Kean.

Analise

Gradgirl, you have been incredibly vocal given all the times you have been groped. How do you feel that this entire grope-fest was the idea of the 9/11 Commission??? Are you as angry as I am?

eyecue

IF I recall correctly, the 9/11 commission report came out before the Russian Air disaster and the pat downs are a result of the Russian air disaster

Analise

According to the NYT:


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/bu...rtner=homepage

Userid: flyertalk
Password: flyertalk

justageek

Actually I think eyecue is right. This sounds like some serious revisionism going on. More specifically, I bet that what happened is the 9/11 Commission said something vague about a need to better detect explosives, but I, too, believe it was the incident in Russia that started the "check the boob area for taped explosives" mandate.

GradGirl

What difference does it make? Make this humiliating and deeply offensive disgrace stop, immediately. It doesn't matter why or how it started, what matters is that it is so contrary to the rights of female passengers to control access to their sexual areas that it has to be stopped.

My breasts. My body. Keep your dirty hands off.

What part of "no" doesn't the TSA understand?

eyecue

I see that your cover is blown by a news report. Hope that things stay quiet for you.

mattkreps

"Most of the women interviewed said they did not make formal complaints, most saying that they assumed it would be futile to do so."

This comment I can clearly understand. You file a complaint and nver hear back. It goes off into space and you can't find out if anything was done. And frankly, who has the time or desire to do this AFTER going through security and its hassle. You just want to get on the plane and get out of there.

What I don't get:
1. It seems this policy of frisking PAX is related to the Russian problems far after 9/11. These were the result of bribery and domestic terrorists as far as I've seen, not ineffective security. Frisking business women and grandmothers in the US doesn't seem like an effective solution. Doesn't address the source of the incident.

2. This "back of the hand" thing. Try it. Seriously. You test things with the back of your hand because it's expendable and not as sensitive. Things like hot doorknobs in a fire and stuff you learned in gradeschool.

But grab a spouse or close friend and try feeling their body contours with the back of your hand. Unless you've shoved something big where it obviously doesn't belong, there's a lot of room for error. Trust me, cops don't frisk with the backs of their hands for a reason... ask a friend on the force or turn on the TV.

Seems like a wand with test swabs would be more effective at picking up explosives. Don't know that it would be any less humiliating ( ), but at least it's not hands on and there's no reason for exposure.

I'm sure the TSA folks on boards have their opinions as well. But I bet they're not real happy about frisking folks either.

GradGirl

What a strange thing to say, eyecue. If I didn't know better I'd say that sounds like a threat.

Remember that Joe Sharkey reported that women are afraid to come forward with their stories of being abused for fear of winding up on the no-fly list. I would think that you, eyecue, who seem to be advocating good practices in the TSA, would want to help witnesses who see untoward behavior on the part of bad apples in the TSA.

Analise

It matters to me. This idiot commission was seen as the answer to getting some kind of justice or whatever. Instead it's encouraged the wholesale groping of women. I was against this commission from the getgo as I saw it as a way of showing anger at the US for an attack done by foreign terrorists. What this report has now done is essentially greenlight female harrassment.

How can this policy of female groping be turned around when it was 5 women who urged the whole creation of this commission in the first place?

TSASuper

You should have seen the reactions of my staff when I had to break the news to them about the patdowns. Even the men were grumbling. Despite the resistance, we have to do it.