Seen on Rick Forno’s Infowarrior mail list:
Subject: FW: Small business TSA decisions : Thought you guys should see this from an anonymous small business owner. the writer is not asking to be identified nor asking for credit.
I am an owner of a small business.
This morning I had to have the most unpleasant discussions with my staff concerning my company buying their plane tickets and thus causing them to lose their privacy rights.
As a business owner, I wonder what my liability is when I require my employees to fly thus subject to TSA’s gross neglience, and lack of cleanliness (not changing gloves between touching/groping other passengers personal “junk/ personal parts” ) I wonder what soft of sexually transmitted disease can be transferred to them in this manner and where my insurance rates will hike to in cost due to this heath concern. I remember the “bird flu” travel advisories and the mad cow and AIDS, besides being irradiated by mass quanities of radation, that has been proven to cause cancer.
Afterall we stopped smoking indoors to aleviate the “second hand smoke issues” as it has been proven to cause cancer. Doesn’t this fall under the same concerns?
The story I read about a young women who had her breast shown to everyone in the area, then TSA joked about it. See this story. http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-hit-with-lawsuits-as-revolt-explodes.html
One of the most disturbing, which is subject to an ongoing lawsuit, involved a 21-year-old college student from Amarillo Texas. The woman was passing through security at Corpus Christi airport on May 29 2008 when she was subjected to “extended search procedures” by the TSA.
“As the TSA agent was frisking plaintiff, the agent pulled the plaintiff’s blouse completely down, exposing plaintiffs’ breasts to everyone in the area,” the lawsuit said. “As would be expected, plaintiff was extremely embarrassed and humiliated.”
TSA workers continued to laugh and joke about the incident “for an extended period of time,” leaving the woman distraught and needing to be consoled.
After the woman re-entered the boarding area, TSA workers continued to humiliate her over the incident.
“One male TSA employee expressed to the plaintiff that he wished he would have been there when she came through the first time and that ‘he would just have to watch the video,’” the suit said.
Or this story about rape victims experiences. http://wildhunt.org/blog/2010/11/pnc-minnesota-rape-survivor-devastated-by-tsa-enhanced-pat-down.html
Can I really require my employees to be subject to this? Legally?
I also have several women in my company , one of who has been raped in the past. Who now does Not want to travel, but is in a sales role, and her job requires it. (see this story) http://pncminnesota.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/rape-survivor-devasted-by-tsa-enhanced-pat-down/
One of my employees is pregnant and she feels she cant subject her unborn child to possible birth defects due to this radation. Again I am not a doctor.
But really is TSA possibly condoning that women who don’t know their pregnant, have an airport TSA abortion? Or halfway thru the pregnancy kill the IQ of a child? http://www.perinatology.com/exposures/Physical/Xray.htm
Prior to 2 weeks gestation an exposure of 100 mGy (10 rads) may lead to death of the embryo. The dose necessary to kill 100% of human embryos or fetuses before 18 weeks’ gestation is about 5000 mGy (500 rads).
Radiation-induced noncancer health effects are unlikely at this stage of development no matter what the radiation dose. [2]. For fetuses exposed between 8-15 weeks’ gestation atomic bomb survivor data indicate that the decline in IQ score is approximately 25–31 points per 1000 mGy above 100 mGy ( 40% risk for severe mental retardation) [9].
From 16- to 25 weeks’ gestation the average IQ loss is approximately 13–21 points per 1000 mGy (per 100 rads) at doses above 700 mGy (70 rads) [2]
After 26 weeks, doses above 1000 mGy (100 rads) the risks for stillbirth and neonatal death (i.e., infant death within 28 days after birth, including stillbirth) increases [2].
I am a parent and I have to protect my small children from any person touching them inappropratley See this story. http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/news/video-child-getting-tsa-patdown-nov-19-2010
Under this I am also stopping their facebook accounts due to TSA now allowing uploading of naked passenger pictures from travelers. (see this story now they have changed their story of not storing pictures to allowing them to be uploaded to facebook). http://wondertonic.tumblr.com/post/1600226419/tsa-announces-facebook-integration-for-full-body
Lastly , I am an American citizen and thus am protected under several laws, I touch on these few I can bring up readily. Found this really fast on the internet.
18 USC Sec. 2244
…. or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the head of any Federal department or agency, knowingly engages in sexual contact with another person without that other person’s permission shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than two years, or both
(c) Offenses Involving Young Children. – If the sexual contact that violates this section (other than subsection (a)(5)) is with an individual who has not attained the age of 12 years, the maximum term of imprisonment that may be imposed for the offense shall be twice that otherwise provided in this section.
GOP lawmaker says naked body scanners violate Fourth Amendment http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/gop-lawmaker-naked-body-scanners-violate-fourth-amendment/
Under these dealt to me conditions, I / We are making the decisions to the following.
1) I will NOT fly with my family to any trips requiring flying. (sad as we finally had the tickets to Hawaii we had planned on for 5 years)
2) I will give my immediate family an early Christmas present , and NOT ask them to fly in either afterall I want to protect their privacy rights as well.
3) I choose to vacation locally or not go at all. I will not be groped and fondled or have a naked picture taken of me. that priviledge is only my wifes or husbands in Gods eyes.
4) We are making the hard choice to purchase more company vehicles , so my employees can drive to their destinations.
5) We are asking our employees to address this BEFORE we purchase their tickets / thus causing them to lose their privacy rights per TSA
6) I will NOT be voting for ANY person who condones this activity. (please join me in this ) We need to get rid of those individuals who think this is not a problem to lose our constitutional and privacy rights in the name of security that does not make us more secure.
7) We will not be hiring more persons to fill positions we had actively been trying to fill. We will instead use contractors who can deal with their companies policy on these things. Leaving less liability to our company.
8) Due to the cost of fuel and extra travel expenses due to driving or taking the train. We will choose to use to use virtual tools to have meetings rather than fly to them.
9) We are not in the porn business, and therefore we do not have the right to require these things forced upon our employees. We are also not in the heath care industry and are not nurses or doctors who are trained to look out for medical risks. We will make these choices in our good consience and ethics that we were taught and believe in.
10) We will speak to our attorneys about potential liability to our company. I suggest each of you do this.
I feel sorry for those in the business of tourism, the airlines, the hotels, the rental car companies, Has anyone even bothered to realise that in our bad economy , This will only make things worse. I will not judge you afterall unemployment is at an all time high and everyone needs to work.
What are YOU willing to do ?
What is this new policy by TSA doing to affect your business?
What are your legal liabilities under this?
Have you addressed this with your employees ?
Update/Note of 11-20: Although I realized that the author of the post had seemingly taken a satirical post about Facebook integration as serious, I did not point out that when I reproduced his post. I probably should have, lest others make the same mistake. Thanks to @windowsmachowto for calling this to my attention.