TSA stands by officers after pat-down of elderly woman in Florida

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: CNN.COM

(CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration stood by its security officers Sunday after a Florida woman complained that her cancer-stricken, 95-year-old mother was patted down and forced to remove her adult diaper while going through security.

Reports of the incident took hold in social media, with scores of comments on the topic and reposts appearing hourly on Twitter Sunday afternoon.

The TSA released a statement Sunday defending its agents' actions at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport.

"While every person and item must be screened before entering the secure boarding area, TSA works with passengers to resolve security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner," the federal agency said. "We have reviewed the circumstances involving this screening and determined that our officers acted professionally and according to proper procedure."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/26/florida.tsa.incident/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

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Great to live in the land of the free and home of the brave! The USA is such a cowardly country.

[ixion]

1. Defund the TSA

and let's start acting like a free society again.

[LisaL]

2. If asking an elderly person's diapers to be removed is

considered "respectful and sensitive" by TSA, what would TSA consider to be not "respectful and sensitive?"

[struggle4progress]

4. You could probably get TSA to adopt a rule "people wearing filthy diapers are exempt from search"

if you get enough people to write letters demanding the rule-change

TSA front-line staff might even welcome the rule, since most of them probably aren't excited by such searches

I don't really want to spend a lot of energy explaining exactly why the policy wonks might think "people wearing filthy diapers are exempt from search" would be bad policy, so I'll let you try to figure that out yourself

[boppers]

12. Well they didn't do what you accuse them of..

"If asking an elderly person's diapers to be removed...." is not what happened.

They would not perform a search on someone wearing a dirty diaper. Simple as that.

The woman who twice humiliated her mother (one, making her go through security (and presumably, on a multi-hour flight) after soiling herself, and two, not making sure a spare diaper was on-hand) was all too willing to point fingers everywhere but at herself.

[LisaL]

16. Hah?

Asking for a person to be taken to a restroom and a diaper to be taken off makes no sense whatsoever, if they were actually thinking the woman could be hiding something in her diaper.
:wtf:

[boppers]

17. They didn't ask for the diaper to be removed.

That's what you're missing.

The TSA folks didn't want to put their hands in somebody's shit. Literally.

So they said "clean yourself up, put on a clean diaper, or take it off, and then come back".

The woman traveling with her mother, and the mother, didn't have a clean diaper to replace the soiled diaper with.

[LisaL]

18. I have no clue as to WTF you are talking about.

Didn't ask for a diaper to be removed? Yet asked her to take it off (your words, not mine). What do you think "take it off" means?

[boppers]

21. She could put a clean one on, if she chose.

The issue wasn't about wearing a diaper or not.

The issue was about TSA having to deal with other people's shit.

edit:
Maybe this will make it clearer:
There's a difference between a diaper being removed, and a diaper being changed.

[Matariki]

25. So they could put their hands down her pants?

That is just so fucked. Why are we standing for this as a society?

[Dawson Leery]

3. Defund the TSA as well as the DHS.

[nahant]

5. Sick! Fucking sick!! EOM...

[lib2DaBone]

6. The war on drugs.. the war on freedom.. it's all the same...

Defund the TSA and suddenly.. you have Billions for the Elderly and homeless in the USA.

[roguevalley]

7. poor woman. I hope there are good memories in her mind when

she gets there and is around her family. she's dying and this happens. it sort of is a test. if you can find any other emotion but rage and revulsion you flunk.

[shanti]

14. exactly

:thumbsup:

[BadgerKid]

26. Sadly, the war on freedom seems more effective. n/t

[Old Codger]

8. The

Terrorists have won, they don't even have to attack again, they own us.

[christx30]

11. that's what I've been saying for a while

who is responsible for 9/11? Just gotta ask yourself. Who benefited from it? It wasn't Bin Laden or "Al Quida". It was the Federal Government. They were able to pass all KINDS of crap on us that we wouldn't have stood for on 9/10
I like what Texas is doing, with their anti-TSA bill. We need to support it wholeheartedly.

[Old Codger]

13. Actually

The government, both repugs and dems had a plan in the works for many years that was pretty close to the patriot act, they were just waiting for an excuse to put it into action... That was BOTH parties not just repugs.

[Javaman]

9. brought to you by repukes, sustained under dems. nt

[dgibby]

10. I'm guessing Vitter won't get the same treatment.n/t

[defendandprotect]

15. Terrorism is BS .... intended to distract us all from Global Warming --

[No Elephants]

19. TSA aside, what was this woman thinking, not having a spare diaper?

[LisaL]

20. Well, maybe, just maybe, she didn't expect for TSA to demand

removal of the one she had on.

[hakko936]

27. I agree....

....if she were traveling with a baby requiring diapers, she would have had a spare or a diaper bag. You would think the same thing would apply when traveling with an adult requiring Depends.

[The Northerner]

22. Yep, that'll definitely protect us from those scary terrorists n/t

[woo me with science]

23. Well of course they do.

:sarcasm::puke:

[thecrow]

24. Did anybody think to ask if the diaper smelled?

Imagine sitting on a plane for hours near a reekng diaper... and no way to get away from it.
The woman should have had spare diapers for her mother.

[indepat]

28. TSA: stand by your man, woman, and policies, no matter how absurdly

ludicrous. :patriot:

[timtom]

29. The issue, finally, is not whether the "officers" acted according

to procedure!

It's the very procedure and department itself that is abhorrent to most Americans!

I'm sure the Sturmabteilung acted "according to procedures," too. In fact, the phrase, "I was only following orders" stems from that whole regime. And it wasn't a defense then, either.

[Blue_Tires]

30. I'm starting to believe there are people who want to burn down the TSA from the inside...

No one is THIS oblivious to PR disasters...

[FiveGoodMen]

31. Enemy.

Motherfucking traitor enemies.

Our government has been taken over.

[Anakin Skywalker]

32. Another news article said the TSA denied this ever happened! So which is it? :-o

[LisaL]

33. They aren't denying it ever happened.

They are denying they ordered diaper removal and claim they offered "options." But the daughter says these options were "lose the diaper" or not get on the plane.