Originally Posted by
Superguy
+1 ^
Mr. Roberts, you're my hero and you got some serious stones. This is an awesome interview. If I could ask one thing in your lawsuit, is please take this all the way to a judge. We need a court ruling on this. The ACLU has dropped a lot when it got TSA to give in a bit. This is too important for that to happen.
I'm willing to donate to a legal fund should one set up. I'll put my money where my support and mouth is. ^
I totally agree - this must go on record. But that isn't what's going to stop it. It must be stopped first through peaceful revolution (take your money, and run). Then we will chronicle the lessons learned for future generations in the federal courthouse. And, even if the court goes against us then, we've passed our verdict out here in the system, where it counts. Beyond that, you'll just have to do a little better next time you vote! We'll stay on it.
Thanks about the money, too. The attorneys have some ideas to set something up, and we'll probably be talking about that tomorrow or sometime soon.
Originally Posted by
gatelouse
I'm a bit late to the party here, but I salute you as well. Those who take the greatest risks reap the greatest rewards, and I hope that your story brings great success, both to you personally and to the fight against today's TSA.
All we need are a few more flight crew to take a similar stand, with strong backing from the unions, and the media spotlight will hit the TSA and DHS like rays through a magnifying glass. Pilots, flight attendants, gate agents, union leaders: who's with Michael?
Sorry, can't let you guys off the hook, either. This is what I'm talking about when I say let's fix it this week. I don't believe it would take much longer than that to get their attention. This is from an email I received:
Interesting incident two days after Michael Roberts "went public" with his objection to the TSA body scan. I flew out of the San Jose airport yesterday evening. It's the first time I've flown from there since early last year, and since that time, they have installed the body scan equipment. With the body scan equipment up and running, believe it or not, EVERYONE is directed to go through it, even though the conventional metal detector is still there and operational.
When I got into the line, it was approximately 4:45 PM. There were about 18 men and one or two women. I noticed as soon as I got to the back of the line that two guys at the front at almost the same time refused to go through the body scan. It didn't look like either of them knew each other, so I guessed that this wasn't some type of set-up. The TSA attendant said they could "opt-out," but they would have to go through the walk-through metal detector and then get patted-down. Both agreed to do that. Another guy right after them "opted" to do the same. Then, the TSA attendant announced to everyone else that they could opt-out if they were willing to go through the same procedure (metal detector, then pat-down).
After those two guys made their refusal, perhaps half of the guys behind them (including me) opt-ed out of the body scan. Then, there were so many men who opted out, there weren't enough TSA people to do the pat downs quickly enough, and the rest of us merely went through the metal detectors and went to our gates. It was also interesting to note that none of the women opted out, and a few of the men who didn't object made a big show of getting scanned. (Not sure if this was a spit-in-the-eye to those who opted out.)
I think the lesson learned here is that if enough people opt-out of the body scan, there will simply be too few TSA attendants to do all of the pat-downs, and that will allow many of us to simply go through the metal detector as we have for the past several years. I was fully prepared before being patted-down to stop the TSA attendant first in order to get his name and employee number and to inform him that if he did anything that I perceived to be invasive, I was going to have a lawyer file a formal complaint with TSA against him.
On another forum it was pointed out that I've asked for help, but haven't specified exactly what I need. I thought I'd been pretty clear, but just to be sure:
1. Do not allow federal security agents to place their hands on you. Your body belongs to you, not them.
2. Do not allow federal security agents to see beneath your clothing. Your body belongs to you, not them.
3. Study, reflect, and strive to understand what is going on here. I will help, if I am able, in the days ahead to make it a little more clear. But you must stop watching American Idol, put the game controller down, and pay attention (that part was for my beloved coworkers in familiar jest - not you guys).