"They exercised their power with great glee" - TSA groping of 74 year old woman

[Liberal_in_LA]

While traveling to her husband's funeral in Virginia, Cecile Dickson Banner said a female security agent at Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport reached into her undergarments and touched her breasts and groin after she was unable to remove a blouse that agents mistook for a coat.

Banner, a retired consultant flying to Washington-Dulles International Airport on Nov. 10 with her daughter, said the experience left her "frightened and traumatized."

"They said my top was loose fitting -- that's why they had to search me," said Banner, adding that until her retirement three years ago, she flew at least once per week. "I've never been so traumatized by anything in my life. It was the agents' attitudes. They exercised their power with great glee."


Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/11/23/1454680/ladys-island-woman-offended-by.html#ixzz16A5a6TbW

[stray cat]

1. What if TSA emplyees were members of unions?

Would we give a union member the benefit of a doubt if he /she were accused by an executive flying first class?

[enlightenment]

2. I wouldn't.

Would you?

[customerserviceguy]

3. I wouldn't either

They're jackbooted thugs who take great delight in fucking with people who have zero potential to be a threat to anyone.

They're just lucky that nobody comes to the airport armed.

[notesdev]

4. that's the first thing that got taken care of

meanwhile, the only people who have actually stopped an airline terror incident have been the passengers... the very people who are first disarmed then humiliated and degraded by the government.

I'd rather have the airlines handle security exclusively, for two reasons:

one, they have far, far more to lose if there's an actual incident, and therefore more incentive to make sure it doesn't happen, whereas the gov't has the perverse incentive to let something happen - if not actually to cause it themselves - so they can dehumanize us further;

and two, if they step out of line they can successfully be sued to hell and back.

DHS was a horrible idea and the department needs to be eliminated, with only essential functions spun (back) off into separate agencies or being consolidated under other departments. We don't have a "homeland". We have a nation. Homelands are something animals, not people, have.

[hedgehog]

5. Ummm, do you have any idea who was handling security on 9/11?

[notesdev]

8. Nobody, apparently

You know the government had all the info on all those guys, got multiple tips, etc. and they were too busy infighting among themselves to get the job done and stop the attack?

[customerserviceguy]

6. Well stated

If we don't empower the people, then they will choose a government that does empower them. I worry that Caribou Barbie will sell herself as just such a solution.

[hedgehog]

7. I mean, c'mon , "great glee"? Female security agents just

can't wait to get to work in the morning so they can pat down old ladies - riiiight. :eyes:

The article isn't clear, but it would appear that they mistook her blouse and slip for a jacket and camisole.

On edit - I'm thinking now that the blouse was loose fitting enough to possibly cover a gun. hence the pat down.


BTW - here's a photo of a 70 something woman of Lebanese descent-



That's Diane Rehm. She's not a terrorist, but is it really beyond the bonds of imagination that a Middle Easter grandmother who'd lost family members would be willing to take down a plane in revenge?

[Crazy Dave]

9. Sorry but anybody who equates an old lady to an underwear bomber...

Is too damn stupid to catch a terrorist.

[customerserviceguy]

10. The TSA thugs are not in a position to catch any terrorists

since terrorists enter our airports from foreign airports where the TSA is nothing more than a horror story of what not to do. With that, the jackboots justify their existence by treating all Americans like shit.

It's sort of like the frustrated jock who couldn't get a job with the NFL, who makes the fat kids run around the track an extra few times, while he laughs with the future jocks who will fulfill his 'dream', like surrogate sons.