In 2004, I was challenged very loudly and roughly in Heathrow airport in London by a young woman, an airport employee, and scanned and patted down by her while her male co-worker watched. I was then 68 years old, undyed white hair, basically just toddling along heading for the next lineup I had to go through. I very much doubt that I looked or acted like a terrorist. I didn't complain, just sighed and put up with it, until she decided to let me go. What I thought was, 'She's a little Fascist in training. Imagine what she'd be like if she were a guard in a women's prison or in a mental hospital, instead of in the public eye." Then I forgot about it.
In February I was in an Arizona airport, between planes. My luggage had been examined when I boarded in Vancouver. The airport personnel were courteous, but insisted that the luggage be de-planed, opened by us, inspected by them, then re-planed.
Was this because they feared someone had put terrorist weapons in our bags while they were in the cargo hold on the plane?
But some items in the media brought it back to mind. There's the case of 'Robin', who is suing the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department for 10 million dollars. She was beaten up by one employee while two others held her. The video footage of the attack was shown on the Dr. Phil show on September Sept 26, 2008, and can be viewed at drphil.com under the heading "Fighting the System". The footage shows that she did not resist them in any way. She has brain damage from having her head pounded into a metal table multiple times. Her offense: to have a bottle of eye drops in her luggage.
I will be travelling by Amtrak when in the U.S. and ViaRail in Canada. If I go to Europe it will be by cruise ship. Air travel is just too insane.
Do people worry about the special powers given to anti-terrorist arms of government? We should. The Nazis had special forces that basically could go anywhere and do anything in the name of national security, and this type of power is like catnip to a cat: it's exciting. And it attracts a certain bullying type of personality. It wasn't long, in Germany, before brutal abuses of power so cowed the German people that they just decided to shut up and keep a low profile. Ideal public behavior in a fascist state.
Is is time to rein in the watchdogs?
