Is Security Out of Control?

In the almost 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, we have seen quite the tightened security at airports and on board planes.  Obviously we want to avoid any further terrorist attacks, but is security a bit out control by now?  You be the judge:

Yukari Mihamae was arrested and charged with a count of sexual assault after allegedly grabbing the breast of a TSA agent after a pat-down.  Honestly, I don't blame her. If you have ever been subjected to a pat-down, you know how thorough they are...not much left untouched. She has taken on a bit of a folk hero status, and searching Facebook, I found 5 pages for her, 1 calling for her conviction, the other 4 to help her.

In Tennesee, a mother was arrested when yelling and cursing at TSA agents after refusing a full body scan and pat-down of her daughter, telling them she "didn't want her daughter's crotch grabbed".

In Destin, Florida, a 95 year old woman in the final stages of leukemia, was asked to remove her adult diaper to complete a pat down search.  Seriously?  I understand not wanting to exempt anyone from the security standards, but do we have to remove all human decency in it all?

ACLU reported in November 2010 that they had received over 900 complaints in November alone over the security measures enforced at airports.   Complaints included the following excerpts:

• “The TSA agent used her hands to feel under and between my breasts. She then rammed her hand up into my crotch until it jammed into my pubic bone.”
• “I cried throughout the groping and have had intrusive thoughts since. It was humiliating.”
• “The procedure was violating, degrading, invasive and humiliating.”
• “It was so rough that I felt the effects of it throughout the day.”
• “I do not feel safer. I feel violated.”

Additional excerpts can be read online at: www.aclu.org/passengers-stories-recent-travel

Some are really fed up, like John Corbett who has filed a lawsuit against TSA for violating his 4th Amendment Rights.  So far there is no ruling in the case, but you can find more information on his efforts here. 

YouTube, is  by now flooded with videos of children being patted down, strip searched, and according to parents - violated by TSA agents. All with the same complaint that TSA is out of control.  A comment posted on one of these videos might be a good measure of what people across the pond is thinking: "That is one of the reason people from civilized countries don't want to travel in that Zionist hellhole."

What are your thoughts?  Do we have a good balance between security at our airports and the passengers' privacy, or has our fears  gotten the best of us allowing security to completely take overhand? 

While pondering that, let me end this with a quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”