Originally Posted by
cbn42
While I don't mean to condone this behavior, it seems like the TSA followed their own protocol in this case. (The protocol is inappropriate, but that is a different matter.)
The rules say that you must either go through the scanner or be patted down. "Remove your clothes for a visual inspection" is not one of the options.
But they are not supposed to rub bare skin during a "pat down" search. If you don't have any bare skin except a bikini, a pat down search is complete without any touching. They followed protocol and then forced the women submit to having her body touched in public by strangers to punish her.
It would take a pretty bold agent to poke too blatently into the bikini, knowing that a customer was going to stand her ground. This probably doesn't work for e.g. breast cancer or ostomy survivors tho.