New York — Today on the steps of City Hall, Councilman David G. Greenfield was joined by Council Members Gale Brewer, Fernando Cabrera, Debi Rose, Robert Jackson, Jumaane Williams, and Brad Lander in support of legislation that would ban the use of full body scanners in New York City, including New York’s two airports – JFK International Airport and LaGuardia Airport. The Council Members were also joined by privacy expert Marc Rotenberg, a professor of law at Georgetown University and President of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), who is leading a lawsuit to suspend the deployment of body scanners at US airports, pending an independent review.
Earlier this week, Councilman Greenfield proposed legislation to ban the use of full body scanners, also known as “naked body scanners,” in New York City. Passengers who pass through these scanners, which cost nearly $200,000 each, have clear images of their nude bodies displayed to a Transportation Safety Administration employee, which Homeland Security officials says make travel safer. However, leading international security experts disagree.
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Good for them, but what about the enhanced pat-downs? Those are also entirely unreasonable and potentially more traumatic than the machines to children and/or assault survivors.
I cannot entirely avoid flying, but I would gladly drive a few hundred miles in a rental car in order to use an airport with sane security procedures.
One final thought: New Yorkers take terrorisism extremely seriously. (We all do, but the good people of New York have been personally impacted in ways the rest of us will hopefully never know). If those machines get banned in the Big Apple, I think you’re going to start seeing them disappear elsewhere as well. Fingers crossed.
I agree with Susan – steps need to be taken to stop the sexual abuse of children and others.