My brace is 100% plastic. There is no metal in it. Unfortunately, the metal is in ME (rods and pins on my spine), so I will set off the WTMD whether I'm wearing it or not.

Now that this thread has been opened up again, I have WAY more to say about TSORon's hateful, insulting and horrific diatribe to me, an innocent victim of TSA's thuggery. But I have a doc appointment, so it will have to wait until later. Stay tuned.

Thank you for confirming that. I think that may also be an issue - we have a TSO who assumed that a medical brace was metal and made a judgement based on that.

I really think that this falls into the need for TSA to better educate their staff on how to deal with medical issues. It appears that there is a general lack of basic knowledge (not that I expect people in this type of position to come to the job with previous knowledge) TSA has long claimed that they work with various groups to better the experience of the injured, disabled, and elderly, but it appears that there is still much work needed.

Even if you do set off the WTMD, there is a way to deal with medical issues without resorting to humiliation or bullying of the passenger. I have had a few encounters myself over the past year which were not acceptable.

After almost 10 years, it is very disturbing that these issues continue to arise with some regularity.

I'll just focus on the truncated part of your post and with that, you are 100 correct ^.

Now with that, I will speak for myself.....

My beef is not with TSO's per se* but rather the TSA as an entity as it has no idea what goes on the trenches/the real world. The TSA establishes rules for a reason. Whether we agree or disagree with those rules is a topic for another discussion on another day but what royally pi$$es me is one very simple thing.

As noted above the TSA has no idea what happens "out there" and takes no responsibility nor will it take any accountability for for any of the "backlash" that results from "incidents" at a checkpoint**, corrupt employees who if in private industry as opposed to one that is supposed to keep me safe, would be summarily fired, TSO's making up rules which are in fact just that made up and false and so on and that needs to change.


*I have met several and they are in fact a) nice and b) good people (I owe at least two a beer and they have all rec'd Tootise-Pops )


**Checkpoint incidents happen and are either the fault of the TSO or the fault of the pax but regardless of who is at fault, it is the TSO who is always right and the pax who is threatened (yes, I'm using the word "threatened") with D-Y-W-T-F-T and that goes back to my comment above about the TSA not taking responsibility and being held accountable.

Sorry, buster, but when you post as TSORon, you do, in fact, represent the TSA. PTravel doesn't identify himself as an attorney; Caradoc - is he, in fact, a doctor? I have not done a thorough search, but I don't see any public indication that he is.

Nope. I'm not. Not even close.

But a handgun does. Five out of five times.

I'm not even certain it would catch the semtex, either.

What "history"? I'm calling Ron on this. "History shows" is one of those glittering generalities thrown into debates before a snow job. I'm tired of being snowed by my government. Let's hear some RELEVANT HISTORY that shows that. And I don't mean in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, or some other place where everyone is hopeless. I mean old gray haired ladies who've been born and lived their lives in AMERICA. Those are the people whose privacy is being ripped away to "protect" us.

I think it may be true that YOU can't tell because you don't have a clue! And because of that deficit, you claim the right to paw everyone who wants to fly. And then you whimper about the hostility you've generated.

Winters done. No more snow needed. Either come clean or just stop trying to con us.

For the most part, I don't bother to read much or reply to TSORon, since I don't have anything to say to him. Frankly, I don't much care what he thinks - I only care that he and his ilk are out of the business of scope 'n grope ASAP, and I'm sure that will happen, likely pretty soon.

That said, this:

cuts to the meat of the issue. The fact is that airports and the airline industry have received hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds (if not billions), and that gives we taxpayers a hefty say in what goes on. The airlines claimed to be accommodating the public interest in accepting that money, and instead, now they and DHS are complicit in an agreement to violate the rights of ordinary Americans in matters large and small.

It's preposterous to pretend anyone "chooses" to get molested in order to fly. If you all want things the way you want them, without input from the public - well, I'll start looking for the five-digit check that's my household's contribution to the aviation industry in the U.S.

Not just preposterous. Offensive. Offensive to a degree that stretches credibility to the breaking point.

I stand corrected, a plastic brace is certainly just as common as a metal and plastic one.

As for the other parts, well we each have our opinions, and if you find the facts insulting then so be it. Insulting or not, your feelings will not change the facts.


The links to the relevant data have been posted, several times. Please be a responsible citizen and review the linked data. When you are done, please let us know.

I have no idea about why they have been removed. Most TSO's that I know are not happy about the idea I can tell you that. I would prefer that they return to the checkpoints personally, but one must remember that they have the same basic limitation that the WTMD does, it detects only metal. They are many threats out there that have no metal components.

Typical arrogant non-answer. Duly noted.

You obviously are confusing the enraged responses of victims of the bullying, sadism, sexual assault, and violations of our 4th Amendment rights that we are being subjected to every time we fly, with the insulting, belittling, demeaning and hate-filled diatribe you posted to me. Completely different. We are the victims, being assaulted and abused. You are the abuser, trying to justify your disgusting behavior.

You are posting with TSO in your screen name, and stating openly that you are an employee of the TSA. Even if your opinions are not shared by your employer, you are still posting as a TSO. So yeah, you are representing the TSA, even if you want to deny it. I would suggest you show your posts to your management chain, and see what THEY think.

Well, before we even get to the content of your words...let's just take a quick look at the dripping sarcasm you are heaping on us, your CUSTOMERS, the people who pay your salary, whom you are supposed to be serving, whom your bosses repeatedly insist you will treat with dignity and respect. And you wonder why we feel such disdain for the TSA, and every TSO we encounter? You wonder why we don't believe for ONE SECOND that you will treat any of us fairly or respectfully?

This is how you talk to the people over whom you have such power? Our government has foolishly given you the power to touch our genitals, look at us naked, rifle through our belongings (apparently unsupervised, as evidenced by the number of proven incidences of stolen belongings), detain us in glass boxes, and prevent us from boarding flights that we have paid for. And THIS is how you talk to us? Yeah...you're doing a world of good for the TSA's image.

As for your words - that entire passage is nonsensical. I am not posting here as an employee of an organization. I am posting as an individual. You, however, are posting as a TSO. It's in your screen name. So, you are representing the TSA, even if you say you are only speaking for yourself. Again, I suggest you ask your bosses how they feel about your publicly posting as a TSO. Methinks they might not agree with your perspective.

There is a huge difference between people who try to smuggle drugs, and people who are terrorists who want to take down a plane. Remember this: in order to blow up a plane, the person must be a SUICIDE BOMBER. The list of people who would be willing to do this, especially here in the US, is infinitesimal. Simple common sense and a little bit of that supposedly awesome behavior-detection should be able to clear 99.9999% of the people who board planes in the US. Little Mexican grandmothers are not trying to blow up planes. Neither are Caucasian middle-aged disabled mothers of soldiers.

It is not the TSA's mandate to stop drug smuggling. Their mandate is SUPPOSED to be keeping transportation secure, is it not? Isn't that in their very NAME? So, looking for semtex on people who are clearly not suicide bombers is just stupid.

The problem is that the TSA has hired such a low level of employees that they are incapable of exercising such critical thinking. They are only capable of following rules to the letter, no matter how absurd. These are the same people who have been confiscating people's liquids because the plastic baggie was not the right size...even though the liquids were the right size in acceptable containers. But the rule says it must be in a clear, quart-size zip-lock baggie. The person who only had one small liquid container, and so put it in a sandwich-sized bag, had hers thrown away...because the BAGGIE WAS TOO SMALL!

Clearly, people who think like this are incapable of the critical thinking necessary to recognize that the chances that I am a suicide bomber are nil, and therefore, it is utterly stupid to treat me like one.

That's the job? THAT'S THE JOB?? THAT is your justification for them pushing on my surgical incisions, which I specifically told them would cause me excruciating pain? Wow. Just...wow. NOTHING was accomplished by doing that, except causing me excruciating pain.

As for the pat-down...again, what could they possibly find? Especially when she was rubbing my buttocks, thighs and pubis. As explained before, I was wearing tight black leggings that hid nothing. What could I possibly have hid under there, that rubbing me would have found? If I wanted to carry some semtex, I could have just shoved it up my vagina or rectum, and she could have rubbed my but and clit all she wanted - she never would have felt it. So again I ask you...what purpose was served by doing that do me?

Well again, let's take a look at the way you speak to us, your customers. My "little" story? Sorry, but it was not little to me. I was sexually groped by a stranger, in public, AND I was physically assaulted in such a manner that caused me severe pain until I cried out. Against my will. How DARE you minimize that?

As for dealing with it with integrity - apparently you didn't actually READ my story. That supervisor in BUR who got all up in my face, interrupting my legitimate questions about what "clearing" my backbrace would entail, refusing to answer my questions and threatening me with not flying - that had integrity? The OKC TOS's making me stand for many minutes without my cane, while the "female assist" left me there and stacked bins before she bothered to come over? The TSO pressing on my incisions after I specifically asked her not to, then putting her hands on my genitals? Methinks you have a warped concept of the term "integrity".

I most certainly did NOT subject myself to something that I knew would cause me pain! You and your ilk keep telling us that you treat us with respect! You keep telling us we have nothing to fear from you! I took this trip expecting to be treated with respect, not physically and sexually assaulted. So are you saying that we should all now need to EXPECT this? And because we now know it will happen, that makes it okay?

As for other arrangements - pray tell, what other arrangements were available to me to get from Southern California to Oklahoma City in the middle of the week, when I was too disabled to be able to drive myself? Got any good ideas?

My story included nothing but facts. Care to question any of them? I still have the whole experience on audio tape. I will happily play for you the parts where the supe in BUR repeatedly interrupted my questions with threats, or the part where I cried out in pain in OKC, or the part where I said "This is so intrusive!" when the TSO rubbed my pubis. What's not a fact?

If you consider your diatribe to me to be in any way reasonable or rational, you need psychological help. It was belittling, demeaning, and insulting. I did nothing wrong, and nothing to deserve it.

You, however, deserve every "hate-filled diatribe" directed your way.

"That's the job". Another example of apparatchikspeak. Another "justification" of outrage. I wonder what impels these guys to post this transparently bureaucratic BS here, where they KNOW they can only heap insult on injury. Are they that dense? Are they that petty? Or is this their idea of "educating" all us poor outsiders about the holiness and necessity of their perverse mission?

Frankly, I think they know exactly what they're doing. I think they get off on it. Classic sociopathic behavior.

And if you think about it, these people are so brainwashed, so out of touch with reality, the ones who actually did these disgusting, offensive, and hurtful things to LeeAnne (and her own mother, and exbayern, and chellian, and others we've heard), those people probably think they have served honorably their country. What a sad joke.

If you are brainwashed into thinking that every. single. person who transits your checkpoint is likely to be a terrorist, you are going to do everything in your power to inflict pain on those you perceive have damaged your country in some way if no other reason than to "teach them a lesson". During patdowns it has been reported that they ask if you have any sensitive areas. I've been asked it myself. And then it has been reported that they push harder on these areas. It makes no dang sense to sensible people.

But these are not sensible people. They are brainwashed. Brainwashed by sociopaths. The terrorist standing in front of you is, of course, going to tell you that she has a sensitive area not to push. Of course she would, that's exactly where she'd plant her on-body, surgically implanted bomb! So, in a desperate, last-ditch effort to save your country you are going to push, and push, and PUSH on that area to make sure it doesn't explode.

What a sad sack this lot is.