We’ve all been through it. Being “randomly selected” at airports. If you haven’t personally, then maybe a brother, a cousin, or a friend has. After 9/11, it’s a reality that Sikhs with turbans have had to face. And most recently, in October 2010, TSA approved a policy that basically entails mandatory extra screening for Sikhs with turbans, regardless of whether a Sikh clears the metal detector or the new AIT machines (whole body scan). Great. You’d think that with all the diversity of headgear that Americans wear, the engineers of airport security would invent a machine that would prove layers of cloth are just layers of cloth. But it’s all for the greater security of our nation, I know.
Thankfully, there is a loophole to the extra-screening policy: go to airports that don’t have screening at all! Okay, not literally, but you can go to airports that have less use of the new backscatter, radiation scanning devices that have become all the rage. A website started in 2010 by a man named Ari Ofsevit tracks the security measures at several major airports around the United States. He has color coded the level of security, ranging from green indicating no scanners, to red indicating scanners were used for all or mostly all passengers. Scanners are different from metal detectors, which are instated at every airport. So for an airport like LAX in Los Angeles, Ofsevit has recorded that scanners range from yellow to red, meaning on some instances he could choose a line without a scanner while at other times everyone had to go through scanners. However, LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York was green for the most part, meaning no scanners were being used.
Remember a couple years back when the new whole body imaging machines were causing so much controversy over privacy of the body? Well, apparently if you know how to choose the right airport, you could avoid yourself being vaguely seen by an off-site attendant altogether. As sarcastic as that sounds, I have to admit that I wish our airport security was not so inconsistent. I understand that LAX may be a more frequented airport than LGA, but what makes the people travelling through either airport any more or less threatening. If airports want to have extra security, it should be by extra and equal security. I say TSA should take heed of www.tsastatus.net, not to be threatened or annoyed that citizens are taking notice of the inconsistencies, but to improve and make consistent the security of our nation’s airports.
Coming to you from 634 S Spring Street, Jasleen K Singh