On September 12 in Washington D.C. , a boy by the name of Leonardo Sanchez was stuck under a bean chair at the West Jordan Child Center, while the employee who worked there then sat on the beanbag chair to read to the other children and suffocated the young boy to death. It is still unclear how the boy went unnoticed, and when asked about how she couldn’t hear or feel him, and she calls this event a tragic accident. Since this event, no charges have been pressed and it is still under investigation.…
United States of America’s citizen Ralph Timberlake wrote the following letter to the Federal Aviation Administration seeking redress. Dear Equal Opportunity Specialist Julio Guadalupe. Licensed airplane pilot Ralph Timberlake is writs regarding the Aviation and Transportation Security Act and the Federal Aviation Administration regulations. The Wallace State Community College officials are interpolating, misinterpreting, and absconded the Alien Flight Student Program identification requirement and its tenet. The Alien Flight Student Program goal is to vet foreign flight students for terrorist propensity; however, the Wallace State Community College officials are insalubrious, abominably, and maliciously discriminating against Airmen Timberlake…
Millions of people fly annually. Almost everyone has or will travel by plane in his lifetime whether he is traveling for the holidays, visiting family, or important business trips. This must mean that they must have been at an airport, and if they have been to an airport, that means they have shared the experience of airport scanners. After 9/11, security measures have been increased which seems to have led to racial profiling. The major frustrations for many Americans are the Airport Security Scanners. Scanners were created since 1992 when Dr. Steven Smith first created them. Their primary purpose is to detect anyone who is trying to smuggle any harmful object or substance that could be used as a weapon onto a plane. Some welcome the machines as protection and others see as the same threat the scanners try to pick up. It now bubbles down to the question “Should scanners or pat-downs be required to go through if one wants to travel by plane?”…
We then get to the Screeners, which can detect anything! Except what the machine is missing are the employees that will be looking at it! Now to the fun part, this is when we get “felt up” by the security guards, and if were lucky enough we can even get strip searched. We dress and undress more times at an airport, then a stripper at a burlesque theater. Now on to the emptying of our pockets and the journey of our personal belongings on their way through a “cat-scan” looking machine! Then we walk through another machine that has a mind of it’s own which approves or disapproves of us. I feel so bad for the passenger that has to walk through about five times to see if there carrying anything illegal on board! In the end the employees find out that the “BEEP” noise that was coming from the machine for the last five minutes was because of the metal plate in the passengers knee, who would of thought? That is also where you get the twenty-one questioner, “ Are you carrying any guns, knives, or any type of explosive?”, “ Do you plan to blow up the plane?”, and “ Was hijacking a plane written down in your planner?”…
post and noticed it was unguarded and ran to go sound the alarm. A baggage handler named…
Safety and security is important and a high priority for anyone. As a result of several events, such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the now infamous Christmas day “Underwear Bomber” transportation security has been revamped and reinvented to protect innocent people from religious/political extremists and crazies alike. In some cases, measures of heightened security have been praised such as the hiring of more security guards or the addition of more metal detectors to airport security in particular. In other cases, controversy and outrage have erupted worldwide like in the case of the digital full body scanners, sometimes referred to as “virtual strip searches.” The Department of Homeland Security defends the scanners, reasoning that in unsafe and unsure times citizens need to sacrifice for their safety. The Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, defends the scanners the most, doing their best to dispel all rumors of misuse, invasion of privacy, and health risks cited by the scanners opponents and also have allowed an alternative pat down instead of being scanned if the passenger so wishes. The TSA also goes on further to implement strict rules and regulations for the use of the scanners, restricting all images from being saved or duplicated and training security officers extensively to be professional toward passengers with the new and extreme measures taken (Bennett). Although these new security measures have support and justification, are the measures being taken too extreme? Many are wary of the body scanners and alternative pat downs because of privacy invasions, health risks, and cost.…
“There is very little evidence that the TSA has ever stopped a terrorist, let alone a bombing”. Slate. November 18, 2010. Yet, Americans want to know…
“Passengers flying Flight QF563, your gate is now open for boarding”, I peacefully sipped what remained of my coffee and waited for Joshua to finish his bacon and egg roll. Shortly after, we began to make our way to our designated gate. The smell of low-priced takeout food filled the air and couldn’t help, but leave me feeling overly excited. My son and I navigated our way through the clustered crowds of other keen travellers, following the signs above our heads as well as the announcements that were played through the speakers at the airport.…
I woke up tired on a beautiful, sunny, Tuesday morning. It was the day I had to fly to San Francisco for my job on a cruise ship. I had been in between cruises, so I had taken the chance to come see my parents in Newark, New Jersey. Later I realized that it could have cost me dearly. I changed into my pressed, white, long sleeved shirt with khaki pants and my sailors hat that I had to wear for my job as a deckhand. I arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport a hour before my flight, where I hug my parents goodbye. I walk in and go through security easily and go to my gate and wait for thirty minutes until we would be able to board.…
Prevention should then proceed to the ticketing counter, where if doubt of a person's integrity is prevalent, their boarding pass can be denied and the suspect taken into federal custody. For those of the "terrorist" appearance, a different and more conclusive set of questions should be used to unveil possible threats. The following are…
Stop and frisk is a serious matter just like Nicholas K. Peart talks about in his article “…
Soon after takeoff, after having his cigarette, bourbon, and a soda, Cooper handed a note to one of the two stewardesses on the plane (Warchol 1; “D.B. Cooper” 1). The stewardess, Florence Schaffner, planned to read it later until one of the other passengers urged her to take a look at it (“D. B. Cooper” 1). The note read, “I HAVE A BOMB IN MY BRIEFCASE. I WILL USE IT IF NESSECARY. I WANT YOU TO SIT NEXT TO ME. YOU ARE BEING HIJACKED” (Vartabedian). Cooper requested $200,000 in $20 bills and four parachutes. The FBI supplied the money and parachutes and because they feared he would jump with other;s they did not dare to tamper with the parachutes. At the Seattle Airport, Cooper released all the passengers and one stewardess in exchange for his demands.…
Stereotyping and discrimination based simply on a difference in race are two things that are continually discouraged yet continue even today in the most recent of times. Since the wake of September 11, racial profiling in airports has been heavily enforced in order to ensure the safety of Americans. In several instances, the stopping of virtually all Arab or "suspicious" peoples has proved to be advantageous in that those incriminated intended on causing harm to others. Furthermore, airport security has done a superb job in pinpointing the true terrorist, any person of a different race. This twisted view of justice must be recognized and must be stopped. The "random" stopping of people before and after they board a plane not only violates that person's personal rights, but it creates an artificially induced hatred to a particular group of people as well as demonstrates the overall ignorance associated with racism.…
5 AM, and my alarm clock starts buzzing. I begin preparing for the long journey I am about to embark on. A 12 hour flight to Israel, I pack up my last few things for the backpack I will be carrying with me on the flight. 30 minutes later I am already getting dropped off at the airport. Now comes the hard part checking in and passing the security checkpoint. This process is long and tiring, after finally passing it now I have to wait about an hour and a half to board the plane.…
I can remember it as if it happened yesterday. I walked into the building, and went to the front desk with my family. We all proceeded to empty out our pockets into a bin and then we turned and walked through security checkpoint. My father was first one through the metal detector, and it went off. He tried to explain that he had his hips replaced, but they still brought him into a room to search him. I was next, and this time through the metal detector, holding my breath, I arrived at the other side without it going off. Nevertheless, they still pulled me to the side and patted my entire body down. The rest of my family went through, and received the same treatment as I had.…