TSA Discimination on Groping
 

I have had a hip replacement. I love the "naked scanners" because I don't get groped.When they started putting the new scanners in they got rid of hand wands and the pat down and went to invasive groping. BUT...I am estimating that 50 percent of the time the new scanners are not open. TSA employees tell me they required a male and female to view scans, plus two people out front and they often are not staffed to have them open.
This means that anyone like me with a joint replacement is going to set off the "old" scanners and automatically get groped. People without such replacements do not.
I feel this constitutes proveable discrimination and am looking for anyone who is involved in a class action suit on any grounds resembling this. I have had it to the point I am thinking about taking early retirement since I get groped on half or more of my flights...anyone know of any suits in process?:mad:

We have thought for quite some time that the fact that people with disabilities, metal implants, ostomy bags, prostheses, etc. get groped every time they go through WBI or, in your case, the WTMD, is going to be a huge issue for the TSA.

Have you contacted the ACLU or the Rutherford Institute about this?

To me there are two significant issues

- the removal of the HHMD
- the high rate of physical checks after using the AIT and the fact that TSA doesn't just check one area to resolve issues

FYI in Germany the scanner test has a 75-90 percent rate of requiring an additional check to resolve issues, so don't assume that using AIT will not require a pat down.

Good luck - many of us have been concerned about this topic but also wonder why there appears to be mostly silence on the topic.

This one baffles me. You'd think the TSOs would be all for keeping the HHMD since it would mean they have to touch people less, and many reports point to them being extremely uncomfortable with performing the enhanced gropedown.

Plus, aren't they still going on about "layers of security?" One would think that the HHMD would make for more impressive security theater. "Watch as our experts pick up on WTMD alarms, zero in with their hi-tech HHMDs, and then perform a fast, efficient localized patdown to resolve the problem."

Come to think of it, this one baffles me too. We know that the reason for the enhanced gropedown is to discourage people from opting out (and thus making it harder for TSA to justify their lining of Chertoff's pockets).

They're actively shooting themselves in the foot by groping people who do go through AIT. It fosters the mentality of "Well, if I'm getting molested anyway, I might as well save myself the cancer."

Of course, I'm happy that the TSA is making life more difficult for itself, but I do wonder why it's doing so.

I believe the excuse for getting rid of the wands is that they are looking for non-metallic items and the wand won't detect those (lumps of plastic explosive like the underpants bomber, the famous 'ceramic' knives that can take down a plane).

Which is absurd, because metallic weapons haven't vanished now that ceramic/plastic/phlebotinum ones are available.

Seems the point is that the disabled and many handicapped people receive a more harsh screening from TSA than others.

Isn't that a kind of profiling?

No, the 'belief' is that the frisk will find anything, metallic, ceramic, whatever. No other single form of detection is currently capable of that. Previous efforts were metal- and liquid-focused.

The big excuse for the NoS/eliminate wands/open palm frisking was the underpants bomber (who, with a little help from whoever his mysterious friends were, showed up at a most opportune time for Chertoff & Co.). The then-current technology and procedures wouldn't have found the bomb - WTMD and HHMD couldn't detect it.

As Spiff and others have been pointing out for a very long time now, using the puffers could have saved us much of this trouble, but apparently the manufacturers didn't grease the right palms at the right time.

It would seem to me that one of the talking points of "The Resistance" should really be a return of the wands as a layer of security, particularly to ease the burden of the patdown for our folks with various metal implants and other issues that could be resolved that way. This may be one the most absurd parts of the TSA problem, that somebody with a metal knee or something stands to get their junk touched every time they can't manage to get irradiated, for no sensible reason. It could also be a good issue to bring the disability issues to the forefront; as was discussed in the other thread, there seems to be a disconnect between those of us up-in-arms about the recent TSA changes and those with disabilities, who have been dealing with it for a long time.

The OP also brings up something interesting -- could it be that the scanners being roped off so often is largely a staffing issue? Classic -- only the feds could get away with buying expensive, supposedly vital equipment they don't have staff to run.

It most certainly is.

I think the problem is that they've convinced the groupthink someone in a wheelchair or something would be a good place for a terrorist to plant a bomb or something, and that the disabled are feeble enough not to thwart such an attempt. I don't know how this has extended to people with metal implants, except that the procedures lead down that path and the screeners aren't supposed to think enough to make judgement calls.

(highlights mine). Well, pax is under anesthetic when the metal is implanted, so who knows, maybe the surgeon is a closet terrorist and pax was unknowingly implanted with something evil.

Actually, I think most folks with implants who use the NoS fare reasonably well. What I don't think they anticipated is how often they would use the NoS and still get a full-body frisk because of an 'anomaly'. And the full-body frisk they're getting now is much more invasive than the the wanding they got every time before.

Ever wonder about those 'anomalies' and 'false positives'? I was in AMS not too long ago. From the gate area, you can see the screen (there's no attempt to hide it). Pax goes through MMW, stands with agent until image comes up on the screen. One young guy had a single bright spot in his middle. He pulled up his shirt, there was the belt buckle. But I watched one older man, bald, no glasses or hearing aid or anything. You could tell the screener wasn't surprised, but he sure was (so was I). There were loads of 'anomalies' - including on his face and bare arms!

Of course, for some reason, in the US that would get him a full-body frisk to 'resolve'. (No, he didn't get one in AMS, and no, the screener didn't 'frisk' his bare head, face and arms).

I know the TSA website is horribly out of date, especially in the area of Stuff That Matters, but this would seem to indicate that the wand is still around and just waiting for someone to show up in a baggy skirt:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtrav...rial_1037.shtm

What's the real story? Has anyone seen a wand in use lately? Or does the phrase "you will be subjected to a combination of THIS and/or THAT" somehow mean "you will be subjected to THAT only because we can't be bothered with THIS."

I believe that JetBee did report seeing or experiecing a wand in use late in 2010 or in early 2011. See this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ces-tsa-3.html

Yet I also believe that I have have read gsoltso agree that the loss of the HHMD negatively impacts some passengers. See this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...elchair-6.html

I respect both posters and tend to believe what both post, so I am not certain of the actual situation.

..........