How did our country get to this point?

[xiphias]

Just got through security at Tampa airport.  Opted for a patdown instead of the backscatter.  Am still shaking from anger.  Didn't show any upset to the agents; not their fault, and didn't want to be arrested for causing a problem.  But how the HELL did out country get to the point that we are willing to be treated as probable-cause criminals for traveling?  It's unAmerican.  It's against everything a free country is supposed to be.  And I have no choice!  If I'm to visit Lis's family, I have to accept this infringement of my right to not undergo a search.

 

I have to accept that free movement around my country is now probable cause for criminal activity.  How the hell is this acceptable?

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Comments

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

It is not acceptable, seeing how it violates the Fourth Amendment listing for unreasonable search and seizure. If it is reasonable to assume it's a problem for air travel, they should also apply it to sea and rail travel, or travel with anything more powerful than a bicycle. More attacks are planned with cars than planes, after all.

Interestingly, the Constitution does not list a right to travel. That was mentioned in the Articles of Confederation but may have simply been considered too basic to even list in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

[sethg]

You have the right to travel; you just don’t have the right to travel in an airplane.

(Would a Member of Congress on the way to the Capitol be able to bypass a TSA pat-down by citing Article I, Section 6?)

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

This is one of those things where there would need to be some sort of legal ruling that travel on an airplane is somehow completely different in all ways from travel on a train, on a bus, or on a boat, as all are qualified as common carriers. I am not sure that there is such a ruling; and yet, there are no pat-downs on ferries carrying dozens of cars, buses carrying dozens of people, or trains traveling at dozens of miles per hour (hey, I had to get "dozens" in there somehow).

Privileged Characters

[(Anonymous)]

Members of Congress (and other elites) are allowed to bypass the entire TSA Security Screening process. After all, they don't need to blow up a plane to cause significant damage to this country. TSA screenings are only for the "great unwashed"