Pirate's Cove

It is simply amazing what the ACLU will complain about. If it has anything to do with protecting the American People, you can guarantee a whine and cheese fest. Now, they do not want people talking to other people. To start at the beginning:

The Transportation Security Administration plans to train screeners at 40 major airports next year to pick out possible terrorists by engaging travelers in a casual conversation to detect whether a person appears nervous or evasive and needs extra scrutiny.

The new security technique, already in use at some airports, adds a psychological dimension to screening by trying to find high-risk passengers based on how they act at checkpoints or boarding gates.

Passengers who raise suspicions will undergo extra physical screening and could face police questioning.

Airports in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Detroit and Miami recently began using the technique.

Sounds good to me. I prefer to make it to my destination in one piece. I’m sure you do too. It is a wise idea. It also makes a person feel a little better as a passenger, with these people who are working to protect us (mostly) talking to us and looking in our eyes. The screener who did this in Raleigh seemed nice, while, in the past, she would have seemed surly.

Here is where the ACLU comes in to play

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says the technique leads to racial profiling and has sued to stop a behavior-screening program run by the Massachusetts State Police at Boston’s Logan International Airport. That program, the first at a U.S. airport when it began in 2002, was challenged last year after a black ACLU official said he was questioned and threatened with arrest if he didn’t show identification.

"If you’re going to allow police to make searches, question people and even make arrests based on criteria rather than actual evidence of criminality, you’re going to have racial profiling," says Barry Steinhardt, a privacy law specialist at the ACLU.

Racial profiling? On the basis of one person who did not show his ID. Hmm. Aren’t you supposed to show your ID at the airport? At RDU you show it at least 3-4 times (if you are checking luggage.) So, apparently talking to people, looking them in the eyes, is now racial profiling. I guess it doesn’t matter that almost every single hijacking has been by Middle Eastern men. And, maybe the screeners can pick out someone who has been drinking already, and can warn the flight crew and air marshall on that persons flight, just to be on the safe side.

Jay at Stop The ACLU writes:

I don’t understand, are the ACLU saying that only brown-skinned males between the ages 17 and 45 years old are shifty eyed, avoid eye contact, and act nervous when asked simple routine questions? Are these the only people that might wear coats in the middle of summer?

Seems to be what they are saying. But it is "racist" to call them out for their obvious hypocrisy idiocy, Jay, or so the ACLU would probably brand you in their "take our position or you are Hitler" mentality. They are not quite "hinged."

But, I have never seem anyone at the ACLU complain about the security screening process at airports itself. Do they have a warrant to do that? Sure, you give your consent when booking your tickets. But you do not have a choice. This is a government forced system to search people and their belongings, possibly sensitive, private, and personal. You are told to accept the terms or don’t fly. Seems rather fascist to me. Yet the ACLU has no problem with this system. It is not a private one, but a government sponsored, legislated, monitored, and run program. Which seems to be A-OK for the ACLU folks.

As long as the screeners do not talk to anyone.

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