A Breastfeeding Woman, A Breast Pump, And The Latest Powermad, Dumbass TSA Moron
From ksdk.com, TSA worker demands that a woman prove her breast pump is real at Lihue Airport:
Lihue, HI (KITV) -- A Hawaiian mom says she was humiliated when asked to prove her breast pump was real at an airport.The woman says she was flagged for additional screening at the Lihue Airport Wednesday because of her electric breast feeding pump.
She claims agents told her she couldn't take the pump on the plane because the bottles in her carry-on were empty.
"I asked him if there was a private place I could pump and he said no, you can go in the women's bathroom. I had to stand in front of the mirrors and the sinks and pump my breast in front of every tourist that walked into that bathroom. I was embarrassed and humiliated and then angry that I was treated this way.
When the bottles were full, she was allowed back on the plane.
The TSA is apologizing, saying the agent made a mistake.
Of course, the TSA itself is the mistake.
Sommer Gentry's response in the comments below the entry was right on:
Oh for pete's sake, can the TSA never get enough of humiliating, demeaning, and bullying passengers? How about if we travelers start standing up for ourselves and telling these thugs in the blue shirts to shove it? Contact your Congressional representatives and let them know you're not going to take any more abuse from these lowlife screeners. If the TSA tells you to do something offensive, stand up for yourself and say NO! No flight is worth being sexually abused, strip searched, exposed, humiliated, and harmed.What kind of person takes money to rub the sex organs of minors against their will? What kind of person takes money to create and transmit naked images of children? What kind of person takes money to shove their hands down the pants of strangers? Anyone willing to take money to force unwelcome sexual contact on innocent people deserves jail time. That goes double for the class A pervert responsible for these ritualized sexual assaults - John Pistole, TSA Genital Manipulator in Chief.
Loved the @Popehat tweet about this:
Can't someone explain to the contemptible freaks at the #TSA that there's plenty of free fetish porn on the internet?
via @TedFrank
Just want to make sure I have this right, if you show up with a bottle full of breast milk you have to dump it out, but if you show up with an empty bottle you have to fill it up?
lujlp at March 4, 2012 4:01 AM
Jesus. This makes me want to load up my gun, head for the airport, and end my life doing a public service good by taking out as many TSA as I can.
momof4 at March 4, 2012 6:25 AM
Lihue is one of the quietest airports in the world. Was the TSA officer just bored or exercising some power trip?
The TSA at Lihue confiscated the guava jelly we bought for my mother several years ago. It's a liquid or gel, ain't it? So the mainland has been kept safe from tropical fruits.
Astra at March 4, 2012 7:30 AM
Amy,
Would you consider running a poll?
[ ] I vow to vote against my current congressman/woman unless he supports and votes for a bill, which removes the TSA as a federal agency, and instead empowers airlines and transportation companies to provide the security which they think is best.
[ ] The TSA is OK as it is, providing vital security for the US public.
[ ] Undecided
Andrew_M_Garland at March 4, 2012 12:27 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/03/04/a_breastfeeding.html#comment-3024511">comment from Andrew_M_GarlandAndrew, I would, but I don't really know about polling software/sites that make it possible, and I don't think the group here would be representative of the population, since people here tend to be more educated about and concerned for civil liberties (in my perception).
Amy Alkon at March 4, 2012 12:42 PM
I wonder if a poll would gain wider attention. I think people want a way to express their preferences to polticians, not just on your blog.
Andrew_M_Garland at March 4, 2012 1:31 PM
"The TSA is apologizing, saying the agent made a mistake."
There's a classic line from Martin Scorsese's movie The King Of Comedy, when Rupert Pupkin (Robert DeNiro) condescendingly apologizes for lying his way into Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis)'s country home. "I'm sorry Jerry, I made a mistake," Rupert says. Jerry's classic response: "Yeah, so did Hitler!"
qdpsteve at March 4, 2012 6:51 PM
You don't have to dump out breast milk Lujip. They do some sort of test on it.
NicoleK at March 5, 2012 12:44 AM
I'm pretty sure our own Divine Miss A has run more than one story about TSA agents not knowing their own rules, and insisting that breast milk must be dumped.
The TSA takes a point that most agree on (A reasonable amount of security is acceptable and necessary) and takes it to an extreme degree, and populates it with a preponderence of undertrained bullies. The result is people pendulum the other way, and say there should be NO security, and that's also wrong.
Vinnie Bartilucci at March 8, 2012 7:43 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/03/04/a_breastfeeding.html#comment-3046959">comment from Vinnie BartilucciWe have NO security. We are catching people with penknives and weed and missing guns. If anyone smart enough to make it in the comments section here wanted to get an incendiary device on a plane, they could.
Amy Alkon at March 8, 2012 7:45 AM
"The result is people pendulum the other way, and say there should be NO security, and that's also wrong."
Really?
What do you get if you don't search anyone?
The number of things on the plane goes up, but nobody's stopping the guns at the airport now.
I'd like people to think about why the "model" of hijacking changes over the years and work on that. Somehow, that's controversial.
Meanwhile, note that a repeat of Lockerbie is entirely doable.
Radwaste at March 11, 2012 6:02 AM
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