A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.
Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”
On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure.”
Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”
Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He’d taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. “I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts,” said Sawyer, “And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn’t need to know about that.”
Something needs to be done about the TSA. I think something will be done, and done very, very quickly, especially based on this story.
Representative John A. Boehner, soon to be the Speaker of the House, has pledged to fly commercial airlines back to his home district in Ohio. But that does not mean that he will be subjected to the hassles of ordinary passengers, including the controversial security pat-downs.
As he left Washington on Friday, Mr. Boehner headed across the Potomac River to Reagan National Airport, which was bustling with afternoon travelers. But there was no waiting in line for Mr. Boehner, who was escorted around the metal detectors and body scanners, and taken directly to the gate.
Mr. Boehner, who was wearing a casual yellow sweater and tan slacks, carried his own bags and smiled pleasantly at passengers who were leaving the security checkpoint inside the airport terminal. It was unclear whether any passengers waiting in the security line, including Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat who lost his re-election bid, saw Mr. Boehner.
I believe the TSA is going to find itself facing some rather interesting oversight committees very, very soon.
Posts
1 comment:
You know, in my darker moments, I have to wonder if SteveAR had a point in equating the TSA's new procedures to torture. And it's entirely possible it could be going in that direction.
And then I am reminded that the witless fuck actually said this shit was as bad if not worse as to the shit being done to those in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. And then I realize that this is out and public and forced into people's faces, unlike what happened to the prisoners and detainees. And then I realize that with enough public outcry, this stands a fair chance of being changed.
This shit shouldn't be happening, regardless.
And of course Bonehead would want to make a show about how "it really isn't so bad". The dumbass does not seem to realize that noone would seriously stop and subject a US Rep. to an invasive search.
Seems true, privilege doesn't make better people, it makes assholes.
Post a Comment