The TSA demands a certain level of compliance for security reasons, but what happens when they abuse their authority?
Over the weekend, a TSA officer at the Los Angeles Airport reportedly went WAY over the line while interacting with a 15-year-old girl traveling with classmates to visit colleges, allegedly telling her to “cover up” and generally leering and being hostile towards her. What the officer didn’t know was that the girl was the daughter of Mark Frauenfelder, founder of BoingBoing.net and editor-in-chief of Make magazine, who was able to bring worldwide attention to officer’s transgressions via his blog and social media channels and who quickly got LAX officials to open an investigation of the incident.
This story caught my attention for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that, this past weekend, I was also spending a lot of time in airports, as I took my six-year-old daughter on the first plane trip of her life. (A quick weekend trip from Detroit to New York.) Admittedly, nothing in our experience even comes close to what Frauenfelder’s daughter had to contend with, although, an elderly TSA agent DID try to put my first-grade daughter into the full body scanner. I spent the first few seconds awkwardly trying to voice an objection. I don’t fly a lot, so I wasn’t sure if completely x-raying six-year-olds is de rigueur at the moment, but, fortunately, several other TSA officers realized what was going on, right as my daughter stepped into the machine, and screamed at the agent in question until she relented. They apologized profusely, sent my kid through the normal metal detector, and we were on our way.
On our walk to our gate, I mentally chided myself for not saying anything sooner. I KNEW that felt wrong, but I was feeling sheepish and unsure and part of me was definitely deferring to the person whom I regarded as being in a position of authority. Post 9/11, the airport security line has become a place in our world where being submissive is an unquestioning fact of life. You take off your belt, you remove your shoes, you throw out your 3.5 ounce bottle of aftershave rather than cause a fuss—you SUBMIT and you submit SUPPOSEDLY for the greater good.
This is why I find the actions of the TSA officer towards Frauenfelder’s daughter so stomach-churningly awful. Yes, being a TSA officer is a shit job. The guy wears a polyester uniform, probably gets paid Wal-Mart wages, and looks at IDs all day. BUT he’s accepted a job in one of the most SENSITIVE areas of the current American infrastructure. He applied for and accepted a job where if I, as a traveler, mutter the word “bomb” to myself, I am almost definitely going to spend a few days, if not a few weeks, in jail. Almost every aspect of modern airport security is steeped in a morass of power politics, heightened emotions, dominance, submission, and the bureaucratization and monetization of good old-fashioned American FEAR.
So, if I, as a traveler, am supposed to respect the fact that I can’t say “bomb” or carry four ounces of liquid in the airport security line, then the people that police that line, the people in a position of dominance in that line, had DAMN WELL respect the fact that they are interacting with people when they are at their most vulnerable. They have a job where everyone around them is being forced to submit without question or objection and, if those officers abuse that sacred trust, they are the worst of the worst.
Being a teenage girl is hard enough. I mean, I’m assuming that as a man who was raised almost entirely by women and who has read a LOT of Judy Blume in his time. And I’m a father of a six-year-old who is one day going to become a teenage girl. And, when you become the father of a young girl, believe me, your eyes quickly open to the various disgusting levels of inequality and judgmental gaze being thrown at your daughter every day. (And, to all the women who have been aware of that inequality for every second of their lives, you have my undying respect.)
So, the idea that an agent of the law—well, corporately-outsourced airport law—decided to vocally attack a young girl, in a place where she was at her most vulnerable, and publicly shame her for the way she was dressed … it sickens me. (It also sickens me that Frauenfelder had to post a picture of what his daughter actually was wearing to head-off any suggestions that perhaps she was dressed inappropriately—FYI, she wasn’t.) The current culture of publicly shaming women for supposed flaws in their appearance is an epidemic. There are TV shows, blogs, and magazines that are entirely devoted to pointing out how “ridiculous” or “slutty” certain women look. And young girls, more than almost any other group, pick up on the poisoned atmosphere that culture of shame creates. I wish I could say that my six-year-old has never asked me if she was fat. But I can’t. (And she’s not fat. And I HATE my compulsion to let you readers know that she’s not.)
What this TSA agent did would’ve been wrong if he was mailman or a cashier or anyone else in society. BUT the fact that this officer chose to humiliate this girl, to openly suggest that she was dressed inappropriately (and all that that suggests) for all to hear, while he was in a position of supreme authority over her—it’s indefensible.
And if the officer wants to try to defend his comments as just an older man not understanding the fashions of today—BULLSHIT. If we have to take the airport security lines seriously, so do TSA agents. They work in a place where the lines between submission and dominance are possibly drawn more clearly than they are in almost any other environment outside of a penitentiary system. If you accept the job, you accept the responsibilities that come with that job. And, if you’re a human being, you don’t try to shame a child for not adhering to your own social preferences—ESPECIALLY if you’re in a position of absolute power over that child.
I really admire how Frauenfelder has handled this whole incident. He communicated the issues, he started a public debate, and he was extremely practical with how he addressed the issue with LAX management. He’s the right kind of dad. The kind that stands up for his kids and tries to show them that the world is a place where injustices can be battled and ultimately defeated. That’s the kind of world a dad (or any parent) should want for their kids. And, hopefully, the next time I’m watching my six-year-old being ushered into a backscatter advance imaging unit by a confused looking TSA agent, I’ll worry less about the power politics in post-9/11 air travel and worry more about what’s right for my daughter.
Feature Photo: hyku/Flickr
Just remember with whom you are dealing- people who couldn’t get on with the cops.
I doubt very much that screeners are hired for their intelligence- just the opposite people who will adhere to rote routine are probably best at following guidelines.
People who may or may not have passed the background check.
People amped on paranoia- we still can’t carry a pocket knife on a plane…
Shamelessly you can read at this link of two worse TSA abuses….
http://standup2p.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/21-may-2012-1504/
You can’t carry a pocket knife on a plane because the flight crew doesn’t want you to carry a pocket knife on a plane. One more group amped on paranoia I guess.
They are getting you ready for a military police state. Remember Rahm Emanuel at the beginning of the Obama admin? He was saying that there will be and Israeli style military service for homeland defense.
I come at this as someone who flies a lot. Well, I say a lot…I get on a plane at least four times a year, sometimes more. So not quite as often as, say, someone who can afford to commute to and from LA and San Francisco every week, or something…but still more often than most people. Anyway, to me the submission/dominance relationship in airport security isn’t just about security…but also about volume of people. Because there are so many people trying to get through security, and because it is such an involved process, you have to expect everyone to… Read more »
Well I have a lot of points but that’s besides the point. So what does justice look like here? The officer is done or I’m a green sea turtle. Who else should we dispatch? The supervisors on the floor, the head of training, officers who witnessed it and didn’t report it, certain managers, the director, the regional director? Real people, real decisions. You have the floor. Time to play Tywin Lannister, or if you’re really clever Tyrion…
I hope TSA is demanding 100% compliance, otherwise there isn’t much point to all the money were spending.
I would like to see them go to screened flights and unscreened flights. Although in pondering upon it a little more we would have to go to screened airports and unscreened airports. So LAX could have no TSA or private contracted screeners, and John Wayne IAP could have either. That way we could satisfy everyone.
Don’t entirely understand your point. This issue isn’t compliance. The issue is the TSA abusing their position of authority and not taking that responsibility seriously.