Should 90 year old women be patted down just to "be fair"? [View all]

[MadDAsHell]

There was a lively thread a couple days ago about criticism of Islam and Islamaphobia. It got me thinking about something I saw a few years ago going through O'Hare on way east for a wedding: A woman, who appeared to be at least 90 years old, sitting in a chair on the other side of the metal director, being patted down.

The TSA website mentions "expedited screening through risk-based intelligence-driven security" for individuals 75 and older. When your read further, all that means is that those individuals may keep their shoes and a light jacket on during screening. Other than that, they are screened exactly the same way, including being no less likely to be randomly selected for a pat-down than someone who fits the profile of nearly every successful or unsuccessful plane hijacker of the last 40 years. Namely: a 20-40 year old male.

Namely: me.

I was not randomly screened that day, and to this day have not been.

My heart (which goes on nothing but my personal opinion) tells me it's unfair to single someone out based on their age, gender, or race. But my head, which can do math, tells me it's insanity for us, just to "be fair", to slow down our security processes and inconvenience someone who is 1) probably in the last years of their lives and 2) is of an age and gender of exactly 0 plane hijackers ever.

...while I am let through everytime presumably because, since I do fit the profile, they're too cowardly to actually check me for fear of profiling accusations.

Is the purpose of screening to prevent potential incidents, or to create the illusion of prevention while making sure not to offend?

It appears to me that we ultimately, ironically, tragically, and to our own potential demise, end up screening the people that every historical statistic tells us are the least likely to commit the act we're trying to prevent, and (for fear of offending) refuse to screen the people that every historical statistic tells us are the most likely to commit the act we're trying to prevent.

50 years from now, after (I fear) many more incidents of terrorism, are our descendants going to think fondly of us for refusing to offend, or are they going to think we were insane for refusing to acknowledge what was right in front of us?