"Hi, simply hi...."
Posted on 01/03/2012 5:17:42 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
As I was reading an email string about tactics to get mainstream Americans aware of what the TSA is actually doing, it occurred to me that I have never told my entire story. So here goes.
My saga starts when I was four years old and had my right leg amputated at the knee. Fast-forward to 2004, when I had a spate of business trips to Washington, DC and Texas.
12/1/2004: I walked up to a DTW (Detroit) security checkpoint and announced I had an artificial leg. Without being wanded I was taken aside by two women to Concourse A, MacNamara Terminal, where the women took three cubicle panels that were leaning up against the wall and made a makeshift enclosure at the public entrance to the Concourse. The panels were not stable, so the screeners had to lean them up against one another.
When inside I was instructed to remove my pants. The screeners were about to instruct me to also remove my pantyhose, but since I was standing there pretty much naked anyway they swabbed the top of my prosthesis with a swab and told me to get dressed.
12/1/2004: return trip from Dulles. I announced I had an artificial leg. I again was not wanded, but was subjected to an extensive search of torso and especially my breasts. The toe of my right shoe was swabbed, but other than that my prosthesis was not checked.
12/12/2004: After my complaints, this time I called ahead to DTW and requested a supervisory escort. I was given one, Tyrone Stokes, who instructed the screener to conduct a “simple pat-down.” The screener did not wand me to determine where my metal was but I was subjected to a “Full Monty” pat-down – crotch, inside my pants, everywhere. The screener wanted to show Mr. Stokes, apparently, that she knew how to do it.
12/14/2004: returning from DFW. Announcement by me about my leg. This time I was wanded to determine the location of the metal. I was instructed to lift my pant leg. I was also subjected to an upper-body pat-down (no metal alarm there) and had my hands swabbed.
12/23/2004: Back again at DTW. This time I had printed a copy of instructions from the TSA’s own website. Made my announcement. I set off the regular metal detector but did not set off the subsequent wand. The screener did an upper body pat-down (no metal alarm there) but indicated that because the wand did not alarm around my announced prosthesis it would not need to be checked.
12/31/2004: Sky Harbor, Phoenix. Same announcement by me. I was wanded and my left shoe was swabbed (what’s that about? My prosthesis is on my right side). Once again the upper body pat-down (once again, no metal alarm there).
2/12/2005: Back at DTW. Announcement per usual. I was wanded — again the only alarm was between my right knee and ankle. Never mind: I got a thorough chest/breast “massage” anyway, along with hand-swabbing and prosthesis-swabbing.
12/14/2005: Back at Dallas-Fort Worth. This time, though, I told the screeners that they could check the area that alarmed but they could not check areas that did not. After over two hours of their trying to convince me to allow myself to be assaulted once again, to no avail, I was denied boarding. On 2/16/2005 my employer flew me home on the corporate jet but I was told that they “would have to think twice about putting me on a plane again.” So now you know what happened to THAT career . . . .
I didn’t fly for several years. I discovered, however, that all the folderol would disappear if I took off the leg, put it on the conveyor, and hopped through the metal detector. I made several trips that way. But that move required that I wear dresses. All sorts of screeners were upset with me. That tactic stopped when I read about a woman from Grand Rapids who received a full-on grope for the sole reason she was wearing a dress. I did try once to go through a MMW machine (millimeter wave scanner), but I got called over for a grope anyway. The word from the “back room” was to check my right thigh. The result was no right thigh but an upper body pat-down instead.
The last time I flew was October 2010. The TSA’s position of scanners or Full Monty is too much for me. I’ve done my share, and I will not be treated that way ever again.
I sued the TSA and got the Jesse Ventura answer that Federal District Courts did not have jurisdiction; the Appellate Court did. Try as I might, I never figured out how to appeal a ruling that wasn’t.
I was on the front page, Sunday edition, of the Detroit News and had the local ABC affiliate run an investigative report on my experiences, complete with a hidden camera crew that documented one of my flights.
One person cannot change the monster the TSA has become — it takes many. Therefore, I have turned to organizing those of us who understand what’s going on. We need to speak with one loud, persistent, forceful voice.
Now you know the story. This insanity must stop.
"Hi, simply hi...."
REALLY, Laz?
Yes, all the posts criticizing TSA brutality are hoaxes. All we need to do is fake a stuffy nose and call ahead and all will be well /sarc
We're way past due to return to the basics of commercial air travel.
They make the sheep feel safe, that's all.
Frankly, I think that they only exist as a lightning rod. Everyone focuses on the schlubs on the security lines, while the *real* security is handled quietly in the back.
For instance, I flew into Heathrow once. Security there grabbed three (young, middle-eastern-looking) men from right behind me and escorted them out a concourse side door. Very quiet, very polite, just an understated "You will please come with us, sir" and poof, they were out of sight. If I'd not been standing right there when it happened, I'd have had no idea anything was going on.
Makes me wonder how often it occurs here in the USA.
And yet she keeps on flying? I say the heck with it. If I cant drive to it, I dont need to go there. Starve the beast.
I would also never take a job that required me to spend even an instant in any airport.
Last night I went through Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International TSA reception screening. We live in a police state folks. The terrorists have won. Getting scanned and frisked to re-enter my own country, like a common street criminal. A shocking rude reminder that we have surrendered our liberty for security. So sad.
I find that the worst airport to go through...very dark.
I have a friend in her late 30s, mixed race, looks black, who travels frequently on business. She says she is always taken aside and given the full treatment. She obviously blames it on racial profiling.
A few years ago, we met a couple in their 30s, one of whom is Indian and the other Filipina. She referred to their experiences as *flying while brown*. They, too always get the full grope. BTW, he is a cardiac surgeon.
Just anecdote, but it could be inferred that the TSA are equal-opportunity gropers.
Yes he can. The president can end it immediately with nothing more than an Executive Order, since that is how it was created. We need to demand this of the next GOP president. But if we get a liberal like Romney or a globalist like Gingrich, you can forget it.
Those guys are natural Obama voters, so the proper term is "corpse".
And then shorten it about five more notches to provide a safety margin. You can't take any chances with tyranny.
I predict within 10 yrs. the HSA/TSA will be as hated as the KGB and Gestapo were in their respective countries.
They serve no useful purpose but to terrorize the population and are of no use due to political correctness.
Where were the signs? In the rest rooms? I had these issues on the return trip.
Whoopee!!! He fought to keep an organization that shouldn’t exist from being unionized.
(anyone else see a problem with that?)
Of course that doesn’t work. You have to say that you are ‘lesbian transgendered’... or in other words, a lesbian woman trapped in a man’s body. Either that, or claim that your sect of Islam prohibits anyone of the same sex from touching one’s private bits; that only member’s of the opposite sex may do so, by the word of Allah!
Then you should get a female screener.
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