w e l l ~ B L O G ~ t o ~ y o u ~ t o o !

20 August 2003
 
TSA Customer Service: HA! Yes, I finally have calmed down enough, and grabbed a moment to blog about it. You see, Saturday, I was going through the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and amongst other delays and whatnot, I got to security and asked them if I needed to remove my shoes (Berkenstock-type sandals). The man at the x-ray machine looked over at them and said "No." I walk through.

I beep.

I'm told that the buckles on the shoes set it off. Lovely. If they knew that, why the (*@# did they say I didn't have to take them off. So I ask if I can get my luggage waiting on the other end of the x-ray machine where any old person/scammer can walk up and take it from the tray without a second though. I'm told "no." I ask the woman who will be wanding me if SHE can get my luggage. I'm told "no." "But you will be able to see it the entire time."

First thing she does is put me in a chair where my BACK is to my luggage. Joy. Some person can walk right up and swipe my wallet from my carry-on bag. I'm thrilled.

So the bottomw of my feet get wanded. And then I have to stand. I'm in a long dress so I can't do the spread-eagle sort of pose so I'm asked to go in a 'walking' position.

Apparently my stride is too long and too wide. Even though due to my yoga classes, it at an anatomically superior position where balance is best and whatnot. Nope. She doesn't issue her warnings in any clear tone of voice, so she has to repeat them, often touching the part of my body that she wants moved. Of course, my stride was fine in Syracuse where I was also wanded. And the other thing that bothers me is that she couldn't wand my full legs with how she had me standing. I could have been hiding something between my thighs and she wouldn't have freaking known. But my bra is a danger (see below).

She wands my freaking arms four times front back top and bottom. Yep, my bracelet is STILL made of metal and so is my ring and my watch. Hasn't changed since the LAST time she wanded.

So the policy apparently is to touch wherever the little wand sets off the beeping. Well guess what, the wands in DFW are apparently set high enough that they pick up UNDERWIRE. And yep, it goes under both my breasts. I wore the same undergarment through my screening in Syracuse and it didn't set it off. However, this time, I had to endure being virtually groped in public.

Now it wasn't all "boobies, squish, squish" in a sexual way, but it still qualified on the "bad touch" radar. I've been screened with professionalism, and this was not it.

Never in all the times I've been searched have I felt systematically denied of my few rights as a passenger. Never have I felt humiliated, almost violated, and treated like I'm a piece of week-old dog crap. Never. I felt I would have been less humiliated and caused less problems had I either a) removed my bra in public and sent it through the machine or b) just walked through naked.

I walked the entire length of the B concourse in the DFW airport and this security enterance was the ONLY one where passengers being screened were put in a position where they could not see their luggage through the whole screening.

And perhaps I could have lived with all the *!&(*&@ I went through had it not been for the snide "Now you know better" at the end when I finally got my luggage. Now I know better? Now I know better that a good 50% of women will be searched and virtually molested because of the UNDERGARMENTS they wear. Because the support of an underwire is more comfortable and sometimes necessary, you're going to get screened and groped? I don't think so. Now I know better?

Now I know better than to even wear clothes going through security. Now I know better so I can remove my undergarments along with my shoes and put them through the x-ray! What kind of comment is that after being humiliated in such a manner.

Like I said, I've been searched professionally. It's not that I was searched. It was the manner in which I was searched. When you get the aura that if you ask for a private place to be searched (which is policy, see the first link in the blog), that you would either be a) denied or b) allowed, but your luggage would have to stay back on the x-ray belt where any person can walk up and steal it is not right. I wished someone had asked me "was your luggage ever left unattended?" because I would have answered "yes. I was screened by security and I was not allowed to be in visual contact with my bags the entire time as promised, and guaranteed by the TSA Service Commitment." I would at least have said "yes and here's why..."

The moral of this story, ladies, is that underwires are apparently a danger to national security. I don't know what we'd be hiding there, but apparently we would be hiding something.

Security doesn't piss me off. Stupidity does. Stupidity coupled with an unprofessional attitude pisses me off greatly. There are things the TSA screeners can do to make you feel at ease and safe. Or they can pull superiority tricks, and treat you like a disease for what you are wearing. With all the things they're doing for security, a passenger doesn't have many rights. Being treated like a human being is one of those rights. You go there expecting a certain amount of professionalism, not some whacked-up power-trip and bad touching in public.

No, doesn't make passengers happy campers. Discriminating against women who shop at Victoria's Secret is just wrong in all sorts of ways.

And aren't you glad I waited 4 days or so to blog about it? On Saturday, I couldn't even speak without getting upset.

I never want to fly to or through DFW again.

Not to mention my rant about United (which goes some other time)

Liz the Mischievous renovated @ 23:30