TSA agents harass 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and developmental disability

The Transportation Security Administration launched the “TSA Cares” program to assist disabled fliers just four months ago, but a story making the rounds today proves that the TSA definitely does not. The Frank family was traveling from New York City's JFK airport to Florida, and were abruptly pulled aside after a dispute over how their 7-year-old daughter Dina was screened. The child is developmentally disabled and has cerebral palsy. She walks with crutches and leg braces.

With her crutches and orthotics, Dina cannot walk through metal detectors and instead is patted down by security agents. The girl, who is also developmentally disabled, is often frightened by the procedure, her father said. Marcy Frank usually asks the agents to introduce themselves to her daughter, but those on duty on Monday were exceptionally aggressive, Joshua Frank said, and he began to videotape them with his iPhone.
“And the woman started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me,” he said.

Read more: The Daily, and CBS Washington, DC. The child was previously featured in a happier CBS local news story about how she became able to walk after a treatment involving Botox and Phenol injections.

Here's the best part! The TSA has issued a statement defending the screeners. Snip: “TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child.”

(via Meteorological Musings, thanks Boomer!)

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: children • disability • human rights • ripoff • security theater • tsa

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The Snowden Principle

Mister44

Fuck the TSA.
- Hobozombie
  
  @Mister44:disqus Yeah, I was not defending the TSA, more defending copypasta. The TSA is a waste of money and a dangerous eroder (is that a word? It is now) of personal liberties.
  
  But it seems that everything has been removed.
  
  Weird.
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    Not so weird. Posting duplicate comments on multiple threads is against our comment policy, and I didn’t want to leave the long sub-thread of comments referring to that.
theophrastvs

Sure makes one wonder what it will take (in this toxic political time) to convene a congressional investigation into the TSA, doesn’t it? i guess it’ll take performing one of their acts of terrorism directly on a member of congress, or one of their citizen-united employers.
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  Nope, it’ll take more than that:
  
  http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/rand-paul-in-pat-down-standoff-with-tsa-in-nashville/
  - theophrastvs
    
    I’m not sure that he qualifies as a serious member of either side; and maybe this is proof of that. Lets see them try that on a member of congress with real ALEC-type backing.
    - http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
      
      He’s a Senator. Senators are Serious People, even when they are a little kookypants. I’m guessing McCain, Graham or Lieberman would have gotten the same treatment and the same nothing would have happened.
      - buenasolas
        
        Let’s be real, he’s a joke of a senator
Tjexcite

All part of the plan. And it originates somewhere near the Oval Office if not in it. Nothing the TSA does is with out ordered from the DHS. With one change in orders it could all come in line with common sense but first they will need to find that.
CH

Wheeeeell… Cerebral Palsy is obviously a name of a terrorist organisation. Any trained TSA agent will immediately notice this and act accordingly. And developmentally disabled is just a cunning code word for Evol Overlord. I mean, just look at that girl! Doesn’t a sweet smile like that immediately reveal her as an Evil Terrorist just waiting to blow up the world??? Huh, HUH?!!?!? I thought so!
awjt

After the TSA has its balls chopped off, I wonder who the next group is who will be the brunt of all the bullying. After all, bullying some group or other is our national pastime.
- Rindan
  
  Ahhh, poor TSA. Are all the mean citizens being nasty at you because you shit on their fourth and fifth amendment rights at the cost of billions of dollars to fail to stop a threat that ranks below choking on your own food? Do you feel bad when they get pissed because the power you have gobbled up has literally only been used to further corruption and criminal schemes, and never once actually stopped an American from being harmed?
  
  Poor TSA! People are so mean!
  
  The ball chopping can’t come any quicker.
- stupocalypto
  
  Who knows, keep your head in the sand though, it’s easier that way!
  - awjt
    
    Man you people are so quick to jump on a Troll!!! Not the TSA as the *recipient* of bullying… but as the BULLY… as in, after that bully is emasculated, who will be the next bully and next victim?
    - Jer_00
      
      Wow – that is completely not how your comment above reads.
      
      Try “bear the brunt of being the national bully” instead of “be the brunt of all the bullying”. The way you said it puts the TSA as the victim of bullying.
      
      And there’s no worries on that score – this nation has no shortage of bullies in positions of authority. And that’s been true since, oh, the founding of the nation. Seems to be true of every nation. Only way to deal with it is to make things as transparent as possible until people get fed up and kick the bully in the nads.
      - awjt
        
        Yeah, I admit it was poorly worded. I’ll try harder to be clear.
      - Robert
        
        To be fair, “brunt” is a pretty silly word, and apt to get into all sorts of trouble. Brunt brunt brunt.
    - stupocalypto
      
      Ok, it wasn’t very clear though, I assumed you meant the TSA was being unfairly targeted.
      
      There is something interesting in that though, as the more the people are angry at the goverment funded agency, the less they are looking at the government that funded the agency.
- marilove
  
  Tell me you’re being sarcastic. Please.
TaymonBeal

Wow. This really just isn’t their week, is it?
- oasisob1
  
  Decade. There, I fixed your comment.
  - bonkus
    
    fyfy, ftfy.
Rindan

Every time someone defends the TSA or this absolutely bullshit security theater, flat our call them a god damn coward. Don’t tell them that their fears are unfounded, don’t try and argue the effectiveness of the security, just start at the top. You are a coward. If they start babbling about terrorist, point out again that they are a coward. If they talk about 9/11 and how those families that lost people felt, point out that they are a coward. If they babble how it isn’t needed for them, it is need for “other people”, point out that those people are cowards that they should stop flying.

This is the change that needs to happen.

Defeating “terrorism” in the US is absurdly easy. Just don’t act like a god damn coward, and it fixes itself. The “terrorist” are not a threat to your life. McDonalds is a threat to your life. Cancer is a threat to your life. Choking on the food you shovel into your mouth is even a threat to your life. Terrorism is not a threat to your life any more than shark attacks are… less so in fact.

Yes, a terrorist might blow up an airplane. A few hundred people die, and that is all well and sad. However, we somehow manage to solider on with total indifference ignoring the millions of people that die each year for boring things, like eating themselves to death. No one is pissing themselves to spend billions of dollars setting up a massive forest of lightening rods to prevent people from being struck by lightening. Why the fuck then are we pissing away billions of dollars and our civil liberty on the TSA?

Strip the TSA. Give them a full cavity “freedom fondle”. Gut the safety regs down a quick x-ray of your bag and a metal detector. Will it catch everything? Nope. Who cares?

If this scares you because you are a coward, great! I don’t want you on my plane. The TSA is god damn useless, but time and time again, it has been proven that brave passengers are not. Brave passengers are literally the ONLY thing to stop bombings and take overs. If not getting a cowards freedom fondle scares away the cowards, it just means that airline travel is safer.

Braver Americans stormed beach heads where every other man was dropped dead. Braver Americans faced police beatings during the civil rights movement. I’m not asking the average citizen to show the courage of a soldier or a civil rights activities protesting Jim Crow laws. The only thing I am asking as that you keep control of your bladder long enough to make a quick and utterly safe flight without mewing to the government for a freedom fondle. Once you are off the airplane you can go stuff your face with all the BigMacs you want and work towards an early grave.

If someone defends the TSA, call them a coward. Until we make it socially unacceptable to act like a fucking coward, politicians who support coward policies will keep getting elected.
- asterios9
  
  “Yes, a terrorist might blow up an airplane. A few hundred people die, and that is all well and sad.”
  
  This is the part that’s more than a little bit hard to sell – essentially “they might bag a few planes, but man up, bitches.”
  
  There are areas where the compromise between preventative measures and risk have been made, but they’ve been *tacit* decisions. I ride the NYC subways knowing that attacks in Europe have firebombed trains and allegedly multiple plots to do so have been hatched here. The city has made some efforts to “protect” the trains but they (for the most part) stop short of hassling people and are obviously inadequate to stop an attack. They’ve dialed back the bag searches and pretty much stopped parading around with machine guns as a “show of force.” (Big exception is that they surveil all Muslims in the area, but I’m just focusing on acting as a physical goalkeeper in ways analogous to the TSA.)
  
  How did this drawdown happen? Not by some overt announcement. No politician asked people to vote for him because he was going to end bag searches. It just happened. And yes, New Yorkers decided it was acceptable – nobody’s calling for more security.
  
  That’s how it needs to happen with the TSA. You are never going to get people to endorse the end of specific tactics – let’s just stop screening shoes, let’s let liquids back on the planes, let’s stop patting people down. It has to happen quietly, or they have to figure out how to couch changes in a way that sounds like they aren’t increasing risk.
  
  Also, the reforms would have to be *bipartisan*. That’s another huge factor, the fear of politicians that they are going to get blamed for not preventing the next attack.
  
  So, you are not wrong. People are cowards. They are fearful and inordinately so. BUT explicitly telling them they should accept more risk is a losing argument, IMO.
  - Shinkuhadoken
    
    During the Blitzkrieg, London was carpet bombed. Every night. Relentlessly. For weeks.
    
    And yet somehow Britain didn’t devolve into having the government inspect its children’s genitals for explosives. Ending the TSA is not so much asking people to accept more risk as it is scaling back the insane paranoia that “protects” freedom by obliterating it.
    - buenasolas
      
      I agree with you, but I don’t know that the UK is the greatest example to use in this day and age given that pretty much the entire nation is on CCTV
      - Shinkuhadoken
        
        Maybe they just need to be reminded how brave they used to be.
    - nachoproblem
      
      I agree in spirit but the analogy doesn’t work. Whatever the situation resembles superficially, the logistics are completely different. You can’t hide a Heinkel He 111 in a child’s underpants, even theoretically.
      
      You would have to look at something like, say, how the British security forces were about enforcing blackouts during a raid, or maybe evacuation procedures. I don’t know.
      
      My point is that you have to make some comparison of how the security forces tried to address the potential “Enemy” within the actual citizenry. I still don’t see much potential for a good analogy there.
  - Rindan
    
    I disagree. Calling someone a flat out coward to their face is amazingly successful. Legitimizing cowardice by pretending like their fears are well founded is what gets the shit we have today. I have taken the “you are a god damn coward, get off my plane” argument out and about and found that it pretty much convinces everyone from hippy leftist to religious conservative nuts.
    
    It strikes a cord because it lays out the truth of the matter in stark terms. Are you afraid of one of the most rare ways to die (while you stuff a Big Mac in your face) and want to give up your liberty over your stupid and childish fears, or do you want to see this system dismantled? I have yet to see a person survive a few minutes of arguing for cowardice before conceding.
    
    No, tactful drawn is the method used when you have already surrendered and decided to treat people like scared children. Calling people cowards to their face is the method to restore sanity. If it becomes a common meme that people who want this kind of bullshit security are cowards, I think you could see this crap dismantled shockingly quick.
    
    Save the ‘tactful draw down’ bullshit for asshole politicians. It is 10+ years since 9/11 and security has only gotten stupider. As a citizen, it is your responsibility to help be the change by being loud and vocal. If you pass along the idea that only cowards will piss themselves in terror unless they get a good thorough “freedom fondle” before boarding an airplane to just a handful of people, and they do the same, it can effect a massive change.
mothernatureseven

eff the gd closing of the EPA, it is the bullsh!t
TSA and homeland security that need closing
- mothernatureseven
  
  the TSA is a waste of money and all their hump minions are punks.
JonS

On the upside, though, Dina wasn’t able to hijack the plane.
Sagodjur

At some point they need to realize that following “proper screening procedures” doesn’t exempt them from having to treat people like human beings.
Shinkuhadoken

I think the case against the TSA gets louder the more scandals like this keep occurring. You can’t just sweep this under the rug. The Internet doesn’t forget.
- realityhater
  
  you mean like all the police brutality cases we have grown so accustomed to watching on the internet- bottom line is the rug has a big lump in the middle from all the shit already swept under it ?
  - Shinkuhadoken
    
    The TSA are not police; they are a superfluous government monster created out of a knee-jerk reaction. The TSA is to the War on Terror as Sedition was to World War I, and Japanese Internment Camps was to World War II. It’s something we’ll look back on and wonder, “What the hell were they thinking?”
    
    It’s an expensive “war powers” boondoggle that can’t and won’t address the problem it was created for while simultaneously violating the Constitution in multiple fashions. It’s days are numbered, and the more child and elder abuse they continue to cause, the sooner the people will make sure it’s finished.
    
    You’re more likely to die on a street than for any reason on a plane, let alone terrorism on a plane. That money could be better spent put towards safer roads if you’re that worried about transportation deaths.
    - realityhater
      
      I agree with you , and I hope the TSA’s days are numbered I hate them like poison !!! , I was merely pointing out the fact that we have grown so accustomed to seeing these types of violations – we are too numb or stupid to voice a collective opinion to change this reality
http://mjfgates.myopenid.com/ mjfgates

Stories like these really need a unicorn chaser. Preferably, a unicorn chasing down TSA agents and impaling them on its horn.
Fnordius

The reply suggests to me that the TSA is underpaid and understaffed, cannot attract anyone with a modicum of professionalism to take their McJobs, and so they are forced to defend the crap that the screeners commit. They can’t fire them as they can’t replace them, and disciplining them only makes them sullen and behave even worse with the passengers.

The current system is simply unsustainable. The money being spent on expensive toys needs to be spent instead on improving working conditions, training and salaries. We need to attract good people to these jobs and stop treating them as a place to put failed burger flippers.
ffabian

I’m a European and I like the TSA.

2 reasons for that:

1. We Western Europeans are tired of USians telling them that the US is some sort of freedom paradise all the while we live in some sort of socialist-commie-nazi-loving fake democracy. At least since 9/11 the opposite is true (apart from the “socialist-commie” part). Torture NDAA, PAtriot, secret trials, TSA the list is endless – We like these ’cause we like to laugh in the face of those flag waving ‘MUURRRICAANs

2. The USians mentioned above get a taste of their own medicine. Before 9/11 just those dirty brown foreigners overseas had the opportunity to experience “freedom US-style” – getting humiliated in their own country by thugs claiming to preserve/bring freedom. But please go the extra mile and start killing and torturing already (preferable guests at wedding parties)
- http://twitter.com/trempls tré
  
  It wasn’t just dirty brown foreigners; I remember my dirty brown natural born citizen father being pulled out of lines. But you’re right, we’ve fixed that. Hooray for equality!
- Robert
  
  On the other hand, now there’s a whole bunch of Americans who are begging to be allowed to live in Europe! You just can’t win!
- marilove
  
  “USians”? You can’t be serious here. Good lord.
  - ffabian
    
    http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=USian
foobar

I’m loathe to defend the TSA, but parents: no one cares about your kids but you. If you can’t control them in a given situation the people around you might cut you some slack, but they certainly aren’t under any obligation to and you have no business complaining if they don’t.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  So many layers of WTF here, I hardly know where to start.
  - WTF is up with your assertion that nobody except parents care whether or not their children are abused by government employees?
  - WTF is up with the idea that not treating a disabled child like shit constitutes being ‘under any obligation’ to anything except common decency and the basic social contract of post-cave-dweller life?
  - WTF do you mean by ‘if you can’t control’? Did I miss some part of the story where the child bit someone or hurled feces?
  - WTF is up with the idea that having a child who is incapable of acting like a victim droid means that her parents shouldn’t complain? Maybe we should just sedate children before they travel so that they can be more conveniently pawed by the TSA thugs.
  - Phil Fot
    
    I’m glad you replied to that crap comment. I was struck by disbelief and couldn’t manage to type anything coherent in response.
    
    I think his nickname is more of a descriptive label than it is a name.
  - awjt
    
    In addition to all the helpings of WTF here, I’m thinking from a policy standpoint: at some point the ADA, Constitution and executive privilege will collide in a massive shower of sparks. (And the neoconservative Supreme Court will clean it all up, I’m sure.)
  - foobar
    
    Oh drop the straw men. No child was being abused in either case. They were going through the same security procedure everyone else has to go through.
    
    If you disagree with that procedure, I’m with you, but you don’t get to go around it just because you have your kid with you.
    - marilove
      
      Yeah! Yelling at a child for no reason isn’t abusive AT ALL!
      - foobar
        
        Granted, they should be yelling at the parent, but it’s not entirely clear that that wasn’t the case.
    - Ultan
      
      ”the same security procedure everyone else has to go through” is abuse.
      But the conduct of the screening in these cases also broke TSA policies- the TSA’s own policies state:
      “Know that at no time during the screening process will you be separated from your child.”
      “Know that if a private screening is required, you should escort and remain with your child during the private screening process.” (relevant to the 4-year old’s case)
      “Inform the Security Officer if you think the child may become upset
      during the screening process as a result of their disability.”
      “Offer suggestions on how to best accomplish the screening to minimize any confusion or outburst for the child.”
      
      Never under any circumstances is it OK for a TSA agent to scream and curse at a parent for documenting the TSAs bad conduct. Nor is it OK to pass a family through screening, then wait an hour, then claim they need to be screened again, causing them to miss their flight.
  - Ultan
    
    Congratulations on your restraint. A couple of years ago that sort of post to which you just replied would have gotten instantly disemvoweled, at least. I’m not sure I could match your moderation in this case.
- http://twitter.com/trempls tré
  
  Of course! We shouldn’t be teaching the TSA not to harass 7-year-olds; we need to teach 7-year-olds not to get harassed. She was probably asking for it, right? God, this all sounds familiar…
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/OKEONAMLFIOS5WI7MPQY6SXBCQ IRMO
  
  I may not care about other people’s kids, but at least I know that some approaches for dealing with kids cannot work for the simple reason that kids are kids.
aaronbbrown

Perhaps if TSA employees were granted proper civil service status, something that should’ve been done when the organization was created, these jobs would attract a better class of more professional people. As it is these jobs don’t pay Hardly enough to live on, nor any benefits that makes them an attractive career choice to anyone who doesn’t already have very limited career choices. So what you’re left with is a huge turnover in the workforce, and folks who are only interested in temporary employment until they can find a Real job that offers genuine financial security for themselves and their families.

It’s interesting that a society would relegate the people responsible for their safety and security to third class employee status, so that those people have no job security, no union protections, and no future in these professions. So why would you expect anything better than third class service from such people?

TSA agents were recently bribed by drug dealers to overlook drug shipments that were passing through their security stations. No doubt this is a regular occurrence, and if real terrorists were genuinely interested in getting on a plane, it would be easy enough to bribe such workers. So what TSA really does is create the illusion of security, protection from the average nut with no resources and no ability to plan, and nothing more.

I suppose it’s going to take another 9/11 like tragedy to get the corporate own profit driven Vermin who currently rule the transportation sector, much as they ruled the Republicans in the House of Representatives and the Senate. Maybe when a few thousand more Americans die, only then will they say to themselves, gosh I guess we should offer these people some kind of job security end civil service protections in order to attract people of character and conscience to these positions. Until then nobody should complain, and be very thankful to whatever deity you worship, or think yourself very lucky that you make it off the plane alive these days. Because in a democratic society, it is you who are ultimately responsible for your own safety, and responsible for allowing a third rate organization like the TSA to be responsible for the safety of the people you care about. When the realization finally hits you, remember it is you who is ultimately responsible for for these experiences.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  Who‘s responsible? Voters in a two-party system often don’t have a choice.
  
  Those with their brains in gear would have to prefer to see the US become a more egalitarian society; their division of wealth is barbaric. But that didn’t stop Obama pointing the world’s biggest firehose of cash at a bunch of uber-fucking-gigacrooks.
- Layne
  
  Or you know, we could just get rid of the whole damn awful agency entirely.
  
  Solutions like this only guarantee that we’ll cement them into place and watch as their costs/salary/budgets go skyrocketing while our daily rights get ground underfoot.
  
  The illusion of security due to the TSA is absolute 100% fabrication. It’s a larded up program that does nothing to make us safer – just demeans each and every one of us.
  
  The best security against any terrorist attacks these days are:
  1) locked pilot doors
  2) passengers who won’t believe that a hijacking will end peacefully.
  
  Anything else feeds into this kind of insane civil rights-stomping government overreach.
- John Hoffman
  
  I don’t fly. I do not anticipate flying. I have an observation, though. TSA worker bees are no different that rentacops. Rentacops are paid almost nothing to watch over the property of the riches. A rentacop can be put into personal danger by arsonists, robbers, and the like. TSA thugs are in no personal danger. TSA thugs can summon armed people to their aid instantly, while the real rentacop can only dial 911 and hope for the best.
travtastic

Oh my god, tackle her!

http://www.samruby.com/Villains/GreenGoblinI/GreenGoblinMadThrow.gif
William Shortifle

Taken directly from the TSA website: http://www.tsa.gov/join/careers/pay_scales.shtm

Pay Scales at TSA (2011 and 2012)

TSA Careers

We are unique among our fellow Federal employees because we do not use the standard GS grading system you may be familiar with. We use an “SV” grading system, which is a system of discrete grades with pay ranges that differ from GS pay ranges. These discrete grades, which are identified by letters rather than numbers, have minimum and maximum rates.

In the table below, we show the ranges for each pay band.

Pay Band
Minimum
Maximum

A
$17,083
$24,977

B
$19,570
$28,546

C
$22,167
$33,303

D
$25,518
$38,277

E
$29,302
$44,007

F
$33,627
$50,494

G
$39,358
$60,982

H
$48,007
$74,390

I
$58,495
$90,717

J
$71,364
$110,612

K
$85,311
$132,237

L
$101,962
$155,500

M
$120,236
$155,500

The above rates are basic pay rates and do not include locality pay. 2011 and 2012 basic pay rates are limited to $155,500. 2011 and 2012 adjusted pay rates (base pay plus locality) are limited to $172,550.
http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai

Listen, I agree that the TSA is safety theater that doesn’t actually keep us safe…but come on. Smuggling weapons in via cruches & wheelchairs is a an actual possibility. No more absurd than arbitrarily searching everyone. If this kid had some crazy domestic terrorist parents they could be using her for a mule. It isn’t CRAZY. Again, I think the TSA is a waste of money with poor ethics & poor practices, but this isn’t outrageous.
- Tynam
  
  That she was screened isn’t absurd. That she was bullied and intimidated by TSA scum who didn’t even have the basic social skills required not to terrify a child is the problem.
- Jer_00
  
  Did you read the article at all? Or even the bit that is quoted above?
  
  Her parents aren’t upset because they searched her.
  
  Marcy Frank usually asks the agents to introduce themselves to her daughter, but those on duty on Monday were exceptionally aggressive, Joshua Frank said, and he began to videotape them with his iPhone. “And the woman started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me,” he said.
  
  “Exceptionally agressive”. To a scared kid with cerebral palsy.
  
  That’s why they’re upset – because TSA doesn’t pay well enough to hire people who can engage in a minimum of human compassion while going about their duties.
  
  And no, it isn’t all TSA agents. But it sure as hell does seem that TSA attracts a far greater proportion of jumped-up wannabe cops who couldn’t make the cut for mall cop. It’s a tough job, but I imagine if they hired professionals and paid them well to do it, we’d all be better off.
  - http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
    
    What I’m saying is–I agree with you? Which is why leading with her age & disease is a bad move. Because the problem is the TSA, on a fundamental level, not the TSA when the TSA hassles young, old or sick people.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  Yes it is bloody crazy.
  
  And it’s just as insane to go constantly jumping at shadows just because someone does something crazy every 20 years or whatever.
  
  When you add it up, the ‘cure’ is worse than the disease.
  
  What’s wrong with simply not molesting everyone and putting cops on the planes instead?
  - novium
    
    The cure being worse than the disease is the point of terrorism, sigh.
  - http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
    
    Nothing? I guess you can’t possibly put enough disclaimers in a comment (“I think the TSA is a waste of money with poor ethics & poor practices,” or “…the TSA is safety theater that doesn’t actually keep us safe”) to keep people on the internet from disagreeing with you. While actually agreeing.
    - http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
      
      Given the unabated continuance of the travesty that is the TSA, folks around here face an unfortunate lack of apologists to vent their spleen on… ; )
      - http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
        
        I just think when people narrow the argument to “look at them violating the reasonable expectation of rights for this tearjerker case!” it misses the point that the tearjerker cases aren’t SPECIAL, they are trampling everyone’s rights.
hostile_17

“but a story making the rounds today proves that the TSA definitely does not”

No, all it proves is there was a bad incident. It in on way proves that the TSA categroically doesn’t care.

But then, none of the positive stories are featured of the thousands of travellers that travel every day without incident.
- Tynam
  
  That’s because thousands of travellers moving every day without incident is not to the TSA’s credit. That’s what happened before the TSA too. At the amount the TSA costs, ‘not too much worse off than we were’ is much too low a bar to set.
- Layne
  
  You have some f’ed up sense of priorities if you think that getting x-rayed, prodded and sexually groped by some mouth-breathing federal rent-a-cop is just some “every day incident” that we should all be pleased with.
  - hostile_17
    
    That’s not what I said.
    
    But don’t go on a plane though if you are so against the security measures.
    - marilove
      
      Not everyone has the option to “not get on a plane”. You know that, right? Some jobs require it. Or maybe someone’s family member died or is dying and they live too far away to drive. Or maybe they are on a tight schedule so driving or taking a bus is not an option. Or maybe they just want to go across the ocean.
      
      The answer shouldn’t be, “Just don’t fly!!” How lazy can you get??
      
      We should work to actually FIX the problem, not put our collective heads in the sand.
      - hostile_17
        
        Use the plane then with realistic expectations. And it’ll probably be fine. Just like you get a bad cop you don’t write off all cops. The same can be said for the TSA.
    - Rindan
      
      Oh! I have a better idea. If you are such a fucking coward that the thought of a one in a few million chance that your airplane might get blown up by the “scary” terrorist causes you to piss yourself in terror, don’t fly.
      
      We have this entire thing backwards. We shouldn’t be fucking the entire population because a few people are chicken shit assholes afraid of a method of dying that ranks right up there with shark attacks. We should be telling the cowards to suck it up or not fly, not telling everyone else to bend over to accept freedom fondles and robbing the tax coffers to pay for cowards.
      - hostile_17
        
        That wouldn’t be so bad if plane hijackings didn’t affect everyone else too. But when they are used as weapons…
      - Rindan
        
        They are used as weapons only when passengers and pilots are taught to not resist. Try using an airplane as a bomb again and the passengers instantly riot and kill the hijackers. Even if the hijackers managed to get a weapon on that could kill 100+ people and not destroy the plane, the hijacker would then find themselves dead once again as the pilot displays how violently he can throw people in the cabin around. Even if by some magic the hijacker fought through the entire passenger list, found a way to open the reinforced door, and got into the cabin, the hijacker is STILL fucked. The pilot is going to make it his dying breath to kick the plan into a suicide dive which will toss the hijacker off and render it useless as a weapon.
        
        Also, stop being such a fucking coward. Airplanes are not going to fall on your god damn head. You are going to die of heart disease or cancer. Maybe if you are very lucky, you will die of something exciting, like a car accident. The fucking terrorist are not going to kill. Your fat American ass is going to die of something boring and mundane in a hospital bed with a catheter shoved up your dick.
        
        Your coward delusion that you are going to die anything but a boring and normal death isn’t a reason why I should have to give up my liberty. Afraid of airplanes hitting you on the head, go live out in the countryside. Even a coward must realize that the terrorist are not going to steal a 747 to hit your shitty cabin in the woods.
        
        Cowards don’t get to set the standards by which we live.
- lafave
  
  post hoc ergo propter hoc
realityhater

the TSA = Totally Sucks Ass
Airport Security Screening = use your illusion

How many more American Citizens need to be accosted by this government agency before something is done about it ? – every single accusation is met with “our screeners followed the proper procedure”

This agency is the lowest rung on the ladder of government paid thugs!
BombBlastLightingWaltz

It is arguable to suggest that the TSA does work and deters terrorists as there has been no incidences since 9/11 thus proving terrorists are terrified to fly in the US due to the high probability of detection.
- PathogenAntifreeze
  
  It is arguable to suggest that the *actions of the passengers during 9/11* did work and deters terrorists as there has been no incidences since 9/11 thus proving terrorists are
  terrified to fly in the US due to the high probability of *being attacked by the passengers*.
  
  Fixed that for you. Seriously, regular people on a plane, within an hour of the event, figured out how to permanently stop that method of attack. It won’t happen again in our lifetimes. Additional incidents where “terrorists” tried to ignite their shoes or genitals were also thwarted, not by TSA, but by passengers. Disband the whole damn department. Place a baseball bat at every seat on the plane too… security situation resolved quite effectively.
- Roose_Bolton
  
  Absolutely spot on, especially if you define “terrorists” as “ordinary citizens” and “detection” as “humiliation”.
- Layne
  
  There also hasn’t been any instances of winged space aliens attacking the Earth since the TSA was instated!
  
  The TSA is keeping the Earth safe from alien invasion!
  
  Causality ≠ correlation.
- Shinkuhadoken
  
  It is arguable to suggest that the TSA does work and deters terrorists as there has been no incidences since 9/11 thus proving terrorists are terrified to fly in the US due to the high probability of detection.
  
  Well for one thing, there have been incidents (shoe bomber, underwear bomber) which weren’t caught by the TSA or any other screener but were caught by alert passengers.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Christopher-Lee/100001074475538 Christopher Lee

“The Rick’s Cafe Gambling Association has reviewed the incident and determined that Captain Renault followed proper screening procedures and is not shocked that there is no gambling in this establishment.”
http://profiles.google.com/walter.guyll Walter Guyll

Will anyone here not vote for your favorite congresscritter because they voted to fund the TSA and will continue to do so?

If you vote for them anyway, quit complaining.
- marilove
  
  Yep because it’s just that simple! And this is the only issue on the table! And you always have an actual choice!
  
  People like you seriously annoy the piss out of me.
  - http://profiles.google.com/walter.guyll Walter Guyll
    
    As long as I have your vote, what do I care?
Jerry Snook

Not a fan of the TSA, but honestly, aren’t folks kinda jumping to a conclusion here? At least according to this article, all we know is that the girl’s father feels like HE was being attacked by the TSA verbally after attempting to videotape TSA agents patting down his daughter with a cell phone camera. He should be allowed to do that, but so far all we have of proof of this incident is this:

“…those on duty on Monday were exceptionally aggressive, Joshua Frank said, and he began to videotape them with his iPhone.

“And the woman started screaming at me and cursing me and threatening me,” he said.”
Where’s the video? What does he mean by, “exceptionally aggressive”? I’m not defending the TSA here, just asking for a bit more clarity on the accusations.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Katovich/1486440433 Robert Katovich

I used to date, and live with a person who performed background checks for various government jobs. In addition to all branches of the military, she did background checks for customs and TSA agents. I was somewhat shocked to learn that the majority of customs and TSA agents are convicted felons. Not to say that people can’t change, but when the TSA was created, the vast majority of applicants were felons, and people who failed various other law enforcement exams. People who want so badly to be cops, or have any authority, but were deemed too unstable to hold that responsibility, these are your TSA agents. And felons. No wonder they push the boundaries of their powers, because all those 95 yr old vets, granny hugging 4 year olds, and 7 year-olds with cerebral palsy need to be taught a little thing called respect.
http://twitter.com/Kbkibbe Kevin

Attention Google. Please add a TSA abuse tab to “Google News”. Be very handy, and I’m sure would see lots of news items, I mean, it’s every other day at least that you see something here on boing boing.
http://twitter.com/jen_canary Jennifer Ford

I say we just disband the TSA and take our chances. Who’s with me?
TharkLord

Disband TSA, give the money to NASA. There is no downside to this equation: USA-TSA+NASA=Awesomeness!
http://tomcat.pip.verisignlabs.com/ Tommy

One other thing stands out to me in the TD artile: One hour after letting them leave for the gate “agents reappeared with a manager to tell them that proper protocol had not been followed, and that Dina had to be screened after all”.

Surely they need to search *everyone she may have come in contact with* after passing through security if they want to maintain the illusion of knowing what they do.

No manners, no brains, no security.