There was an article on CNN last month about a 3-year-old boy who was patted down by the TSA (it should be noted that the incident occurred in 2010, which was before they changed the rules and made pat downs of children a rarity). Obviously everyone is in an uproar and there are tons of opinions being offered for both sides of the story. On the “reasons that children should not be patted down” side, this has to be one of the worst:
“There hasn't been one instance in the United States of a 3-year-old carrying explosives onto an airplane or doing ill will to anyone.”
The point is kind of to keep it from ever happening. Screening children after someone uses a little kid to smuggle in restricted materials is pretty much shutting the barn door after the horse has already eaten Mrs. Neighbor’s flowers. If we'd been checking shoes before that particular little incident, it wouldn't have happened; checking our shoes now doesn’t undo the past.
Those who wish to do harm to others will exploit the system that is in place. The easiest way to do that is to look for the weak points in the system. With airport screenings, the obvious weak points are all the groups of people we have decided should not be subject to the same screenings that the rest of us endure. So that is children, the elderly, and the handicapped. Don’t forget that it doesn’t have to be the child, the older person, or the person with the handicap doing the wrong. They can merely be the patsy who is used by an otherwise able-bodied person who wants to wreck havoc in the airport or on the plane.
And no, I’m not saying that we should all be strip searched. And no, I’m not saying that we should all be resigned to having to be felt up each time we fly. I'm just saying that if you’re going to argue against something, at least have a reasonable argument. And there are several. For instance, the body scanners have no particular record of success; there are questions regarding whether the body scanners would even pick up the materials we are supposedly screening for; there are questions regarding the safety of the radiation exposure involved with the body scanners; and, most importantly, there are other measures that can and should be taken that would without a doubt increase our security without invading our privacy. For instance, greater control of restricted areas of airports; better screenings of airline and airport personnel; and better training of TSA and other airport security.
So let’s do the things we know will help and will not be an invasion of anyone’s privacy before we rush to implement procedures that provide a false sense of security while invading our rights.
Oh wait, it’s too late for the rational approach. We already rushed ahead with the unproven, invasive, possibly dangerous methods and are still ignoring the easy, noninvasive, unoffensive stuff….
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