TSA Body Searches Angela Rye

People say that President-Elect Donald Trump will usher in a new era of fascism and lack of respect for rights. And perhaps he will. A man who has said that he will order torture of terrorism suspects, asks why we can't kill the family of terrorism suspects, refuses to admit that the Central Park Five were innocent and speaks approvingly of national stop-n-frisk, no doubt limited to majority Black areas, is not a man who has any great love for individual rights. I don't dispute that. My only issue with those who are suddenly discovering a fervent post-November 8th love for civil liberties is that right now, today, we are living in a country where there is less and less institutional and popular respect for or understanding of civil liberties. And this is happening under a Democratic Presidential administration headed by a former constitutional law professor. People worry about "normalizing" Trump. We have already normalized prison procedures for the entire dammed population that intends to travel by airplane. Like everyone else I have loved ones who I hope live to be as old as Methuselah. I don't want them harmed or killed by some religious nut who thinks God told him to blow up an airplane. But I also don't want them cavity searched by some bully with a badge who literally gets off on humiliating and searching people. I don't want people with "incorrect" political views harassed under color of law. As I wrote about a similar incident around airplane safety I definitely want some level of confidence that the people sitting next to me or mine on a plane have gone through the same boarding procedure as everyone else. But I would question if that procedure needs to include the touching of anyone's reproductive/excretory organs. There has to be a better way of doing this. But if I have to choose between liberty and safety I'm going to choose liberty. 

Firebrand CNN political commentator Angela Rye was subjected to a humiliating body search while trying to board a plane to New York City on Wednesday night. She posted the video to Twitter and alleged that the TSA employee who searched her twice touched her inappropriately. Rye said she was singled out for a random search and that she had not set off any metal detector alarms. The TSA called a police officer when Rye asked why she was being singled out. Officials told her she could cooperate or be escorted from the airport by police. Rye agreed, finally, to submit to the search, which covered every inch of her body, including an uncomfortable-to-watch probing of her genital area.

By the end of the search, Rye was shedding humiliated tears.

I asked the police officer to film this so I can send to @TSA. I'm hoping my humiliation will fix the system. #TSAVaginaMonologues pic.twitter.com/lypkkcpZCW

— Angela Rye! (@angela_rye) December 16, 2016

1. Metal detector and AIT (same thing). The AIT is what flagged my vag. I repeatedly refused a vaginal pat down. So they called police. https://t.co/fFtjbXW9H4

— Angela Rye! (@angela_rye) December 16, 2016

2. Even offered to go back through AIT. They told me to get the pat down or be escorted out by police.

— Angela Rye! (@angela_rye) December 16, 2016

3. Instead, the officer recorded TSA's pat down and offered to file an incident report when it was finished.

— Angela Rye! (@angela_rye) December 16, 2016

4. What she explained she would do in "back hand" pat down and the actual vaginal chop that occurred were diff. I would've preferred neither

— Angela Rye! (@angela_rye) December 16, 2016

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