'SNL' TSA Skit Highlights Disconnect Between Agency, Passengers and Safety
Hands in Panties, Prosthetic Breast Exposure, Urine Spill Among Complaints
While lighthearted, the SNL skit highlights a practice that many airline passengers find both unnecessary and offensive. Passengers who refuse to undergo full-body scans are subjected to enhanced pat-downs which many passengers say go too far.
ABC News reported Monday that one of its female employees complained of having a TSA agent at Newark Liberty International Airport place a hand inside her underpants and feel around. If this incident was a test of how much the TSA can get away with, the Agency gets an F. The agency head admitted that the screening went too far.
A North Carolina cancer survivor, Cathi Bossi, at a North Carolina airport was recently subjected to the indignity of displaying her prosthetic breast. Michigander Tom Sawyer was unable to persuade the TSA to keep his hands off his urostomy bag and emerged from airport screening soaked in urine as a result.
As satire does, the SNL skit highlighted the excesses for which the TSA has become known. Might it also become an agent for social change? It appears so, as TSA pat-downs have been labeled "abuses" in the media and have attracted the attention of the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU is gathering reports from passengers, according to its website, which says:
"If you are denied the right to opt out of the body scanner machines or believe you have suffered from rough, rude, and humiliating manhandling and groping of breasts and crotch areas, sexual comments, and a lack of privacy, please contact us by using the complaint form linked below."
Will the TSA revoke the pat-down restrictions in response to passenger outrage like the bathroom, lap item, and blanket ban that TSA put in place in response to last year's Christmas Day bomber?
So far, the word is no. But as passenger outrage and the threat of lawsuits mount, that could change.
Published by Carol Bengle Gilbert - Featured Contributor in Travel and Lifestyle
2010 Yahoo! Outstanding Contributor of the Year, Carol has consistently been designated a Top 100 Yahoo! Contributor Network writer. She received a 2008 People's Media Award for "Best Article." Carol’s pr... View profile
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12 Comments
Post a CommentThat skit was sooo funny!!
Wow! I am so glad that I travel by car. This just doesn't sound like a good day at all.
I just returned from two weeks of traveling - many planes and trains. I did not have any problems and was glad that there are security measures such as the pat downs and machines that helped keep me safe all along the way.
At one point, I was singled out for a random special search. Again - no problem. I'm glad to comply with rules that keep us all safer.
Great article! =0)
Ugh! Glad I'm not traveling a lot for business any more....
I almost fell over when I viewed the Saturday Night Live skit. Very funny! Good article and update, Carol!! Hopefully, these issues will be addressed to everyone's satisfaction...and dignity!
Idiots. Don't they know that their right to personal privacy ends where the potential for a greater number of the greater good to be blown to hell begins...
We just flew to and from Orlando last week and weren't patted down or body-scanned. Maybe we just got lucky?
Ever since 9/11, we've been a country of wusses. You want the nanny state to protect you so give up your personal freedom, and then like a bigger wuss, you lack the courage to have your junk groped. Homeland Security is a big agency that Bush gave you. So pay up tax wise, and stop complaining.
I agree with Jeff, but it is hard to imagine that it is necessary to go to the current lengths to remain safe!