Monday, July 18, 2011

What's legal for the TSA is illegal for anyone else

We still don't really know what happened at the Phoenix airport that led to the arrest of a 61-year-old frequent-flier. The TSA agent, who was trying to grab Yukari Mihamae's Miyamae's breasts under cover of the law, claims that Mihamae Miyamae grabbed her breasts (back?). But Mihamae Miyamae is denying this.

Does it really matter? The point is clear: A TSA agent can do whatever it wants and the TSA as well as local authorities will stand behind the agent. If a passenger protests too much, said passenger will be arrested.

Here's the "choice" we get when we pay an airline hundreds of dollars to travel within our own country:
  • Be viewed naked, getting exposed to additional unnecessary radiation (which have not definitively been shown to be harmless, by the way)
  • Get aggressively searched, including touching of the genitals and breasts and possibly including inordinate humiliation, particularly if you have a medical condition
  • Get arrested

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