Originally Posted by
GUWonder
If some old, scruffy random homeless man on the street was caught on video running up to and rubbing the crotch area of a 12-year-old girl whose security detail was nearby would you believe that wasn't sexual molestation if the person claimed it was being done to show the futility of the "security" and not for purposes of anyone's sexual gratification? If he claimed he was just curious if the person was really a girl and that is why he did the crotch grab, would you believe that too wasn't sexual molestation?
Unwanted physical contact with people's sexual parts -- clothed or otherwise -- is molestation or assault, sexual molestation or sexual assault at that. Whether such sexual molestation or sexual assault is criminalized or not, the sexual molestation/sexual assault still is what it is: sexual molestation/sexual assault.
Parents in the US can't legally consent to the sexual molestation of a minor child by an adult, TSA-uniformed or not. That's true under the laws of each and every state of the Union. If some consenting adult wants some random strangers to go rub their own crotch or another consenting adult's crotch, that's their own business in many a place (even as something like that has often been grounds for ending up on a sex offenders list). If someone tries to grant consent to another adult to rub the crotch of a minor for reasons that have nothing to do with medical and hygiene issues, better have a lawyer ready.
No, I would NOT believe that those examples are sexual molestation. The crime is clearly defined by the law and if the elemements of the crime are not met that crime has NOT happened. Other crimes may have been (in your examples battery would probably be easy to prove), but not THAT crime.
How you personally define the word is irrelevant. The crime has been LEGALLY defined and that is THE definition.
You ARE right that an adult can't grant permission for their child to be molested but, once again, that's irrelevant. That's not what was happening here.
If you want to fight what's happening, do it. I HIGHLY encourage people to do that, but you need to stick to the facts. Putting up a fantasy argument for a real problem is only going to weaken your argument.