And let's not forget the punitive pat-down, used when an opt-out questions the TSA screeners' "authoritah."

Which I have the feeling I was the subject of. And I wasn't even an opt-out.

And in doing so they are in violation of 18 USC 242 (criminal) and 49 USC 1983 (civil) qv.

TSA worker: "I can have you arrested".
Pax: "No, you can't. But now I can have you arrested (see above) which I fully intend to do. Please summon the police".

under the armpits and on the knees apparently means they feel your genitals thoroughly, per lovely15. that makes sense.

100% false positives and they still insist on the genital grope. criminally dumb and offensive.

Assuming the OP had a non-refundable ticket, would happen to its value if she did not fly (and she didn't officially notify the airline of her intent)?

On most airlines, it would officially be zero. But most airlines also have an unofficial policy of refunding for this sort of TSA issue.

I was told because I set off over 4 anomalies, I got the full grope. And no, I don't care if that's SSI -maybe TSA at that airport needs to learn to keep their mouths shut if it is. I never got an apology either, by the way. You know, "Sorry we thought you were a terrorist hiding a bomb. Obviously we're just insane perverts who are either stupid enough to believe that you are or just wanted to fondle you."

It was a non-refundable ticket, but I called AA before departure time, so I have the ticket credit minus an administrative fee of $150 or so. Nothing to see here....

Both the scanner results and their hunches about her hiding something nefarious in her genitals were wrong.

Awesome!

Makes you wonder just how many of their "good catches" are based on purely random searches, rather than actual alarms of the hardware.

These $150 fees can mount up if you don't get to the bottom of what really set off the red flags.
PS: You might go to the AA forum here on FT, and see if the AA experts can point you in the right direction for even getting the $150 refunded.

A begging email would probably do the trick as far as AA goes. I'll ask them if it happens again.

But technically I could have made the flight, I just chose not to 1) to take their "do you want to fly today" power away and 2) because I was too upset to sit on a plane for two hours without talking to someone. If it happens again, I guess I'm better prepared emotionally and maybe won't leave.

Why? Presumably said terrorist is more than happy to blow himself up. So if he walks away and doesn't all should be happy.

I think it's pretty obvious what sets off the red flags and earns one a punitive pat-down. And they all wear blue shirts (except for the ones that wear suits - but they're rarely "in the airport" to address problems.)

Thank you for putting that into words far more eloquently than I've ever been able to. If I'm at the checkpoint with the terrorist refusing the pat-down, I'd much rather have him go home and try again some other day than blow himself up while I'm in line for the MMW.

Put yourself in their position. The only capacity in which they are welcome to the TSA is to assist in intimidating or detaining passengers. Should they find themselves in ANY situation where a TSA employee is engaging in a manner where police intervention is appropriate the TSA will demand they defer to the TSA's own policies, procedures and investigation.

If a TSA screener was chewing off a passengers face and and a local officer took the guy into custody they would have feds crawling up their ....... for months to come. Uniformed TSA are off-limits to local law enforcement.

With that in mind, would YOU stick your neck out at the checkpoint when you can't really do anything other than make you and your colleagues lives miserable?