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Posts: 3,858
I felt the Pain for 1 Hour+ After a TSA Patdown
Read some of the thread about the passenger being charged with a felony for groping a transportation security officer, and decided to post my experience here.
I now have empathy for the "Don't touch my Junk" TSA patron.
I opted out of the Nude-O-Scope at IAH a few days ago and, unfortunately, ran into overly aggressive patdown. When I started feeling the pain I loudly told him to lighten up (he applied the pressure one more time and then did lighten up). But it was too late to avoid an hour of pain. Worse yet I had to stay there another 15 minutes because he said my carry-on had set off an alarm as he went through my luggage very deliberately. After about 10 minutes I politely asked him to do his search as quickly as he could as I was worried about missing my flight. I asked twice, and he did not respond to my pleas at all (not verbally, didn't turn my way, nothing). I might have missed my flight if it had departed on time but did make it because of the delay.
And there is nothing I can do about it. I suffered no injury except my dignity and hurting for an hour of my life - and dreading what air travel may be like in the future.
__________________ The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
I haven't had anyone bark at me in over a year now.
I haven't had a single instance of someone touching and grabbing me against my will.
I've not been held hostage and almost missed a travel connection by the capricious whim of some petty tyrant making me pay for daring to question his/her authoritah.
Read some of the thread about the passenger being charged with a felony for groping a transportation security officer, and decided to post my experience here.
I now have empathy for the "Don't touch my Junk" TSA patron.
I opted out of the Nude-O-Scope at IAH a few days ago and, unfortunately, ran into overly aggressive patdown. When I started feeling the pain I loudly told him to lighten up (he applied the pressure one more time and then did lighten up). But it was too late to avoid an hour of pain. Worse yet I had to stay there another 15 minutes because he said my carry-on had set off an alarm as he went through my luggage very deliberately. After about 10 minutes I politely asked him to do his search as quickly as he could as I was worried about missing my flight. I asked twice, and he did not respond to my pleas at all (not verbally, didn't turn my way, nothing). I might have missed my flight if it had departed on time but did make it because of the delay.
And there is nothing I can do about it. I suffered no injury except my dignity and hurting for an hour of my life - and dreading what air travel may be like in the future.
1. The most important thing to ever say at the checkpoint is "I have plenty of time." It helps if it is true. The only power they have over you in most cases is their ability to make you miss your flight. If they do not have that ability, you take power away from them.
2. If I am ever injured at the checkpoint, it will sit down right there and request (demand) an EMT and an LEO as I have been injured. It does not matter if I miss my flight. I will submit to a real medical exam for documentation. They will not injure me and get way with it. Humiliation is one thing. Injury is totally another. This is a battle I will fight. You must make your own decision.
__________________
Livingston's observation of complex systems: The purpose of a system is what it does.
I haven't had anyone bark at me in over a year now.
I haven't had a single instance of someone touching and grabbing me against my will.
I've not been held hostage and almost missed a travel connection by the capricious whim of some petty tyrant making me pay for daring to question his/her authoritah.
Of course, that's because I've STOPPED FLYING.
Y'all should try it sometime.
Done, and did!! I went to my neice's wedding reception in LA this past weekend, and drove instead of traveling by air! Although the trip out there was horrible (blinding rain, traffic jams, detours, record heat), it was much more pleasant than the prospect of getting irradiated, groped, strip-searched, illegally detained, or yelled at. I think I'll do it again in August for my other neice's baby shower!
Location: Northern California, in the redwoods, on the ocean.
Posts: 417
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeBas
I haven't had anyone bark at me in over a year now.
I haven't had a single instance of someone touching and grabbing me against my will.
I've not been held hostage and almost missed a travel connection by the capricious whim of some petty tyrant making me pay for daring to question his/her authoritah.
1. The most important thing to ever say at the checkpoint is "I have plenty of time." It helps if it is true. The only power they have over you in most cases is their ability to make you miss your flight. If they do not have that ability, you take power away from them.
2. If I am ever injured at the checkpoint, it will sit down right there and request (demand) an EMT and an LEO as I have been injured. It does not matter if I miss my flight. I will submit to a real medical exam for documentation. They will not injure me and get way with it. Humiliation is one thing. Injury is totally another. This is a battle I will fight. You must make your own decision.
I would think most grope injuries would be painful but leave no evidence that a doctor could reasonably detect.
Sadly, until the TSA takes over all the train stations.
I'd like to see TSA try that. It would speed up their demise. Really. What TSA clerk is gonna get stuck at the Dunsmuir station at 4am in the morning to screen the town's one cat and one dog?
TSA could get by for a little while at airports because of the nature of traveller's fear of flight. People so afraid of air travel and the prospect of blowing up at 35,000 feet that they were willing to put up with strip searches and gropes---for awhile. No more.
Trains, malls, no, people don't fear those, and they would highly resent the sh*t TSA pulls if it tries to take over those locations. The clerks would not be safe. They'd need an armed guard all the way home. And at home.
But the folks in Washington are blind. I don't disagree with you that they may try this.
I would think most grope injuries would be painful but leave no evidence that a doctor could reasonably detect.
Many medical maladies are invisible. The doctor asks where it hurts and you say where. When did it start? There may be swelling or other oddness, but not necessarily. If the injury is real, and there is no way I would report a fake injury, there will likely be evidence.
__________________
Livingston's observation of complex systems: The purpose of a system is what it does.
Read some of the thread about the passenger being charged with a felony for groping a transportation security officer, and decided to post my experience here.
I now have empathy for the "Don't touch my Junk" TSA patron.
I opted out of the Nude-O-Scope at IAH a few days ago and, unfortunately, ran into overly aggressive patdown. When I started feeling the pain I loudly told him to lighten up (he applied the pressure one more time and then did lighten up). But it was too late to avoid an hour of pain. Worse yet I had to stay there another 15 minutes because he said my carry-on had set off an alarm as he went through my luggage very deliberately. After about 10 minutes I politely asked him to do his search as quickly as he could as I was worried about missing my flight. I asked twice, and he did not respond to my pleas at all (not verbally, didn't turn my way, nothing). I might have missed my flight if it had departed on time but did make it because of the delay.
And there is nothing I can do about it. I suffered no injury except my dignity and hurting for an hour of my life - and dreading what air travel may be like in the future.
Unless times have changed, every large airport has a medical facility. Demand to be taken to said facility for the doctor to examine you. As Loren Pechtel suggested, an injury doesn't have to be visible to cause pain - just ask my rotator cuff.
