TSA inspects to tears a 3 year old with Spinabifida

[92f-fan]

Im not a fan of TSA or any of examples of power drunk "officers" whether they be TSA or Mall Security or Local PD. Be professional and respectful. Because even the guilty are still tax payers paying their salary.
I dont like seeing kids mistreated for ANY reason.

Having said all that. We didn't see the whole incident. The child likely started crying when the stuffed animal was removed for xray.
The parents should have prepared the child for the TSA. Should have explained that they may be "checked". Should have prepared the child that the bear was going to go for a ride on a conveyor but would be right back. Should have also been prepared to have the chair checked.

I know that it wont win me fans here, and Im setting aside for the moment that the child is disabled, but I grow tired of over protective mothers who think that the rules dont apply and their offspring is the center of the universe. You see them on the road using their minivans as weapons to get to a play date. While the "baby on board sign wags in the rear window". And lots of other examples of bad behavior that is excused because "its for the kids"....

We dont know what conversation the mother had with the agents before the camera started rolling and it looks like some editing was done to the movie.

Anyone who travels by air HAS to expect some problems. Call it security theater if you want but currently its required. And if you fly you agree to be subjected to it.

Im diabetic on an insulin pump. I also have a glucose sensor that I often wear that's attached on my arm. So when I fly I plan to be probed EVERY TIME. The pump is pretty common and most TSA agents have seen one. The sensor on my arm gets them every time. The whole body scanner flags it every time.
Sometimes I get decent TSA people sometimes I dont. Sometimes they get all excited and I get delayed, while they talk about it, sometimes I dont. BUT Im prepared for it and not surprised by it. I know that my experiences aren't the same as a child in a wheel chair. But in this case the child is upset mostly because her bear was taken. Wheel chair or not, that was going to happen. The parents should have prepared the child for it...

By the way Ill be traveling 3500 miles later this year and Im driving....

[E.Marquez]

I Heaven help you if you get a false positive on a swab.

Every time I travel i get a True positive on a swab.... and it has not caused much more than a small comedy of Q&A...

That said, I do not support what the TSA is doing, and I do believe it is in effective at the task so charged.

Having been in Airports across the world, large and small, landing strip to international.... What the TSA does is not security, it is just for looks and maybe more if you believe in a darker aspect of it.

[SQLGeek]

I Heaven help you if you get a false positive on a swab.

Every time I travel i get a True positive on a swab.... and it has not caused much more than a small comedy of Q&A...

Glad to hear that. If you search through threads I've started in the past, you'll see a story that my wife endured that was much worse and much more humiliating.

[johncanfield]

We flew in and out of Israel a few years ago and we were impressed with their security. Everybody gets questioned, if people are traveling together, they are questioned separately and then answers are compared. The Israelis assume nothing, everybody is a suspect. Having said that, I have little faith in our occupational TSA agents doing the hands-on work (pun intended.)

We've flown in/out of Turkey, Greece, Romania, London (many times) and various South American cities. At one airport (Istanbul I think) we went through three screenings - the last one was just before boarding.

I am so done with all of that.

[mamabearCali]

The TSA makes me very . They mostly prey on people and force them to go through intrusive degrading searches with no cause whatsoever. I don't fly anymore because I refuse to be separated from my child for any reason whatsoever. I doubt she started crying when they x-rayed the animal....she probably started crying when they would not let her mom be beside her during this search. Those who terrorize children for their own pleasure are the worst of the worst.

This is security theater performed by thugs upon common americans who have done nothing wrong but try to secure air transport to a destination. It does not make us one iota safer. It is abusive and illegal, but permitted because we allow it to be so.

[VMI77]

Regardless, thats not going to happen here, so we're back to searches.

And right back to violations of the Fourth Amendment, with reference to "unreasonable searches and seizures." I would say that intrusive searches not based upon Probable Cause, with an efficacy rate of 0% at preventing/apprehending what they're supposed to apprehend and prevent, sound pretty unreasonable.

I'm a law enforcement officer. If I treated people in the course of my job the way TSA routinely treats airline passengers, I would be in jail, and my department would be facing (and losing) a massive civil rights lawsuit.

And the simple matter is, if you're attempting to simply kill large numbers of the travelling public, the inspection queues have replaced the planes themselves as primary soft targets. Often the queues have -more- people lined up than any one plane has aboard. It is only when the goal is -takeover- and usage of the plane itself as a weapon that any sort of measures become all that effective, and the only real effective measure there is legally armed passengers (at the moment, a slot sometimes filled by Air Marshals and other LEO). Attacking the plane with explosives serves no purpose that attacking the queue wouldn't.

The underwear bomber got his explosives on the plane undetected. He was stopped by passengers and crew, as well as his own incompetence. TSA had nothing to do with him until after he was stopped.

The shoe bomber got his explosives on the plane undetected. He too was stopped by passengers and crew, as well as his own incompetence. TSA also had nothing to do with him until after the fact.

IIRC, it was the Time Square bomber that boarded a plane with an active "Be On the LookOut" order for him, sent to ALL law enforcement AND airports in the region, including the TSA. They let him board anyway, and the plane was taxiing to the runway before they realized their error.

To date, I do not know of one single instance where TSA has stopped, intercepted, or prevented a terrorist attack.

However, I do know of TSA agents who have stolen Mont Blanc pens, money, iPads, flashlights, and more. I know of TSA agents who made South Park's "officer Cartman" and his "respect my authority" spiel seem reasonable and polite. I know of TSA agents who have groped and fondled infants, elderly, and clergy, sometimes for their own sick kicks, and sometimes for the express purpose of "teaching a lesson." I know of cases where TSA agents have accused people of money laundering, check kiting, theft, and many many more alleged crimes, usually based upon spurious and specious "evidence" for which the TSA had no authority or cause to look for (and which always gets thrown out, and often results in another lawsuit). They are incompetent, ineffective, and infringing. The "good" TSA employees are usually hampered by regulation and corruption, the many bad ones are protected by the same.

They serve one purpose: to accustom the American public to arbitrary searches, groping, and embarrassment. As an LEO myself, I find I have absolutely -zero- respect for them, their job, their efficacy, their stated purpose, or their unstated purpose. I have too much respect for the Constitution and the oath I swore to accord the TSA anything but scorn.

---

PS, to whichever NSA or CIA spook that may or may not read this because I twigged your filters with words like "terrorist," "TSA," "plane," and "incompetent," you know where to find me; come and chat. I'll make coffee.

It's great to hear someone who is essentially in the security business explain in detail why what the TSA does is not security, and who understands the real purpose: conditioning.

[VMI77]

Im diabetic on an insulin pump. I also have a glucose sensor that I often wear that's attached on my arm. So when I fly I plan to be probed EVERY TIME. The pump is pretty common and most TSA agents have seen one. The sensor on my arm gets them every time. The whole body scanner flags it every time.
Sometimes I get decent TSA people sometimes I dont. Sometimes they get all excited and I get delayed, while they talk about it, sometimes I dont. BUT Im prepared for it and not surprised by it. I know that my experiences aren't the same as a child in a wheel chair. But in this case the child is upset mostly because her bear was taken. Wheel chair or not, that was going to happen. The parents should have prepared the child for it...

By the way Ill be traveling 3500 miles later this year and Im driving....

And you shouldn't be subjected to the treatment you describe either. I don't agree to be subjected to it and I don't fly. Now I either drive, or if it's too far to be practical, use the telephone.

[VMI77]

The TSA makes me very . They mostly prey on people and force them to go through intrusive degrading searches with no cause whatsoever. I don't fly anymore because I refuse to be separated from my child for any reason whatsoever. I doubt she started crying when they x-rayed the animal....she probably started crying when they would not let her mom be beside her during this search. Those who terrorize children for their own pleasure are the worst of the worst.

This is security theater performed by thugs upon common americans who have done nothing wrong but try to secure air transport to a destination. It does not make us one iota safer. It is abusive and illegal, but permitted because we allow it to be so.

It continues because apparently, we have a nation with a majority of serfs who put up with being treated like serfs. If enough people stopped flying --it wouldn't even have to be a majority, but just enough to wipe out the profit margins of the airlines-- it would stop. If people stop paying for the unreasonable the reasonable will return.

[mamabearCali]

I have not flown since they started this nonsense. I do my part.

[RottenApple]

And you shouldn't be subjected to the treatment you describe either. I don't agree to be subjected to it and I don't fly. Now I either drive, or if it's too far to be practical, use the telephone.

We use FaceTime a lot too. Using AirPlay I can connect my iPad to my AppleTV, FaceTime our family in DE, CO, or CA (and soon to be in OK), and show it on the big screen. Heck, we've even played some board games (like Risk) using AirPlay!

[Abraham]

We need more senators and congressmen having to submit to TSA when they fly, then improvements would be made.

Oh wait, they get to fly on government planes on our dime.

Sorry, I forgot we the people are plebeians and they're patricians.

What was I thinking...?