Sexual Abuse By The TSA: The Prosthesis Version
Amazing, the sexual abuse and humiliation this woman with a prosthesis has been made to go through. Wendy Thomson tells her story at the TSA-monitoring blog, TSA News:
12/12/2004: After my complaints, this time I called ahead to DTW and requested a supervisory escort. I was given one, Tyrone Stokes, who instructed the screener to conduct a "simple pat-down." The screener did not wand me to determine where my metal was but I was subjected to a "Full Monty" pat-down - crotch, inside my pants, everywhere. The screener wanted to show Mr. Stokes, apparently, that she knew how to do it....2/12/2005: Back at DTW. Announcement per usual. I was wanded -- again the only alarm was between my right knee and ankle. Never mind: I got a thorough chest/breast "massage" anyway, along with hand-swabbing and prosthesis-swabbing.
12/14/2005: Back at Dallas-Fort Worth. This time, though, I told the screeners that they could check the area that alarmed but they could not check areas that did not. After over two hours of their trying to convince me to allow myself to be assaulted once again, to no avail, I was denied boarding. On 2/16/2005 my employer flew me home on the corporate jet but I was told that they "would have to think twice about putting me on a plane again." So now you know what happened to THAT career . . . .
I didn't fly for several years. I discovered, however, that all the folderol would disappear if I took off the leg, put it on the conveyor, and hopped through the metal detector. I made several trips that way. But that move required that I wear dresses. All sorts of screeners were upset with me. That tactic stopped when I read about a woman from Grand Rapids who received a full-on grope for the sole reason she was wearing a dress. I did try once to go through a MMW machine (millimeter wave scanner), but I got called over for a grope anyway. The word from the "back room" was to check my right thigh. The result was no right thigh but an upper body pat-down instead.
The last time I flew was October 2010. The TSA's position of scanners or Full Monty is too much for me. I've done my share, and I will not be treated that way ever again.
I sued the TSA and got the Jesse Ventura answer that Federal District Courts did not have jurisdiction; the Appellate Court did. Try as I might, I never figured out how to appeal a ruling that wasn't.
I was on the front page, Sunday edition, of the Detroit News and had the local ABC affiliate run an investigative report on my experiences, complete with a hidden camera crew that documented one of my flights.
One person cannot change the monster the TSA has become -- it takes many. Therefore, I have turned to organizing those of us who understand what's going on. We need to speak with one loud, persistent, forceful voice.
That is so f'ing stupid.
Jim P. at December 30, 2011 4:41 PM
The line best describing the situation is this one:
"All sorts of screeners were upset with me."
You TSA sons of bitches, you should be personally humiliated, shamed, for this attitude toward a member of the public that YOU SERVE.
I and my fellows do not work for you. It's the other way around.
Radwaste at December 30, 2011 10:31 PM
I never know what to say in these TSA threads anymore. Every new report tops all the previous ones. It leaves me speechless.
Cousin Dave at December 31, 2011 7:40 AM
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