Anything for our safety, right?
And then they discovered an “anomaly” in her bra, so she needed to be patted down on her breasts. This freaked her out even more. She asked for a private room and for me to be there, and it was obvious that this pissed off the female assist TSO. As she started shaking and sobbing in the room as the TSO began to touch her breasts, I gently touched her arm. Big mistake – the TSO yelled that I couldn’t touch her and that I’d need to go through screening again.
This is the organization who just claimed the right to detain citizens and read through their documents (paper, electronic, or what have you). This is the organization that claims the rights to inspect your genitals. This is the organization that has its employees arrested for felonies on a weekly basis.
“For our safety.”
Professional Troublemaker ® 
This is awful. But also not surprising. When TSA first came out with the “enhanced pat-downs”, there were several national victims advocacy organizations that held meetings with them to try to educate them about victim issues and get TSA to do a better job of responding to and working with victims. TSA put up with the meetings (mainly, I think, so they could just say they had participated), but their bottom line was clear: They don’t give a damn about how this affects victims of sexual assault or child sexual abuse, and they have zero plans to do anything about it.
Disgusting.
Delete if you want – not sure how you feel about people posting links and I won’t be offended if you take this down. But you might be interested in the following:
http://crimedime.com/2012/05/14/how-tsa-patdowns-meet-the-definition-of-sexual-assault/
Are these various anti-TSA groups coordinated in any way? I’m not sure how effective it would be to have the civil liberties groups working with the victim advocacy groups working with the marketing/business relations people since they all have different arguments against the TSA.
The United States Congress knows exactly what TSA does and REFUSES to intervene.
American travelers need to organize in large gropus when they travel and refuse to be molested by the TSO’s. FORCE the LEO’s to arrest them and then FORCE the Airlines to cancel their flights & lose revenue.
D E F E N D – Y O U R S E L F.
Oh dear, how do we tolerate these people?
The TSA will continue to do whatever the choose until the American people decide that they have had enough! They will continue to push American Citizens as far as they can until we push back. Stop flying UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. This must be a combined effort, we will all have to make some sacrifices. The TSA is already in some train and bus stations, they are like an infection that is spreading and the infection needs to be stopped now. Bombard Congress with calls, faxes, emails and snail mail on a regular basis until they can no longer ignore or make PHONY effots to correct this. This cannot be allowed to continue.
I’m very grateful that you/someone is taking this fight all the way to the highest levels, I but I’m sad to say that I hold no hope that the supreme court will change anything. That is, if they even decide to look at your case. I hope that I’m wrong. And I don’t want to suggest that it’s a wasted effort, just that I think we’ve turned the corner in being able to rely on the moral and legal standards of a handful of men and women in black robes to turn back the bureaucratic, political, economic and propagandistic agenda of the state.
Once again though, I really, really hope I’m wrong about that. At least with regards to this case.
With regards to this particular abuse, and all of the many others out there though, one thing I heard recently that I think applies is “What one generation tolerates, the next embraces.” With no one in any numbers standing up against these abuses I’m afraid that it has become accepted routine. And although some people may not like it and others tolerate it, the state will continue to bulldoze their agenda forward with little hiccups along the way until they arrive at the generation that embraces it and sees it as necessary, expected and right. Sorry, that’s all for my gloom and doom. 😉
I also think that the current Supreme Court is going to back this tyranny if given the opportunity. I mean they just ruled recently that it was O.K. for the government to strip search people who are arrested for even the most minor of crimes like walking your dog without a leash. Then there was eminent domain, forced healthcare, etc.; the list of poor unconstitutional decisions goes on and on. I don’t think it is entirely their fault though; they are being bullied and intimidated by our government to do this just like we all are with these pat downs and scanners. Who can fault the Supreme Court for being powerless to stop this just like us?
But I disagree that “what one generation tolerates, the next embraces.” The hard left socialists like Hitler and Mao all believed that to be sure (“thousand year Reich, etc.”), but their rule was ultimately very transient.
The simple fact is people never “embrace” being wronged. You see, when you intentionally demoralize your people by doing things to them like what the TSA is doing to us, the people lose faith in the government to do the right thing. In retaliation, the people simply give the government less. The government soon realizes this and then tries to crack the whip to get more, which gets the government even less, and so on. The social decay doesn’t happen right away to be sure (people still will work towards a better future in the beginning like we are now out of habit because we were willing to do that for past leadership), but ultimately this is why the countries that take the path towards despotic socialist rule always end up in severe economic decline. People just stop working. Left unchecked by elections, the ruling party inevitably goes financially bankrupt and dissolves right under the nose of a now apathetic and abused general public. The next generation, far from “embracing” the prior regime, now has to rebuild.
I do not view things in an entirely pessimistic way, however. I still remember the America before the TSA, and I want it back as much as anyone. We have an election in 90 days, and a tea party that is set on fixing things gaining traction all over the country. Perhaps what we are seeing right now is just the worst of it; the last grasp of a dying despotic regime? And perhaps the “new” America can still become the old America again after all.
http://www.jaunted.com/story/2012/8/8/16633/06025/travel/TSA+in+Court+to+Defend+Full-Body+Scanner+Policies
I think Jon is right, it’s not a matter of IF somebody dies at the hands of TSA, it’s WHEN somebody keels over while being strip searched.
I didn’t die, but I did collapse… I’m an assault survivor, and I recently had to undergo cervical spine surgery from an accident. While wearing my post-op neck brace, I went through security in a wheel chair at DCA (Wasshington DC, Ronald Reagan airport). They wanted me to remove my neck brace which I’m not allowed yet, then they made me get out of the wheel chair and hold up my arms, made me lift my shirt up in front and in back. When the TSA officer started groping my breasts I started shaking and crying uncontrollably, then my legs gave out and I was on the ground unable to breathe. The TSA supervisor proceeded to yell at me for not asking for a private screening. When I flew out of TPA to DCA after having my surgery they were reasonable and concerned about my physical health, so I had no reason to believe I’d be treated so horribly at DCA. Flying back to for my surgical follow up, I’ve never been so humiliated. Had I known the TSA agents at DCA would make me get out of my wheel chair, lift up my shirt, and publically grope me, I’d have taken my chances on my physical health rather than my mental health. I’m terrified of flying now because of TSA