Transport Rights
D.C. Circuit ... This morning, the federal court ruled that the "naked scans" of air travelers do not violate Americans' constitutional rights. ... Judge Douglas Ginsburg writes that the advance imaging technology is not unreasonable given the security concerns on airplanes, and that people have the option to opt out for a pleasurable patdown. The court notes that some "have complained that the resulting patdown was unnecessarily aggressive," but the judges don't seem overly concerned about that. ... Good news for body scanner manufacturers Rapiscan and L-3. Bad news for those who don't like having to choose between digital nudity and frisking.
a Colorado woman is accused of putting her hands on a TSA agent at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix. ... grabbed the left breast of the female agent ... squeezed and twisted the agent's breast with both hands ... There's no word why she touched the agent. [No, can't imagine!] now faces a felony count of sexual abuse. [Oh, goodj! Oh, wait, they don't mean TSA....]
No one is immune to the probing hands of the TSA ... including former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ... who got the pat-down at Chicago's O'Hare airport this afternoon
"It was extremely thorough, almost a violation, "says Jason Steitler as he describes how a TSA official searched him at the Greater Rochester International Airport July 6th. Steitler's disability requires he uses a wheelchair. "They did the hair then did the neck. Then they had me do a pushup in my chair, then got down into my inner thigh around my back side. It's the most thorough search [I've] had done in my life," says Steitler. ... "She's been using the phrase 'search raped' because it was that thorough. She says it was nearly to her crotch," says Steitler. "I feel the chair should have option of either scanner or searches, but automatically we're being thrown to being patted down."
A 41-year-old Clarksville woman was arrested after Nashville airport authorities say she was belligerent and verbally abusive to security officers, refusing for her daughter to be patted down at a security checkpoint. ... saying she did not want her daughter to be "touched inappropriately or have her "crotch grabbed" ... After the woman refused to calm down, airport police said, she was charged with disorderly conduct and taken to jail. ... At one point, Abbott tried unsuccessfully to take a video with her cellphone. ... TSA says it will instruct screeners how to make repeated attempts to screen young children without invasive pat-downs.
The family was going through security when two TSA agents singled Drew Mandy out for a special pat down. Drew is severely mentally disabled. He's 29, but his parents said he has the mental capacity of a two-year-old, which made the experience that followed at metro Detroit's McNamera Terminal that much harder to deal with. "You have got to be kidding me. I honestly felt that those two agents did not know what they were doing,"
During their £10,000, two-and-a-half month "Alaska Adventure" tour from the Arctic to the Caribbean, the passengers on the luxury P&O liner Arcadia had become more than accustomed to passing US immigration with little formality. By the time they docked at Los Angeles on May 26, for a one-day visit it was their 10th stop on US soil. But when a handful of them questioned whether the lengthy security checks at the port were strictly necessary for a group of largely elderly travellers officials were not amused. Although they had already been given advance clearance for multiple entries to the country during their trip, all 2,000 passengers were made to go through full security checks in a process which took seven hours to complete. The fingerprints of both hands were taken as well as retina scans and a detailed check of the passport as well as questioning as to their background. Passengers claim that the extra checks were carried out in "revenge" for what had been a minor spat over allegedly overzealous security.
Days after a top TSA official conceded that the agency would be forced to reconsider its policies in the aftermath of a nationwide backlash against invasive screening procedures, the agency was dealt another two huge blows yesterday with the news that the TSA budget would be slashed by $270 million, in addition to the return of a bill in Texas that would make grope-downs a felony.
After a woman refused to go through a full body scanner she was pulled aside and made to undergo the pat down procedure. When the TSA agent touched the woman's breasts, she broke down into tears and screamed for a police officer. ... The family was previously subjected to similar scrutiny from the TSA at Sky Harbor earlier in the year, prompting them to voice protest over violation of their Constitutional rights. The previous incident was also captured on video (below) and was evidently remembered by some of the TSA workers who claimed to know that the whole family are routine troublemakers&hellip. [video]
The Maryland Transit Administration says more training may be called for after three MTA officers detained a man for taking pictures at a light rail station.
Utah looks likely to be the next state to follow the example set by Texas in attempting to make TSA grope downs a felony. Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman has introduced a bill into the Utah House of Representatives that would ensure TSA agents would have to abide by the same Fourth Amendment limits that police do when performing searches on Americans.
Two injured US military veterans traveling to a ceremony to honor the lives of fallen friends who gave their lives to protect the rights enshrined in the Constitution were harassed by TSA thugs, with one of them having his crotch grabbed... The TSA agents responded to the men having set off metal detectors by interrogating them about what they were hiding in their bodies. "What are you hiding in your face?" screamed one. "My friend told me that one TSA agent came up to him and asked what he was hiding in his leg, but before my friend could answer he said that the TSA agent grabbed him, without notice, right in the crotch area as if trying to find something hidden," writes Bellow. When the TSA goon grabbed his crotch and didn't let go, the veteran felt inclined to lash out violently but was somehow able to control his fury.... But it's not just airports that are being manned by this cadre of cretins — sports stadiums, prom nights, highways, bus terminals and train stations are all being patrolled by this literal occupying army that is turning America into a checkpoint-festooned police state....
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said TSA is too politically correct when it chooses which passengers to search at airport security checkpoints. ... "I walked through … right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down," Broun said on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal." "Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?" ... Broun did not specify any other reasons the man looked suspicious other than his dress. [Ummmm.... the point is the CONTRAST of Gramma with Osamma.]
A boisterous group of protesters angry over the Texas Senate's failure to vote on the airport groping bill tried to enter the public gallery this afternoon and were blocked by state troopers. Shouting "treason" and "cowards" and carrying signs and placards, the group of perhaps as many as 100 people entered the State Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. and first went to the House chamber. There, House members quickly informed the shouting group that it was the Senate that had failed to take action late Tuesday on House Bill 1937, which would have made it a crime for security checkpoint screeners to handle the private parts of anyone they screened. The group then marched to the Senate side of the Capitol and tried to enter the third-floor public gallery. Troopers with arms folded blocked them from entry. They stood outside for several minutes, chanting: "Co-wards, co-wards," Trea-son, trea-son," and shouted slogans accusing senators and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst of being "federal pimps" and "scallawag trash." They vowed to vote out of office Dewhurst and the senators who opposed passage of the bill. After shouting chants for about 30 minutes, the group left and troopers reopened the gallery doors. The activists then went to other parts of the Capitol to continue their protest.
FlyerTalk members are outraged not so much because the baby food and juice box were taken away from their rightful owners, but rather that if they indeed tested positive for trace amounts of explosive materials, why was further testing not performed by the Transportation Security Administration personnel — or, at least, treat the items as if they were indeed dangerous?
The girl's father, Todd Drexel, says Anna was confused by the search and started crying afterward because she thought she'd done something wrong. Selena Drexel says such searches are inappropriate for children because they're usually told not to let adults touch them in sensitive areas.
Many women taking the crowded train in Tokyo opt for women-only carriages during the rush hour to avoid gropers. Now, for fear of being accused of groping, some are asking for carriages reserved for men....
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