Originally Posted by
eskachig
I also grew up in the USSR (though of the 80's), but I don't think you have to omit actual events. Strip searches as SOP would have never flown in the USSR, at least the post-Stalin USSR. Doubly so for the Southern parts of USSR, where Muslims were a majority. Many other ex-Soviet citizens I know are also amazed at what is happening here.
I agree with you fully about the apparatchik mentality of many TSO's. It's what gives these procedures a decidedly Kafkaesque bent.
There were unconfirmed reports that some people who lawfully emigrated in 1970s were subjected to real, not "virtual", strip searches.
Aside from that, thank you for the word of support!
Originally Posted by
WindOfFreedom
I've been following this civil, erudite discussion with keen interest.
If at this point I may interject a question, put with respect:
How is the TSO who just "does his job," personally distasteful as it may be to him, different than the FF who goes through the nude-o-scope or opts for an "enhanced patdown"--knowing that both options are violations of the Fourth Amendment--because he wants to get where he's going today?
Wants to or needs to? Big difference.
Nor do I see how a traveler violates anybody's rights as opposed to being stripped of his/her own.
There is an ongoing debate whether air travel is a right. If so, why should anybody give up one right (to travel) in order to assert another (freedom from unreasonable searches)? I don't think there is any queston as to whether pornoscopes or gropes are reasonable.
My personal answer to this question is: I don't go anywhere near an airport. I drive for all my leisure trips, which included treks from LA to Miami, Myrtle Beach, and Baltimore. At this point I will not accept a job that requires any long distance (meaning driving is impractical) travel.
The more people do the same and make it known, the sooner we may hope that change may come.