For those of you who have yet to sustain a disability, or are not yet elderly, you need to know how the Transportation Security Administration will treat you.
huffingtonpost.com(11/24/10) ... In front of me was a man with his son. The child was about 7 or 8 and was in a wheelchair .
The TSA people insisted that he go through the detector, but the wheelchair itself had a lot of metal in it.
The father offered to hold the child and walk through, but that was unacceptable. They said that each person had to pass through alone and eventually they pressured the father and child to do it.
I will never forget the sight of this poor injured kid, slowly limping through the detector so that he didn't fall down, having no real understanding of why he was being forced through this as his father looked on with anger and shame.
But this is not an isolated incident. It is happening every day, as TSA singles out the disabled and the elderly.
TSA's own Blogger Bob (this what he calls himself, I guess Pinocchio was taken) assures us that we need pay no heed here because "only a small percentage of passengers end up needing a pat down".
Of course it's not a pat-down, it's an invasive physical grope. And, as Nate Silver has pointed out, TSA has given us no information that would allow us to check their figures.
But even if we accept that "small percentage" of people get what Senator McCaskill calls "love pats", there are a number of people who are ALWAYS going to get them.
-- The elderly.
-- The disabled, including with NO exception disabled children.
This not just a few bad apples.
This is not individualized viciousness. In many ways, that would be better.
This is far worse: it is institutionalized cruelty manufactured by contractors and delivered to the government on a vast scale.
It is made all the worse by a criminal lack of training, which, completely aside from its effect on the people on whom it is practised upon, is itself a threat to security.
TSA claims on their official website:
You will not be required to remove any clothing during the process or remove or display the belt that holds your prosthetic device to your body.
Apparently that word hasn't gotten to the TSA in Chicago:
devoteedisabled.multiply.com (7/30/08) The same goes for 16-year old Michael Angone. She frequently flies as a member of the Chicago Children's Choir.
"I've had to completely take my pants off and show them like my entire leg," Angone said.
As a baby, Angone was diagnosed with cancer. Her parents, both Chicago police officers, had to have her leg amputated. She said she always warns TSA security agents that her prosthetic leg will set off the metal detector, but many insist on doing an embarrassing full body pat-down.
"I feel like I'm being felt up in public," Angone said.
Her father Bob Angone wanted to know, "What's the reason for all the feeling up, you know the groping at the back of the neck, the chest, underneath the bra, all the groping on her body, her buttocks?"
When TSA was asked those questions no answers were given.
TSA claims on their website:
Security Officers will not ask nor require you to remove your prosthetic device, cast, or support brace.
In March 2009, the Thomas family was passing through security in Philadelphia en route to a vacation. Their child Ryan, then age 4, had been born 16 months premature. He wore leg braces because he malformed ankles had little or no muscle tone in his legs. As his mother walked him through the metal detector, the alarm of course went off. When his mother tried to explain ...
cbsnews.com (2/16/10) The screener replied that the boy would have to take the braces off and walk through the detector again. When Leona Thomas attempted to walk with Ryan she was told he would have to do it alone.
She tried, calmly, to explain that Ryan could barely walk with the braces, let alone without them, but the compassionless screener was deaf to her pleas, according to the newspaper.
Meanwhile Bob Thomas was getting increasingly agitated. He is an officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, so he understood the need for security, but this was overkill, he told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The Thomases eventually complied and Ryan made it through on his own, but Bob immediately asked for a supervisor. The supervisor was less than sympathetic and stood by the screener's actions. A fellow police officer even told Bob Thomas to drop it and go enjoy his vacation.
In May 2010, an amputee mother was traveling with her 4 year-old child. Because she was wearing a prosthetic leg, the mother was placed in Plexiglass "viewing area" while her boy Ryan was sent through the sensors alone. When the boy finished this, he came running into his mother's arms. Because however the mother herself had not yet been "screened", the touching of his mother "compromised" the child, so he had to be rescreened. But this was just the beginning.
amputeemommy.com (5/31/10)
I was forced to sit in a chair and helplessly watch my scared little boy get patted down for explosives. I was angry and perplexed when they pulled back his hands and peeked into his diaper. When his ordeal was over, Robby sat quietly shaking in a chair staring at me.
...
I was instructed to remove my leg. I refused, stating that it was against procedure ... . Another man was brought over, who lectured me about the increased security risk and the need to keep screening procedures current. He reiterated that the rules have changed, and that he needed my prosthetic. Looking at my frightened little boy and knowing that we were becoming pressed for time, I begrudgingly removed my leg and handed it to the rude agent.
"What's that?" the man asked while pointing to my liner. I explained that it was my prosthetic liner, and that I wore it to keep my prosthetic attached. He insisted that he needed to run my liner through the machine as well.
...
I took off my liner. I sat quietly in a chair as onlookers and gawking passengers watched me expose one of my most personal features. I felt defeated and humiliated.
My liner, which is supposed to be maintained in a hygienic manner, was thrown into a screening bin inside out and run through the machine. ...
But what happens if an amputee refuses to remove an artificial limb?
whosaysicant.org (4/9/10) ... It all started normally. A young kid was the “officer” doing the screening. I knew something was up when he did the pat down like he was considering it a vertical deep tissue massage session. He had me shaking and baking as he massaged leg, arms, back, and then even buttocks. His pat down of the crotch was something I don’t want to think about much less write here about. And then he said he needed to see the top of the prosthesis. I said firmly that he most certainly did not. He insisted and offered the private screening. Here is where I draw the line.
...
At least 6 TSA agents were lurking around me and pretty soon I got the fun surprise that they have called the local cops on me as well.
Finally Mr. David Baron showed up. He was the most senior TSA agent there. And he started to lecture me on safety and their mission. ... if this was the most senior guy I had really no recourse but to do the private screening or I risked not going home at all.
... I went off to the private screening. Once there Mr. Baron suggested I try to pull my pants leg up as high as I could which is pretty high. They could then see above the computer knee and a couple of inches of the socket. And they suddenly decided that was enough. ...
CastScope
In September 2007, TSA spent $17 million to buy 35 devices known as a Castscope at some airports. According to USA Today : "Passengers with prosthetics cannot opt out of a CastScope."
And naturally, when you follow the follow the trail of slime, it naturally leads to
critical government lobbying power.
As one might expect, from what can be discerned in terms of reports from passengers the overall training in the use of this x-ray device (trust us, it's safe!) is inadequate at best, even though this is supposedly a matter of aircraft security and counter terrorism. Let us hear again from amputeemommy.com
Having experienced the "thorough pat down" procedures on my flight to Atlanta, I was prepared for my molestation on my return flight. The TSA agent again explained the new procedure and proceeded to cop the necessary feels. I was then taken for my Cast Scope X-Rays. I hate it when TSA has a new toy!
After standing in a variety of positions for the necessary six x-rays, I was hopeful another TSA screening would come to an end. Unfortunately the agents were not able to interpret my images. I was asked to decipher the x-ray images for them!
From flyertalk.com, a traveller repots being selected for having her breasts groped, and her buttocks and inner things pawed over, on account of her wearing an artificial leg:
The breast part was worse than the crotch part, I thought. She had explained the “scooping” motion that she would use underneath them, and then also put her hands flat on them and kept running her hands down over them. (Hint, lady: They feel the same the 3rd time as the 1st.)
Then comes the super high-tech magical aviation security:
So they took about 8-10 pics of my leg, and at one point I was literally straddling the machine because they felt they needed to xray the medial side of the leg. I could practically feel my ovaries shriveling up and dying. They did let me see the pictures – not much detail, but still more than I’m comfortable with – and I saw them (supposedly) delete them in prep for the next passenger. My leg does not have the fancy computer components that some do, but it was clear from the training/education/overall competency level of these two women that they would have no idea how to tell the difference between electronic prosthetic components and electronic bomb components.
And again, from the linked USA Today Article
(8/25/10) Peggy Chenoweth of Gainesville, Va., says she's been screened twice with a CastScope at Baltimore/Washington International, and both times screeners didn't know how to use the device. They had to pull out a manual to figure out how she should stand and how to X-ray her, she says.
Todd Blosser, a wheelchair basketball player, was angry about missing a flight from the Denver airport in March because he says security screeners didn't know how to operate a CastScope.
On the safety of these little devices (none of which are operated by medically trained or licensed personnel), we have another report from flyertalk.com
(4/28/10) Unfortunately I have a broken arm. The two times I flew out of LAX (not OGG, LAS, SNA, etc) they had to x-ray the cast. They take 4 "pictures" to view all sides of the cast. The x-ray is strong enough to see the bones. I asked the TSA agent why only LAX, she said that any airport that has the machine has to use it. I asked her how safe it was, she said it can only x-ray the cast. When I showed her the bones in the x-ray, she just smiled.
But the training problems aren't limited to the CastScope
14 year-old high school freshman Amalia Smith has spinal bifida and must use a wheelchair. Her father reports that "She's my hero, and it makes my heart ache to see her humiliated by TSA workers who I am sure are only following orders."
Every time Amalia flies, she gets the same humiliating treatment. This is because of her wheelchair -- even though it is stowed with the luggage in the belly of the airplane. TSA then swabs the wheelchair and places the swabs in the explosive detection machine. Every few times, the machine shows a positive reading.
Las Vegas Review-Journal.com (11/21/10) Trouble is, the machine is sensitive and screeners have to take care to make sure it is reset properly. If they fail to reset it, it goes off.
I know this because over the years some of the screeners have sheepishly admitted as much.
This time, bingo, she set off the machine. Under the security system now in place, that means in addition to the usual irritating pat-down, screeners return for a second, far more assertive and invasive search.
For the most part, I held my tongue. We all know speaking up to airport security invites further delay and potentially missing a flight.
I tersely reminded the security matron that she had neglected to reset her machine.
No matter. Rules are rules, and the rules said a supervisor had to be called.
A huddle ensued with a second and third TSA worker. A first call was made, then another, as they tried to find a supervisor to give us clearance.
One of the few Transportation Security Officers who will talk with the media has stated:
CBS Pittsburgh (11/25/10) It’s America’s seniors that are most often the targets of a pat-down, says this local TSA officer.
“These are your mother, your father, your grandparents. They’re the ones who have to put up with this every time they fly.”
And it breaks the heart of some local TSA officers.
“Just the looks on their faces, some of them, the fear.”
I feel safer already.