Patti Roberts on TSA security screening
#16
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: MSP
Programs: Fallen Plats, ex-WN CP, DYKWIW; still a Hilton Diamond & Club Cholula™ R.I.P. Super Plats
Posts: 25,415
Originally Posted by SpatialD
The following excerpt is from an email my husband just received: “Today when flying from Boston Logan to (Baltimore) my 17-year-old daughter had quite an unpleasant experience due to the new scanner malfunctioning… She was told she would need a pat down. Being 17, she had no idea what that meant and how intense a… detailed full-body pat down can be. Even when she began to cry, the TSA agent continued the pat down. My daughter felt molested and humiliated and as a parent I was helpless to stop this violation. Also, the gentleman behind her had a full body pat down… However his pat down was not as intense as my daughter’s.”
It's now on ThousandsStandingAround.org, which is becoming an appalling collection of testimonials from Americans under assault at the airports.
#17
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 39
Yeah I wanted to say the same thing but it seemed like the thread was old. Nobody is helpless. Ever. You have the ability to escalate to the FSD and then bring in LEOs on to your side if you have been wronged. In the worst case scenario, you can just leave and not fly, and in the future, refuse to offer that airport and/or that airline your patronage, and encourage others to do so.
Patti and I both had the same reaction when we read that story - no one is helpless. I think the mother who was writing about her daughter's experience being frisked was caught off guard in the moment although, once your 17 year old kid starts crying, it's time to get involved. That event happened early on, shortly after my ordeal in MEM. I really hope people have thought things through a little more fully by now.
Oh, please don't worry about the thread getting old. Until this madness is stopped, this conversation and others like it need to be kept alive. And if people keep subjecting themselves to the state's abuse, we may be talking about some years while I and others duke it out in the courts. It'd be so much better and likely to succeed if you all would make it happen yourselves out there in the streets. Thanks to all who are doing your part in that regard!