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Full Body Scanners

The agents have said that the intrusive pat downs are to push people to use the FBS (full body scanners).

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 21 Msg: #123586 Delete Edit

Jo Trouble
Jo McCarthy

B Posts: 11.5K

Has anyone themselves, or know of anyone, who has metal plates/rods etc because of injury, been through the scanners? I'd be interested to hear if it caused an extra delay for them or not. Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 22 Msg: #123602 Delete Edit

Zeca Baboin
ZecaBaboin

N Posts: 14

I really agree with Lee Ann. Since 09/11 we have seen a a setback on the issue of individual freedoms and human rights. The government has taken advantage of this situation to impose measures that otherwise no one would accept. Scanners are not the best way, as well as Lee pointed out, their use increases the risk of cancer, and children, where cellular development is accelerated, this risk is immeasurably greater.
I do not care for scanners and objects in my baggage, and never had anything to fear, but I believe the body scanner intrusion completely absurd and a risk to my health.
Moreover, in discriinação procedure is clear: that I am white caucasian I was never forced to go through this kind of situation, but I have black friends or friends who seem to Arabs who are required to pass through the scanner every time.
Unfortunately, freedom is fading in many countries that once fought for it. Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 23 Msg: #123610 Delete Edit

yogabbagabba
Gabrielle Varela

B Posts: 71

I have a metal rod through my femur, hip and knee. They dont set them off. Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 24 Msg: #123611 Delete Edit

Stephanie and Andras
Stephanie

B Posts: 883

Well I've been through the scanners (no metal plates or rods or - I just got routed through the line for the "new technology" along with a lot of other business travelers) - and I will going through them again tomorrow out of JFK most likely. I'm a young Caucasian American, so you can't blame that on profiling.

They are slower than the metal detectors currently in place. You had to stand, and pose, and wait while the thing spins around, and then you have to wait again while the off-site inspector relays back to the agent that you're good to go. So it does take a good 2-3-4 times longer than the other security measures. Then add to that the fact that there has been a big media storm about it here in the U.S so people are a) suspicious and upset about it b) protesting their options and c) un-knowledgable of how they work so there is a lot more instruction that goes on. I'm expecting a headache of security delays this holiday weekend.

I am not agreeing that citizens shouldn't stand up for what they feel is a violation of their privacy - complacency in actions that are borderline can be a slippery slope to complacency in other arenas as well. It is our duty as citizens to question the decisions of our policymakers. There are, however, more and less efficient ways of handling the situation.

Yes - and lets do remember that terrorists are terrorists, not affiliated with any particular religion, language, nation, etc. If religious and/or national hatred is what instigates these acts, that it would be logical to learn from this and evaluate our own misgivings. These security precautions are to protect all travelers.

Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 25 Msg: #123613 Delete Edit

yogabbagabba
Gabrielle Varela

B Posts: 71

Ok, first of all, the United States is one of the most liberal states in the world. We have a lot of rights that are restricted else where. I highly suggest you get rid of this distrust of our government, that they are out to get you because you are mistaking it for some sort of free spirited rebelliousness.

All it is showing is that you are incredibly disrespectful of a country that allows you to live here and gives you birth rights that you have never earned.

There are people who risk their lives and work incredibly hard in order to keep this country safe and you are sitting here basically telling me that because you are American and YOU Know that you don't have any bad intentions that you don't deserve to be treated this way and that our policies are floozy? Talk about equal rights to me now.

Second of all, they target ethnicities not out of political in-correction but because these people work in groups for a shared belief. It wasn't a German who flew two planes into our towers so please don't sit here and try to convince anyone that inspecting a certain ethnicity or religion is against some sort of moral code. It is an action to a reaction. They are constantly being refined.

Everyone is aloud to be who they are and say how they feel, but I feel you should do a bit more background and check your facts that these policies are uncalled for.

Or just watch an episode of National Geographic's Border Wars:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/border-wars/all/Overview Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 26 Msg: #123614 Delete Edit

yogabbagabba
Gabrielle Varela

B Posts: 71

great post Stephanie and Andras Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 27 Msg: #123622 Delete Edit

yogabbagabba
Gabrielle Varela

B Posts: 71

I fail to believe travelers have not seen protection laws worse than this. Lets have a look at some shall we?

So...fyi there is no amnesty to this. Someone thinks you have drugs on you, even on a LAY OVER it gives Customs officials cause to blood test you, if they find traces of anything especially illegal drugs you can be held up to four years. Reply to this

13 years ago, November 24th 2010 No: 28 Msg: #123628 Delete Edit

Scott and Kristy
Scosty

B Posts: 271

I agree with taking that extra precaution of checking passengers thoroughly before they fly. I don't want some crazed person getting through and causing problems half way across an ocean while I or someone I love is on a plane.

I DO think that some airport security officials may be going about it the wrong way. I have read reports and complaints on the news of passengers not being informed that they have the right to request a private room with a secondary staff member for their search, and stories of woman’s belly’s and bras being exposed to a waiting crowd in line to be scanned.

A reasonable solution to end most of the complaints would probably be to set up a screening booth, have a squared off curtained area just past the metal detectors visible to all. This way people would know the option is available, they wouldn't have to be frisked or embarrassed in front of hundreds of people, and security can do their jobs without people causing a fuss about being 'violated' in public.

There is a right way and a wrong way to go about something as serious as this.

Kristy
Reply to this

13 years ago, November 25th 2010 No: 29 Msg: #123687 Delete Edit

Stuart
Stuart Morgan Hurlbut

B Posts: 170

I don't usually agree with Lee Ann's political opinions but in this case I think she is right. As Zeca Brown said in his post many Governments around the world have been using the fear that they have whipped up since 9/11 to introduce repressive laws and restrictions they wouldn't have got away with before the twin towers event. It's not just full body scanners but the Patriot Act in the USA and the increase of the time that the UK police can hold people in custody without filing charges. As a Brit I always thought (and still think) that Habeaus Corpus should be sacrosanct. When I was young you could only be held for 24 hours without charges being brought but now they can hold you for weeks without even letting on why!

The point is, there is a species of bureaucrat in the Governments of all countries that are always looking for ways to restrict the freedoms of their citizens.

To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality.

—P.-J. Proudhon, "What Is Government?", General Idea of the Revolution in the Nineteenth Century, translated by John Beverly Robinson (London: Freedom Press, 1923), pp. 293-294.

If Proudhon had been writing today he probably would have added that to be governed is to allow some petty jobs - worth to grab your balls!

That said, despite what I think I would still go through the full body scanners if they introduced them in Britain. I live and work in Indonesia, refusing to go through the scanners would make it very difficult for me when I want to visit friends and family. Reply to this