I shouldn't joke about this story but it's just so frustratingly WTF? An eight year old boy appears to be on the no-fly list and has been for the past seven years. All because he has the same name as a real grown-up person that apparently belongs on the no-fly list.
Michael Hicks, aged 8, has been patted down thoroughly and scrutinized more than the average traveler, much less child, at pretty much every airport security check point he's hit since his second birthday. And the kid has flown quite a few times in his young life. This, of course, makes air travel more stressful for his family than it already is under normal circumstances.
I've had my reservations about this 'no-fly' list when it was first created post 9/11 because it appeared to cast a pretty wide net around certain names of certain origins. It just seemed to me to be an excuse to detain people for no more reason than their nationality or name.
But I really must wonder about those who execute and enforce the no-fly list, is there no clause for using common sense? Do they think it's a test of the emergency terrorist system implemented by the Terrorist Screening Center? Do they really think an eight-year old Boy Scout is going to be the next Underoo Bomber? Do they really need to feel up his entire body just in case?
By the way, this is Mikey Hicks:
Why are they consistently subjecting this child to being physically examined more than the average wand wave, picked for those 'random' extra screenings, and/or given the security stink eye each time he travels? Why, TSA, why?
Well, the TSA states that no children are on the no-fly list. Including Mikey.
Unbelievable. I'm sorry TSA, but I find it hard to believe that he isn't on the list when I read how the mother describes their trips to the airport. As soon as her son checks in at the ticket counter the trouble begins; his name is flagged and then it's all bureaucratic bullshit - and patdowns and frisks and screenings - in order to get him on the plane without being taken in aside for even more screening. And even that doesn't always work.
Look, I get that original purpose of the list may have had the best of intentions (maybe) and the purpose was to protect those who fly (instead of maybe giving them reason to arrest someone just because). But one must wonder who and what are slipping through airport security (ed. note: grown-up underwear bombers with underwear bombs) while guards are frisking an eight-year old kid who obviously only wants to get to his grandma's house.
I think the world might be getting more stupid.
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