Harassed by the TSA at the airport

We tried to fly out to Phoenix on Friday night. Delta had canceled our flight and re booked us on United because of the storms in Dallas. Because of the sudden change of flights we were deemed a possible security risk and we were patted down. I raised Holy Hell. This woman donned blue plastic gloves and insisted we be patted down.

I yelled at her that I was was outraged what W had done to this country in his histrionics about flying and that I was sick of him and his republicanism. I also asked her to look at my green eyes and Blondie hair and asked her if I looked like a Muslim.

She said Muslims had nothing to do with it. I then asked her if anyone other than Muslims had ever hijacked aircraft and flown them into buildings. She finally left me alone.

I am sick of this paranoia and fear control. A bunch of SAUDI nationals did great damage to this country but I will be damned if I will suffer the privacy intrusion of being "patted down" because of them.

I am tired and grouchy, and was with you for the first paragraph. Then you lost me.

None of them were blond with green eyes and female.

federal building in Oklahoma City look like? Or the guy who set off the bomb at the Atlanta Olympics?

into a Federal building. :sarcasm: (Sarcasm directed towards bigotted, IMHO, OP comments.)

Thanks for joining in here. I know I am tired and grumpy but this is too bad of comments to let go.

I read your other replies and I think you and I agree on what is wrong in the OP so I'm don't get what you're getting on me about.

meant to be sarcastic towards OP, and thank you for helping. I'm tired, grouchy and not writing well. Not meaning to get on you. Will go edit to make more sense. My apologies.

it's late...I think I get it now.

Tim McVeigh was blondish, don't know about his eyes.

involved with 911? Lots of assumptions there. I have been hassled by TSA and it is very irritating, but think this goes to far.

...and quite a few European muslims in the Balkans, some of whom will have green eyes and blonde hair. Islam is a religion, not a nationality.

But one must admit, the vast majority of them don't have blonde hair and green eyes.

Merely changing flights is no reason for anyone of any race, religion, or whatever, to be considered suspicious. The OP has every right to complain, and every right to point out Bush's paranoid idiocy (HE'S the one declaring war on Islam, not the OP).

But to yell you don't look like a "muslim"? To not be able to address this, even when questioned about the apparent bigotry except to say "9/11 bombers were male and dark"?

what is wrong with you ? It seems you didn't meet many Muslims in your day to day life ...

Even in the Middle East there are tens of thousands of Muslims who are fair in complexion.

Your attitude suggests that you were angry that they were doing random searches rather than profiling ??!!

by your logic I should be profiled every time I fly because I have olive skin, brown hair, brown eyes. even though I am English-German, have an Anglo last name and my ancestry in this country goes back 351 years. nice.

oh, and I have been hassled at the airport on many an occasion. but not always. best thing to do is endure, roll your eyes at the insanity and move on. raising cain will probably just get you put on the no fly list.

That, is the "war of terror". It is the war on those who oppose the policies of this Administration and those in Congress who are oppressing everyone else because they want this war to continue because they are profitting handsomely.

I hope those of us as AMericans will come to realize that the Muslims, like those of us who oppose these horrific Bush/Cheney policies are the scapegoats.

I am blonde haired and green eyed like you Erika. I come from Republican roots and a very conservative, white collar background.

How do you know that Muslims were responsible and not scapegoats for the whole 9-11 scenario?? The honest answer is you don't. We can only go from what we have been told by a media conglomerate who has blatantly lied to us time and time again. Like Oswald, I believe it was an entire patsy coverup.

The muslims are being attacked like the Native Americans were wrongly demonized in our own nation.

Look at the discrimination you received. You are no different than a Muslim or me, an American of Irish/Scottish/German descent.

Wake up. You are a victim of prejudice just like all of us who have opposed this Administrations policies.

I'm sorry, Erika, but I'm pretty sure that lots of non-Muslims have hijacked airplanes -- the Japanese Red Army Faction, for instance. Not very progressive of you to say what you said, and I'm sure the poor underpaid TSA worker didn't need your lip as she was just trying to do her job.

This is supposed to be the country of the free, not the country of the guilty until your patting down proves otherwise.

Yelling at security personnel and ranting and raving tends not to curry sympathetic favor from them... duh.

And go along with invasion of privacy. I am not.

...whose hyper-reactive behavior hurts our collective causes against the neo-conservatives.

And welcome to DU, NSD.

As a professional traveler, I can assure you that raising hell with TSA peoplw has nothing but negative impact for one's fellow passengers.

*whistles*

Wow, subtle. Issues with Muslims much? :shrug:

Yes, they were the extremists but I'm sick of paying for their sins.

n/t

...I would have to say yes.

They are not all the same. Some are darker, some are lighter, some have red hair, or blonde, or black, or brown, or blue. They have all color eyes. YOu are sick of paying for the sins of the people involved in 9/11. Do you really believe the insufficient security is to counter such thing from happening again? Do you really think that all the bad guys are "muslim" looking?

Blonde hair, blue (or green) eyes. Boise State rooter. Beyond reproach. <sarcasm>

It kind of smacks of "I'm white! I am obviously not a criminal!" I know that's not what you mean, but please try to think of how this is sounding right now.

Who were the bombers in 9/11?

Try here for more fun about 9/11.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=125

wow

:)

It's very annoying. I consider myself in good company, though--Edward Moore Kennedy was on the same list!! And since Nahn Wun Wun changed ever-thang, I get the patdown and the suitcase toss every single time I board an airplane, without exceptions.

I have some bad news for you though. You do look like a Muslim. There are boatloads of blonde haired, green, blue and grey-eyed Muslims, though--I lived amongst them for many years. Check out the Kurds, for example, you'd be surprised. Persians, Turks, Afghans, too. I won't even go into the Canadian, American, Australian, British, and so forth...they also speak "unaccented" (for their given country, anyway) English.

The stereotype that all Muslims are Arabs, and all Arabs are Saudis (to say nothing of the stereotype that all ARABS are Muslim--that one's a total hoot) are also false.

If you weren't on the list before, you might be now. No trash-talking the Fearless Leader, you see. Get used to the patdowns, or maybe you'll be lucky and fly out of airports with the "nekkid x-ray" where they get to see your goodies through your clothing! So long as you don't have any fishy looking braces under your kit, you'll be ok ...

It's not going to happen. Others might do so in their hopes for sheeple protection. I won't.

your "privacy rights." When you enter that area in the airport, your very action of entering signifies that you are giving up those rights. That's just the way it is.

You might want to get used to bus travel if you do end up as a target. It would probably save you some angst.

Not ever. And they better learn that their little blue gloves will not be accepted either.

to not let you fly. Yelling at a TSA agent is NOT the way to change things. Yelling that you don't look like "a muslim" is no help either.

Not so much in the Gulf states , but Tons in the Levant...

Racial profiling in this cause does NOT EVEN MAKE SENSE , not to mention that it is morally wrong.

But I suppose that I fly enough to just grin and bear it.

Kinda like stopping at a red light when there is no car coming from either direction.

It is just something that we do, nowadays.

were female, blonde, and green eyed.

It will be a cold day in Hell before I will submit to a patting down of my body with their little blue gloves.

So you rant that you don't look like them, so you could never do anything wrong so "get your hands off me I don't look Muslim!"?

Either way, you drew attention to yourself and made things so much worse.

I certainly did not make things worse. I let them know what I thought of their security procedures. I'm reminded of live free or die. I wasn't going to compromise my principles.

It's screeching harpies like you that make others die a little more inside each day. You must be a treat at the Returns Desk...

And does it have a 'S' in the lower right-hand corner?

It is a random thing.

Happens to me every once in a while.

And I am Executive Platinum on AA.

Just part of the bullshit we encounter while flying.

Damn, I could tell some stories...

It was done between United and Delta. I felt it was ridiculous that the sudden carrier change subjected us to additional security checks.

Common sense lost out.

Yelling at TSA will get you only more hassles.

And perhaps you should look at your "look like a muslim" issues.

My point is made.

Seems you are confusing the 2, referring to a large varied group by a couple physical characteristics of a few. You made your point all right. What does a "muslim" look like?

Is that your point ?

But if we are going to give up our liberties because of 9/11, they can damn well use the profiles of the 9/11 bombers. They, alone, did it.

Answer me this then : What if God forbid another attack happened , and the attackers were some members of some cult that was limited to African-Americans...

Would you then support profiling black people only rather than doing random checks?

Your answer seems to be yes ... and I hope that substituting "black" for "muslim" makes the bigotry your espousing clearer to you!

Common sense did indeed lose out, if you ever had any. :shrug:

At some point you yell enough rather than uncle. Evidently you haven't reached that point.

Every post of yours in this ENTIRE THREAD is insulting to everyone here at DU who isn't you, my dear sweet pure-white-as-the-driven-snow Erika.

a tired traveler, angry, i.e. something other than her/his regular duties?

Like you I become angry when such things occur when I'm traveling but luckily so far, TSA agents have not gone beyond their regular duties.

I'm intrigued because if you encountered something different, I wanted to watch for such behavior by TSA employees.

:hi:

Anyone donning blue gloves to pat my body down simply because my carriers were changed is insulting and intrusive.

They fit "the profile!" Don't you people get it?! Am I the only one in the universe to GET IT!?!?

I would almost think it sarcasm, but has gone on for so long here.

I knew she was a bit rambunctious and I've never thought her a Freeper (and still don't), but this goes way beyond lacking any of the good sense and decency every DU'er should have.

And I agree about all in your reply.

...instead of spewing garbage.

I did and won.

what moral victory is that ?

not the TSA agent.

I assume you knew that TSA might do something like pat you down under some circumstances.

Like you, I chafe under TSA procedures but so far I haven't lost my temper and yelled at an agent who was just doing her/his job.

My daughter's fiance, an Australian rugby player, is a Muslim, but he doesn't have a "look." :shrug: I don't understand.



Scary :scared: :sarcasm:

I have nothing against the Muslims, except I do not look like anyone from 9/11. We had those 19 bombers cause havoc and tragedy and the rest of the country is suspect? Get real.

Why not say "I don't look like those guys that flew airplanes into buildings"? Why?

What's your point? You have anything against blond, females, with green eyes who have 100% ID?

My point is you said "I also asked her to look at my green eyes and Blondie hair and asked her if I looked like a Muslim." which is a prejudicial and bigotted and insulting statement.

Are you now saying that only people with dark skin and eyes should be searched? Are you saying, as you continue to seem to say, that all Muslims look like the 9/11 bombers?

Then only black people should be investigated in rape cases ?

9/11 is only one event in a long history of flight related terrorism..

I don't believe that such things must even need elaboration on a progressive board.

this whole thing is insulting.

traits of Terrorists , its in their genes ....

We should only search and pat down the Dark ones ...

Can't you see how racist is this ?

A) Not all Muslims wear burkas and ghutra an iqals. The hijackers wore regular men's clothes typical of US American dress, so unless you wear a burka everywhere you go...
B) Not all dark-skinned people are Muslims.
C) Not all dark-skinned people are dark because of ethnicity. Some people get these things called tans...
D) Not all people of Middle-Eastern decent are Muslims.
E) Not all Muslims are of Middle-Eastern decent.

I'm just taking issue with your "Muslim look" thing, because that's really quite a generalization, I think you'd have to agree.

So you think that the authorities SHOULD be profiling?

Am I understanding this correctly? Your unhappy...that they DIDN'T profile?


Maybe I'm just tired. I must not have gotten this right. Can you clarify for me?

I travel a lot as well. I'm glad that security has finally gotten thorough.

If you don't mind a stranger bodily patting you down as if you were a suspect, go for it. I'll fight against it 100%.

subjected to the same searches the rest of us are? Again, by flying these days, you are agreeing to be searched. If you refuse, which you can, you can be prevented from flying. There are other ways of dealing with this than yelling at a TSA agent and way other ways than yelling bigotted prejudicial statements and then defending them.

Others will surrender it. I chose to fight and I won. I refuse to be patted down as a suspect when I have done nothing wrong. My choice. You choose yours.

You can chose to not be patted down. You can also chose to be a bigot. 2 different things going on here.

I understand your frustration with draconian idiotic security. I do not understand your bigotry, esp on a forum like DU.

Get it?

Get it?

...about this so called "profile" of what a Muslim should look like.

Get off my case.

That is one of the big problems here.

out and searched, right?

I did mine.

and let the rest of us get through with no issues? Without being patted down? Serious question.

long before 9/11. No, the rest of society should not pay for the lack of intelligence and prevention of these persons.

So do you believe security should target stereotypical "muslims"?

and let the rest of us get through with no issues? Without being patted down?

...all the way to the sanatorium. Chill the fuck out, Erika. :crazy:

...for suspicious activities like attending flight school but specifically and intentionally not learning how to land. The White House (you know... Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice...) decided not to act when they got that August memo a month prior to the attacks stating that something was brewing and soon. See, they didn't know exactly what flights, what seats, and what airports were going to be involved. If only they had hired you Erika to flush out the terrorists in our midst...

or are they the same? :sarcasm: I can't quite get it.

A certain, far too large percentage of people will given the chance be officious, domineering and controlling it's their nature. Actually I suspect most of us have it in us. It's the same sort of thing as came out in the Stanford prison experiment.

Getting pissed off in this sort of situation will only goad them into making it worse for you.

Best thing you can do is be infuriatingly nice in return. If you do a real good job of it, they will be the ones who lose it, at which point you can gleefully ask their superior to direct them to the unemployment line. If you must vent your spleen, save it for a letter of complaint and to the editor.


Oh, and as others have said. Your bigotry is showing. Islam is not the problem. It is a certain interpretation of Islam, which has a close analogue in parts of the X-tian community that is the problem. Indeed it goes back to what I said in my first paragraph. Some people are determined to control other peoples lives and are willing to kill to get their way. Muslims might be the more honest, in that they are willing to die for their belief.

And before anyone flames me, I hold no admiration for that stance and have nothing but contempt for anyone who would attempt to force their religious (or any) views on another.

as if I was a suspect. They had no grounds. I did not fit the profile of a 9/11 bomber, I had ID, and I'm tired of the airport shit.

it sucks yes. But I'm sure many here have gone through similar things. We don't like it. But until they get all the great new machines that can tell if you're "keestering" a pound of C4, we will just have to submit.

If I pay good money for an airline ticket, I will demand to be treated with common sense and respect.

9/11 bombers were a small group. Judging the whole huge group by them is bigotry. Plain and simple.

Make your TSA stand, good luck and go for it and maybe something might get changed. But look at the bigotry.

It's the TSA bigotry. Get that straight. They made the rules, not me. Please get that straight.

TSA was NOT profiling, by your own admission, and this is what set you off. Your statement is bigoted. "I also asked her to look at my green eyes and Blondie hair and asked her if I looked like a Muslim." is a bigoted statement. Are all black men bad because OJ did a terrible crime? If I were to say yes, would you say I am prejudiced?

I loved getting to the plane 5 minutes before taking off. They changed it all based on 9/11.

"look at my green eyes and Blondie hair and asked her if I looked like a Muslim."

Are all black men bad because OJ did a terrible crime? If I were to say yes, would you say I am prejudiced?

Enjoy. I stood up for my beliefs. If they were looking for a 9/11 bomber, I wasn't one of them. They should have had the common sense to evaluate and know that.

Carry on.

Duh, of course you weren't a 9/11 bomber. They are all dead. Duh.

Just because you an Aryan you are no risk ?

then make sure you let us know how that ends up working for ya.

Seriously? you don't realize how racist you sound? I'd like to introduce you to my friend "clue stick."

in that it shows that some bigotry exists in subtle and not so subtle forms even within the progressive community.

Edited to add, I am done here. Have sent mods many questions, but so far it is continuing. I cannot take anymore. Amazing, depressing and disgusting.

Horrific, but you just can't turn away. :banghead:

Extremists. Most of them Saudi.

Why are the rest of us being punished?

Just a thought... :shrug:

that only people who "look Muslim" or like Saudi (most of them) extremists are capable of hijacking an airplane.

I can envision, in your world, TSA personnel giving a wink and a secret sign to all who don't fit that profile.

by the actions of a few creeps.

done.

Good lord, you'd think they gave you a cav search at gunpoint — or forced you to stand in a "coat hanger" position with a hood on your head and electrodes attached to your genitalia.

A bit of perspective, please.

She took a stand for latex products everywhere.

as the OP can't seem to understand that their view that racial profiling SHOULD be used is....well...racist.

OR

that freaking out on airport security is just a means by which they stand up to the "machine".



It's all quite odd.

Or found out her plane was flown ...by a Muslim?

Happy fun times, I'm sure.

9/11 is what caused this mess. Whther you like it or not, they were extremist Muslims and not U.S. citizens.

should only have checked white male US citizens coming into said buildings.

Idiotic.

are common rather than a freakish outburst by a malcontent.

WTF ?

Thank you.

And I suggest you try to befriend a few muslims , try to find some brown looking ones so you see they are not evil after all. <Sarcasm>

JUMANJI!!



Yeah, made about as much sense as your "point."

The things I see here. Racial profiling? :puke:

:puke:

...probably had more to do with exposing this nonsense. Mine sure as Hell was. I'm surprised there aren't more recs. This needs to be slapped down and hard.

...I would suggest NOT recommending things like this to the greatest page, alert instead. While I understand what you may be thinking, to place something like this on DU's "Greatest Page" is insulting to DU. It is no different than the fools who got banned for voting for Holocaust denial because they "wanted to expose" the OP. All they succeeded in doing is making it look like DU had Holocaust deniers as members and got their asses brand new "granite avatars!"

My personal trigger? I hate everything Bush and his fascists have done to this country -- and my mother had just almost died and was still in crisis. I was emotional. :grr:

Their trigger for suspecting me of some heinous deed? A one way ticket to give me time to try to sort things out.

I started out being cooperative, but I was nervous (see "mother" and "fascists" above). They put six (6) people on me. They tossed every single thing out of my luggage onto a long steel table and commented on it. They demanded I stand just so, hold my hands just so, obsessed over my waistband (it had a metal snap, and every time this woman waved the wand over it -- dear lord, it still registered as a metal item, so she had to lift my shirt and have another look). Her cohort demanded my name, address, occupation, etc etc and wrote it all down in a big binder. When someone would comment on the contents of my luggage and I would instinctively try to move toward it, I was ordered back into position. Sharply.

And they were so polite! So. Fucking. Polite. Good little Germans just doing their jobs.

I began to leak tears. Did I mention how much I hate what Bush has done to us? I progressed to abject sobbing. :cry: My public humiliation was nearly complete.

The woman who obsessed over my waistband took note of the tears and began to ask me what was wrong and could she do anything for me. I said I could do with some kleenex, and she forked over a big box. But as to the rest of it, I didn't think it would be safe to tell her that she and her uniformed pals could shove it where the sun don't shine. :argh:

Because, dear Erika, these people can arrest you. They can make your travelling life hell. Or, worse hell than it already is. You apparently said all the things I deeply felt but was too afraid to say. I bet you didn't cry either. ;-)

I actually checked out alternate means of transportation, but discovered that taking a train (for instance) would mean a two-day trip, with an overnight stay in Sacramento. For speedy emergency travel, an airplane is pretty much it these days, and from then until my mother actually did die last October 2006, I spent a lot of time flying from California to Salt Lake City, plus one more in December to get the condo cleaned out for sale. I never went through that again -- although due to lost luggage I attended the memorial service in sweats. :eyes: Nice new sweats, but not what I'd had in mind.

We're stuck with the transportation system we have. It's a blessing that has become a curse. Knowing what I know -- that from 9-11 to this very day cargo is not being checked the way luggage is -- I don't feel "safer" I just feel like I'm in the hands of fear-mongers. And fascists.

You're not alone by any means, and somehow I don't think profiling would help much, considering the blithering incompetence the TSA is saddled with. Brought to us by the same people that ruined FEMA.

My sister and her husband travel extensively on business and have learned to live with it. My friend who married an Afghan 35 years ago became a civil servant in D.C. and traveled on business; 15 or 20 years ago she learned to live with the aggravation of being pulled from the group of travelling federal workers every single time due to her last name.

I try to tell myself this because I don't want to let my anger and anxiety rule my ability to get out of my own city. I've started saying mantras of peace in an effort to rule my own feelings, because I can't do anything about TSA.

Good luck with your next trip. I hope it goes better.

Hekate

and yell, "It's them, not me!!!!!!!!" :sarcasm: :puke: :thumbsdown:

Sick of the paranoia and fear control? Your actions sure added to it.

It was a change of carrier Delta did that made you a last minute booker. The airlines should not flag you if the airlines were the cause of the last minute booking. Just IMHO..

When discussing race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, or other highly-sensitive personal issues, please exercise the appropriate level of sensitivity toward others and take extra care to clearly express your point of view.

Do not post messages that are bigoted against (or grossly insensitive toward) any person or group of people based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, disability, physical characteristics, or region of residence.