(Raising his hand) Pick me!

Posted by Marc Hodak on November 18, 2010 under Government service, Invisible trade-offs | Be the First to Comment

As the TSA begins offering U.S. citizens the choice between having their genitalia displayed on a screen or having them groped by an agent, a top TSA Administrator defends the intrusion with this question:

“If you have two planes, one where people are thoroughly and properly screened and the other where people could opt out of screening, which would you want to be on?” he asked.

Frankly, I think the choice above is a tough call because I put so little credence in the efficacy of our full-blown security theater, but I do appreciate at least some passenger screening.  But the question itself is simply a TSA administrator’s leading question, a form of intellectual coercion, designed to justify the physical abuse.  He could have asked his question a million different ways that would better reflect the sensibilities of the citizens whose intelligence he insults:

1)  “If you have two planes, one where people are thoroughly and properly screened*, and the other where they they are screened marginally better than they were in the 1990s, which would you want to go on?“

2)  “If you have two planes, one where people are thoroughly and properly screened*, and the other where they just had random bag searches and well-trained agents ready to ask additional questions, which would you want to go on?”

3) “If you have two planes, one where people are thoroughly and properly screened*, and the other where certain fliers were non-randomly selected for screening, which would you want to be on?” he asked.

I know the last alternative is an invitation to racial profiling, but as someone with somewhat Moroccan features, I might still choose an airport security system where I’m slightly delayed going through it, but I’m unlikely to be delayed behind Pa Kettle, Grandma Myrtle, and little Bobby and Susie, waiting their turn to be searched for shoe bombs and box cutters.

And if the government really had any conviction around that administrator’s question, it would allow the airlines to give their passengers a choice among screening regimes, including opting out, to test the regulators assumption that people would tolerate any intrusion in the name of safety.

* I.e., told to remove their shoes, separate their laptops from their other baggage, present their liquids in plastic bags of an approved size, and parade before a denuding apparatus…