Enhanced pat-downs coming to a stadium near you

pat-down before the game (Credit: USA Today)

Madison Ruppert, Contributing Writer
Activist Post

The NFL has officially recommended that every fan be subjected to the same invasion of privacy known as the “enhanced pat-down,” better characterized as a grope-down, utilized by the TSA around the nation, both in and outside airports.

Why is the NFL pushing such a dehumanizing, time consuming, inefficient and absolutely useless policy? Well, the NFL and USA Today would tell you it is because someone illegally used a taser in a fight at a football game.

They claim that these enhanced pat-downs will only extend from the knees to the ankles, but can we really trust this? The NFL can do just about anything and everything they want, since you not only agree to be there but pay to be there.

This is the justification that was used in 2007 when a federal appeals court upheld the Constitutionality of pat-downs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned three previous court decisions and said that by consenting to the pat downs, you lose your Constitutional right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure and the right to challenge searches that breach the 4th Amendment.

The three-judge panel added that you don’t have a Constitutional right to watch a football game, your ticket can be revoked for any reason, and that by being aware of the search policy you also have no right to contest it.

So, if the NFL decided to continue to “enhance” the pat-down and include the groin and breasts like the TSA procedure that even applies to children, 95-year-old terminal cancer patients and adults with the mental capacity of a 2-year-old, they would have nothing stopping them.

I believe that we can expect that most people will accept anything to get their access to their personal bread and circus obsession. The same inane reasons the three-judge panel cited in 2007 could be utilized to force fans to accept almost anything imaginable.

As I clearly put forth in my analysis and refutation of the most recent counterterrorism propaganda piece published by the Homeland Security Policy Institute and George Washington University, the threat of terrorism is not nearly as great at a football game as the risk of driving or simply walking at night in many cities in the United States.

Of course the NFL’s ludicrous security measures are called “an essential layer of security in an age of constant terrorism threats” when in reality you have a much greater risk of getting raped or murdered in America than ever being killed or injured in a terrorist incident.

Furthermore, the “age of constant terrorism threats” would better be characterized as the years of 1980 and 1981. Since then, the FBI has recorded far less terrorist incidents, in fact drastically so.

The NFL is pushing this insane measure through something called their “Best Practices policies,” and it is expected to impact an immense 16.6 million fans during the regular football season.

All that USA Today has to say about the ridiculousness of bringing an enhanced pat-down to a sports stadium and forcing even more Americans to allow their rights to be trampled on is that, “It’s sure to raise the ire of some fans who consider it an invasion of privacy.”

For any sane person in the United States that prizes their liberty, this should be considered yet another affront to the American way of life.

While I do not support the entire industry of professional sports, as you might have assumed by now, I cannot stand in silence while we are further desensitized to having our privacy stripped and our dignity sullied.

Seeing fellow Americans accept these types of procedures, often with a smile as in the case of the woman who allowed her infant’s diaper to be examined by a TSA goon earlier this year, tends to be disturbing.

If you care about your rights at all, I beg of you to speak out against this egregious affront to everything that America should be if we just acted like people with a bit of a backbone, some honor and even a slight appreciation of our rights afforded by the Constitution.