In past columns, I have lamented how our government has not only stripped away core civil liberties from citizens, but that citizens have become increasing passive and accepting of the loss of such freedoms. A new poll conducted by Harris Interactive offers a particularly chilling measure of just how passive and accepting citizens have become to the new realities of our internal security system. The poll found almost one third of American adults would accept a “TSA body cavity search” in order to fly. Moreover a majority believes that it is reasonable to criminalize the act of disobeying any TSA agent.
The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Infowars from November 5-7 among 2059 American adults. People were asked: “Given the recent reports concerning the threat posed by terrorists who plan to implant bombs within their own bodies, how willing, if at all, would you be to undergo a TSA body cavity search in order to fly?” Thirty percent said yes.
Notably, the Supreme Court recently gave prisons and jails virtually carte blanche to conduct strip searches on anyone who have been arrested and jailed in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, 566 U.S. ___ (2012). In a 5-4 decision, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that officials may strip-search individuals who have been arrested for any crime before they are simply put in a cell, even minor offenses. The dissenting justices noted that a recent study conducted in New York under the supervision of federal courts found that out of 23,000 people searched, only one inmate had hidden contraband in his body in a way that would have avoided detection by x-ray and a pat-down. That did not matter to the majority which stripped away protections for citizens, even those arrested for the most minor offenses.
Decisions like Florence are part of a broader erosion of expectations in our society. Citizens are becoming used to government intrusions and searches.
Citizens now treat security officials as naturally posing unchecked authority over their lives. Almost 60 percent found that a law allowing for the arrest of citizens would be appropriate if they disobey any order by a TSA agent.
The fact is that there has always been a sizable group of Americans who accept and even relish a dominance by authority. There are some who simply favor more authoritarian measures and readily embrace the loss of freedoms. However, if accurate, this poll is a chilling measure of the erosion of the expectations of privacy and rights by average Americans in the expanding internal security state.
Source: Infowars
Anonymously: “We’ve got a whole ugly lot of them (authoritarian types) and need to get them under control, to the degree that we can, over the next four years.”
I don’t know if you heard, but the guy in charge for the next four years is the same guy that was in charge for the past four years – during which most of this has been ramping up. 😉
Although….. maybe his first term was only for getting the feels of things.
Maybe in the next four years he will
– stop being a Bush clone
– really shut down GITMO – or at least ensure that the detainees known to have no guilt die in GITMO beach bungalows rather than in cells
– unsign the NDAA – so the the next guy won’t use its powers
– introduce an Amendment to make torture/enhanced-interrogation unconstitutional (it doen’t appear to be so currently) – so the next guy won’t reinstate it (as Romney said that he would)
— while not having to prosecute thse who tortured and/or dreamt up text to make it un-torture, he could at least make it clear that torture is at the very least extremely naughty.
– stop waging war on whistleblowers who reveal illegality and gross waste
– stop waging war on the rest of the world
– stop giving people reasons to become terrorists
– (huge list of stuff, including the question of security theatre)
He’ll really have to use his full authority for this.
No wait!
Yes he can.
“I don’t know if you heard, but the guy in charge for the next four years is the same guy that was in charge for the past four years”
Sling T,
No doubt Romney would have been a tenacious guardian of our freedoms.
You can’t trust the TSA with your lugage now they want to go in even deeper?
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free”
Johann Wolfgang Von Goerthe
Must be the nonflying one third
Friday, Jan 20, 2012
Creeping authoritarianism on Capitol Hill
What we can learn from one congressman’s convoluted defense of the NDAA
By John Knefel
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/20/creeping_authoritarianism_on_capitol_hill/
“This is how civil liberties get eroded: not by landslides, but by glaciers. Inch by inch. Those who claim to believe in liberty sacrifice it for the illusion of security, all the while holding themselves up as staunch defenders of the American Way. To whatever extent Gibson believes his own rhetoric about the importance of the Bill of Rights, his actions tell a different story, a story of illusion trumping logic and fact.
The greatest threat to America is the steady drip of, “I’ll concede that point,” but, after all, you’re citing a fringe example from which we can’t extrapolate. We are a Free Country, and no bill or act or presidential decree can take that away. Those who find comfort in that line of reasoning – and Gibson has plenty of company in both parties – are, whether they know it or not, acting as authoritarians. They must confront their own complacency and reverse course if they wish to actually defend civil liberties, instead of just claiming they do.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/18/compliance-the-year-s-most-controversial-film.html
“Compliance: The Year’s Most Controversial Film”
Aug 18, 2012
“Based on a true story, the provocative indie film Compliance has caused walkouts and post-screening shouting matches. Marlow Stern examines the real-life incidents that inspired the film and speaks with the film’s director and star.
On April 9, 2004, a man identifying himself as a policeman named “Officer Scott” phoned a McDonald’s in Mount Washington, Ky., and gave a vague description to assistant manager Donna Summers of a young woman with dark hair suspected of theft. The officer said he had received a report from the store’s manager, Lisa Siddons, who he claimed was on the other line. Summers believed that Louise Ogborn, an 18-year-old girl on duty, fit the description, and was ordered by the “cop” to take her to a back room. There, the man over the phone gave Ogborn an ultimatum: submit to a strip search or be arrested and taken to the police station.”
Or you could do the right thing and repeal the Patriot Act and dismantle the TSA (and the DHS). -Gene H.
Yes, …as well as deal with the FAA ( FISA Amendments Act, in this case). Wyden is one of the few who seems to really get it.
Thanks for the link. Listen to the Whitehead interview, if you get the change. He reinforces the same point.
If there were any doubt remaining about what Americans actually want, this poll should erase it. The United Sheeple of America have spoken.
Mike S.,
We’ve got a whole ugly lot of them (authoritarian types) and need to get them under control, to the degree that we can, over the next four years. Thanks for posting the link.
As someone who suffered through a full body cavity inspection after Kent State at the hands of the Jackson County jail guards, anyone who thinks this is appropriate for all travelers needs to experience it, just once.
“Despite the fact that this policy is already underway in some instances, a full 65% of American adults found TSA workers touching genitals “completely” or “somewhat unacceptable”. A further 35% of American adults found this “completely” or “somewhat acceptable”. More Republicans than Democrats (12% to 9%) were likely to find this “completely acceptable”.
That certainly explains a lot about Republicans.
However, the observation that Americans tend to think “this happens to other people” is a valid one. Sorry, but this kind of behavior from the government is not acceptable (with the exception of in-processing prisoners who have been rightfully arrested, tried and/or sentenced or with the appropriate warrant). People willing to have some stranger stick their fingers in them – and let’s not sugar coat this, that is what a body cavity search is – over something that is about as likely to kill you as your own furniture? Are out of their minds. I don’t like people I don’t know touching me much less performing an invasive body cavity search. You better be my doctor acting on reasonable medical grounds or someone I love a lot to even try that. I promise you won’t like my reaction otherwise. It involves you bleeding and possibly enjoying multiple contusions and broken bones. Self defense is a primary right and one of the few that can and does remain nearly absolute in a society.
A body cavity search is battery.
I’ll respond to it with self-defense in any situation other than the prescribed very narrow exceptions. And gettin’ on your lil’ plane is an excuse that ain’t gettin’ the job done either.
Now, you 12% of Republicans? Ya’ll need to find a better way to entertain yourselves. If you enjoy that sort of thing? Keep it at home and away from everyone else’s Constitutional rights.
Or you could do the right thing and repeal the Patriot Act and dismantle the TSA (and the DHS).
I mean furniture. Really?
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/06/americans-are-as-likely-to-be-killed-by-their-own-furniture-as-by-terrorism/258156/
SlingT,
lol (Thanks.)
If you have nothing in your cavities, you have nothing to fear.
“The fact is that there has always been a sizable group of Americans who accept and even relish a dominance by authority. There are some who simply favor more authoritarian measures and readily embrace the loss of freedoms.”
At the risk of self-promotion, I wrote the following last year and I think it explains the results of this poll:
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/01/21/the-authoritarians-a-book-review-and-book/
“It is a very sad thing indeed that so many citizens of this country have been willing participants in the destruction of our liberties. The simple act of NOT demanding an end to these infractions makes them a participant. Everyone who is able to speak up for themselves must. I fear for our futures.” -Evelyn
Yes, yes, and yes.
I think it’s most likely that 30% of the respondents have no clue what a body cavity search even is. Ever watch Leno? There are some really ignorant people out there.
This blog is getting closer to real concerns about airlines and getting from point A to point B for reasons of C. Just the other day JT was itchinBay about his flight getting cancelled from New Orleans to DC because of the Hurricane. And he had to dirve! He did not report in about getting a finger up his arse when he hit the DC border. So maybe driving is better than flying. At least when one drives a car one does not have to sit next to a 300 lb nun who farts often and snoozes the whole trip with her head on your shoulder and a booger hanging off her nose. And that is the way I see it through my own eyes.
Look, the lack of dental care in this country can be appalling. It’s good if someone wants to offer a free cavity search!
Kay S, I agree that “there were people who were aware that bad things were happening but didn’t protest and then bad things happened to them,” but there are, of course, 1,000 different variables, at least, in each individual’s choice of what response they are about to make to a situation they find bad. In general, I just find it easier to avoid the extremes (Holocaust, etc.) when analyzing ordinary human behavior. I have spent my whole life wondering what I would have done and how I would have acted had I been a non-Jewish German over the age of reason in the 1930s. But an analysis of ORDINARY human behavior (which is where the poll of the Americans about air travel would be aimed) won’t help me or, probably, anyone else, answer that question.