Via Techdirt I found this Politico article that reports the TSA demonstrated its groping enhanced pat-down to Congress. Apparently, the demonstration was not as well received as the TSA hoped:
The comprehensive briefing of House staff, by a TSA deputy, covered everything – the threat from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, screening procedures, pat-downs (standard and enhanced) – “the whole works,” one House staffer who attended the briefing told POLITICO.
He said that several House staffers were uncomfortable and averted their eyes when the TSA demonstrated an enhanced pat-down in the room of 200 people.
“The dumbest part: they did two pat-down demonstrations – male on male, and female on female,” the House staffer said. And they used a young female TSA volunteer “and in front of a room of 200 people, they touched her breasts and her buttocks. People were averting their eyes. The TSA was trying to demonstrate ‘this is not so bad,’ but it made people so uncomfortable to watch, that people were averting their eyes.”
“They shot themselves in the foot,” the staffer continued.
I think that the organizers of National Opt-Out Day hoped passengers would have similar reactions if they saw fellow travelers being groped in public. Such scenes at airport security did not occur thanks to the TSA's decision to shut down the scanners at many airports, thus removing the "opt-out" option. Of course, if the State must decide between protecting its subjects' lives or protecting its legitimacy, it will always decide the latter. Subjects are replaceable; the State's legitimacy is not.
I would like to think that the reactions of House staffers would lead to an end to enhanced pat-downs at the very least. But I'm not optimistic.
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