Blogging

[teddywolf]

Last night at a large dinner out I was chatting with a number of people. The lady across the table from me mentioned recently returning from vacation overseas, in Germany. I has started the opening part of some news about cargo not being well-inspected, asking, "You know how the airlines keep losing checked luggage, so people keep bringing carry-ons? You know how we have to get inspected?"

She shuddered. "I had to get inspected on my way back from Germany. The security person grabbed my genitalia."

To sum up what she had to experience, the person grabbed her breasts and her crotch while performing the fairly invasive fully-clothed personal search. When she protested the rough handling she was receiving she was prevented from setting foot on her return flight.
The next day she got a manager at the airline, who went with her and ensured that she wouldn't be treated so roughly. The second time she wasn't. The security people apparently said that this kind of treatment was required for anybody travelling to the USA.

The airline charged her $200 to reschedule her flight but did give her travel vouchers to cover that cost. They mentioned her rough treatment wasn't their fault (well, it actually wasn't) but they had certain restrictions on what they could do.

To top it all off, the airline lost her luggage.

A couple of months ago there was a link from riba_rambles pointing to some imaging technology that would be a fine substitute for a pat-down. The level of detail it shows is a grayscale nude with no color differentiation. Some people have balked at putting in those scanners because they feel they'd be invasive.

So I have a question for the public: which is more invasive, a grayscale medical-quality picture of your nekkid body being looked at by somebody you don't know or having your crotch grabbed in a way you probably won't like by somebody you don't know?

Comments

[acrobatty.livejournal.com]

I'd be fine w/ greyscale -- actors and dancers lose all body modesty VERY early in the game. Besides, having once worked for a week in a pseudo-stripjoint (odd story, that, tell you about it some day if you're curious), I can assure you that it stops being interesting real soon. As in Yaaaawn.

But the way this lady got treated is not what I have ever heard of as normal for a stripsearch. Bleh! Probably the firm in question had a bunch of new hires, some of whom were living out adolescent fantasies. Feh.