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A Privates Matter

Security hawks assure us that the full-body scanners they want to see installed in every airport don’t present any privacy concerns. But even TSA agents themselves have found that the machines reveal too much: A Transportation Security Agency employee at Miami International Airport has been arrested for attacking a co-worker who teased him about the […]

Security hawks assure us that the full-body scanners they want to see installed in every airport don’t present any privacy concerns. But even TSA agents themselves have found that the machines reveal too much:

A Transportation Security Agency employee at Miami International Airport has been arrested for attacking a co-worker who teased him about the size of his genitals after he walked through a body scanner.

Rolando Negrin, 44, was charged with aggravated battery after he used a police baton to beat Hugh Osorno on Tuesday. According to a police complaint, Negrin was upset following a training with whole body scanners with other co-workers.

Apparently, fellow agents made fun of Negrin “daily” after the scan revealed the size of hitherto hidden body parts. He attacked one of his co-workers “and then forced him to kneel down and apologize.”

The piece notes that this isn’t the first time that airport security employees have abused their power. Just a few weeks ago at Heathrow,

John Laker was issued a formal harassment warning by British police after he made a lewd remark and took a photo of the body of a female co-worker, Jo Margetson, who accidentally walked into a scanner.

Heathrow is also where Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan claims to have been approached by security agents to autograph nude pictures of himself that came out of a body scanner. The piece repeats this as fact, but it’s worth noting that Khan made the allegation on a television chat show and airport owner BAA denied that it was possible. Still, given what’s happened in the last few weeks, it at least seems plausible.

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