Letter from the US

BY: BOBBY  M. JAVIER My best buddy, Ric Clet, encouraged me to write something that I am candid about. Believe me, I have many issues that I want to discuss which I find very interesting and I want to know what other people think about it. An issue that recently bothered me is "AIRPORT SECURITY"   in the United States. After that ruinous incident, 9/11, the Homeland Security Department was organized then under that the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) was established which one of its responsibilities is airport security. I have been involved in all kinds of security jobs. First during my military days then I just recently concluded 25 years of dedicated service to serve and protect. Obviously I am all out, 100%, when security is mentioned. I used to say and believe that there were certain nationalities, races and colors of people that needed to be checked and searched before stepping in and wandering around America. I was a true believer of that! I was doing a lot of flying from the city that I reside on to the city where I was earning an honest living. Those cities were states apart which needed 1 hour of flight time and 30 minutes to depart and reach a gate. I never had any kind of trouble going through TSA's metal detectors and carry on items scanners. It was a breeze!  As a matter of fact, I was so proud of these ladies and gentlemen for doing an excellent job for national security sake. Last December 1, I was flying back from work to home. It was a cold autumn day in San Francisco and so as in Las Vegas. As always, I was wearing my summer clothes (t-shirt, shorts and tennis shoes only) because this is my clothing of choice all year round for so many years and I love the feeling of the cold air all over my body. A good thing finally came to an end: what used to be a breeze became a traumatic experience. As I was about to walk through the metal detector, a TSA officer stopped me and instructed  me to stand inside this vertical space capsule look alike which will perform a body scan on me.  I asked the officer, "why me?' he replied, "You don't have to fly if you don't want to". The answer to a licit query was rude but since there was an urgent need for me to reach my destination I submitted. Moments after the scanner performed its job, I stepped out of that thing feeling that I was not like the other travelers: I was suspected of being a bad person, I was the enemy that they were looking for and I am here to destroy America. I was completely disturbed by the situation! You might ask "Why?" I invested about 27 years of my life loving and caring for America and there is nothing that I would do to decimate this beautiful country. The more important question that must be asked, "what probable cause (specific reason) that the officer had to choose me for the full body scanner search?" I was dressed liked I was going to the beach and more than likely did not have anything hidden in me. As opposed to the others who were wearing hats, layers of clothes and more than likely had something in them that was considered contraband. In my several years in law enforcement, I have performed countless pat and strip searches and all had a probable cause. It is illegal to search someone or a place without a probable cause that can be properly articulated or a search warrant. Failure to do so or have a search warrant is a serious violation of our civil rights: invasion of privacy and freedom from illegal search. I would imagine that the answer to this question is for the interest of national security, period. "Why was I picked?" The officer had many to choose from but he did it "randomly" and it just happened to be me or my turn. He did not choose the others maybe because the person was black or maybe because had middle-eastern features and can be accused of profiling or racist and can be sued. I would imagine that the answer to my question is "random search", period. What is the rationale behind random and what triggers the random search? Do not get me wrong, I am 100% for the security of the country and a believer that this can be successfully achieved by searches. But when does what appears to be an entitlement by an officer by means of random searches crosses abuse of power in the pretence of national security? I highly recommend that to ensure the safety and security of the nation's airport and air transport and to prevent being singled out and not to have that traumatic experience, everybody should be search in the same manner regardless of what tool of the trade is used.  Changes to the current procedure (random searches) must be done immediately to prevent giving too much power to both the TSA and Homeland Security who is slowly showing that they are untouchable and anything that they say or do should be unequivocal.