First they came to Phoenix. Then they came to New York and Los Angeles. Now they’ve come to Baltimore.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last month unveiled a new screening system being tested at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
The $2.1 million pilot program at BWI, called Checkpoint Evolution, features “whole body imaging” machines that give Security Screeners an eyeful including passengers’ moles, scars, sores, nipples, and genitalia. Passengers who object to giving Security Screeners a peep show can request a groping instead.
The checkpoint makeover also squanders more than $300,000 of taxpayers’ money on aesthetic improvements, including soft lighting and calming music. “By calming things down, we allow officers to interact with passengers in a way that lowers the general stress level,” Secretary Chertoff told the Baltimore Sun.
Most travelers passing through Southwest Airlines’ Terminal B checkpoint at BWI are expected to face Security Screeners trampling their Fourth Amendment rights under the Checkpoint Evolution system.
But some aren’t concerned. “As long as it’s for my safety I don’t have a problem with it,” a Baltimore woman told the Sun.
Nacktheit macht sicher.
For two decades, I worked at political jobs. Then my parents got sick, and I went home to help care for them, and they died, fourteen weeks apart, in their late 60s. And I decided that life is too dear, and too uncertain, to fritter away in political offices. I fought back the sorrow with travel, and started this blog. I believe that passions are more fun when you share them with others, and my hope is to share my passions for travel and culture with you. Welcome! Read more …