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[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 23.1 ms ] thread
"It's unfortunate that that happened and she didn't get to fly home, but it makes me feel a little safer," said Emily Protine.

A real person actually said this? Unbelievable.

I guess if rape victims are banned from flying, there will be fewer rapes on airplanes? That is the kind of logic apparently at play.

Some choice quotes:

"I understand her side of it, and their side as well, but it is for our protection so I have no problems with it," said Gwen Washington, who lives in Killeen.

"It's unfortunate that that happened and she didn't get to fly home, but it makes me feel a little safer," said Emily Protine.

"Baaaah, baaaaah.", said Traveler Three

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

flagging
Perhaps some kind person will respond by explaining why this may be an interesting new phenomenon. I'm not young enough to know everything, and I may be missing the key detail that suggests this is more than just another excuse to fire up the Libertarian Echo Chamber :-)
Libertarian Echo Chamber - this is exactly what it is
In the defense of this story, raganwald, I think statements like the one jrockway singled out in other comment could be considered a new phenomenon.

A short-lived one, I hope.

One interesting phenomenon here is people standing up against rape culture.

Another, more generally on the TSA activism, is abuse survivors, Muslins, Sikhs, transgendered people, moms and computer security experts, as well as civil liberties and privacy organizations organizing and standing up for civil liberties.

I hope the ACLU takes this case to the supreme court. This Orwellian policy needs to be examined and the sooner the better.
EPIC's case is the farthest along; the government is trying to delay, but the first hearing may be in December. Plaintiffs include Bruce Schneier and Chip Pitts (Stanford Law professor and former head of Amnesty International USA).

ACLU's part of the "Privacy Coalition" along with EPIC, BORDC, EFF, and a lot of other groups ... they coordinate pretty well on issues like this to avoid duplicated effort.

    An ABIA spokesman says it is TSA policy
    that anyone activating a security alarm
    has two options.  One is to opt out and
    not fly, and the other option is to subject
    themselves to an enhanced pat down.
Extra checking on someone who actually sets off the alarm doesn't seem all that unreasonable.
Does telling a rape survivor that she has to have her breasts groped in order to fly seem reasonable?