TSA dumps Grandpa's cremains all over airport, laughs at distraught relative as he picks bone fragments off the floor

John Gross of Indianapolis claims that a TSA operative at the Orlando airport opened up the tightly sealed jar, labelled HUMAN REMAINS, which bore his grandfather's ashes, and then proceeded to butterfinger Grandad all over the terminal. Then the TSA person laughed at him, while he got on his hands and knees and started picking up bone fragments. Most of his grandad ended up in the carpet. From RTV6:

"They opened up my bag, and I told them, 'Please, be careful. These are my grandpa's ashes,'" he told the station. "She picked up the jar. She opened it up. I was told later on that she had no right to even open it, that they could have used other devices, like an X-ray machine. So she opened it up. She used her finger and was sifting through it. And then she accidentally spilled it."

Confrontation With TSA Agent Leaves Grandpa's Ashes On Floor (via Consumerist)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: aviation • death • security theater • transportation • tsa

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The Snowden Principle

http://twitter.com/Kevin_Sole Kevin Sole

This … may be, the single-worst thing I have heard in my life. People who disrespect those who have passed are scum, and my heart sincerely breaks at the thought of this person having to pick up his bones and ashes off the floor.
- Rob
  
  single worst thing? Really? I can think of 6 million reasons this isnt the single worst thing youve ever heard in your life.
  - Erik
    
    I’ve told you both a million times, don’t exaggerate.
    - Wild Rumpus
      
      If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times – there is no place for hyperbole here on Boingboing
      - http://twitter.com/Epers Eddie Perkins
        
        Best reply ever.
      - oasisob1
        
        Eddie Perkins thinks he’s funny, but I’ve seen that exact same comment posted on at least 2 million other threads.
      - SoItBegins
        
        I’ve told you only once: Hyperbolas, not hyperbole!
    - http://twitter.com/shay_guy Shay Guy
      
      I think there might be a reason why the number 6 million was chosen for this particular purpose.
      - http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic
        
        because Steve Austin would not have approved.
      - http://twitter.com/jmtd Jonathan Dowland
        
        It’s a bogus number anyway. Massive underestimate. I’m sick of it being proliferated.
      - Judas Peckerwood
        
        +6,000,000!!!
  - http://twitter.com/Kevin_Sole Kevin Sole
    
    My apologies for using hyperbole, but thank you for contributing to the conversation.
  - SomeGuyNamedMark
    
    I can think of 6 million and one!
  - EH
    
    Well the natural response to your truculence is to point out that he didn’t say it was the single worst thing.
- Judas Peckerwood
  
  Wow, I wish people were that concerned about the abuse of people who are still alive.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Funnily enough, those who abuse one are likely to abuse the other.
    - Judas Peckerwood
      
      And don’t forget helpless animals.
      - Just_Ok
        
        Yah, they abuse people all the time.
      - teapot
        
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-NL-xtBffc
        that is all.
      - ldobe
        
        teapot:
        
        Elzar: We’ve got a wonderful grizzly bear that’s been dipped in cornmeal and lightly tormented. Questions?
        
        Amy: What was the bear’s name?
        
        Elzar: Jojo.
        
        Amy: Ooh, I’ll have him.
        
        That’s actually one of the most humane ways I’ve seen anyone handle a bear. Most of the time when I’ve been hiking or watching footage people shoot at it, or use a banger, or pepper spray. I think lightly tormenting it is right in the butter zone.
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  For the sake of their family, sure; but I don’t think the dead people mind.
  
  This is a very distasteful example of the TSAs actions, but it’s definitely not the worst I’ve heard.
http://twitter.com/TSAgov Agent Smith

Look. It’s one of those things that’s only funny if you’re there.
- Rob
  
  I think if you have the average education, IQ, and respect for others that a TSA agent has, you wouldnt have to have been there to find it funny.
Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat

“I was told later on that she had no right to even open it”

The TSA has no ‘rights’. And certainly no power to perform non-consensual searches.

Citizens have rights. But if you don’t understand — and exercise — your rights as a citizen, they eventually stop being your rights.
- johnny15150
  
  recently my mom passed in Florida . RIP
  WHEN i flew back , a young male from TSA asked if I had a problem with being patted down and will be “touching your bottom”
  the loaded question , “of course I have a problem” so they Detained me long enough to miss my plane , then handed me a phone alleging it was the FBI , I still was not intimidated but I had the choice of finding alt travel , so after being molested , groped if you will I said this is very “unamerican”
  
  I came to the conclusion that this TSA and the patriot act are an attack on the american people.
  they had full body scanners , exrays they were not looking for weopons of mass destruction they were looking for drugs
  
  disgusting
  - elchip
    
    Glad to know I’m not the only one who remembers the Patriot Act — I plan to keep in mind who re-signed it when voting this year.
  - http://notouchtolose.tumblr.com notouchtolose
    
    Tell us more about this phone call from the FBI. Did they hand you a phone and tell you it was the FBI like when I was a babysitter pretending to call the parents so the kids would go to bed?
- Sigmund_Jung
  
  You have no rights. It isn’t a right if someone can take it away from you. You have privileges.
  
  – George Carlin
TMWaH

I really hope that the screener is charged with indignities to a corpse, because Jesus Christ, this is absolutely horrifying. I can only hope that the mainstream media picks this up and runs with it, because this kind of wanton carelessness and cruelty really can’t be ignored.
- http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
  
  That would be so utterly humiliating, as the most typical use of ‘abuse of a corpse’ statutes IIRC is necrophilia, so the screener would be forever stained with the reputation of being a necrophile.
  
  Hope it happens.
- Judas Peckerwood
  
  Much more compelling than the everyday abuse of living, breathing people for sure.
  - http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
    
    Sometimes you just go with the material you’re given. It may seem cynically opportunistic, but this is not a game played by gentlemen.
  - http://www.facebook.com/people/Cooper-DiBiase/100000445446098 Cooper DiBiase
    
    It’d appear that the fellow who was toting the cremains was emotionally abused, if that makes you feel any better.
Samsa

You’re going to post stuff where someone on the internet just “claims” stuff? This is your bar?
- http://www.facebook.com/Amazing.Kevlar Kevin Sweeney
  
  Check the source
- Richard Dagenais
  
  That pretty much sums up most media dude.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  This is your bar?
  
  Yeah, it is their bar. How did you get past the doorman?
  - oasisob1
    
    Whaddya have to do to get a drink in here?
  - HahTse
    
    I see what you did there.
http://www.facebook.com/Amazing.Kevlar Kevin Sweeney

How many people board a plane on average. I don’t understand why you people don’t just walk right over them. What are they gonna do? Taser 400 people? What they are doing and the whole Agency is illegal and unconstitutional. Why are you not taking these clowns and vandals to your courts? Charging them with felonies, crimes, and misdemeanors. How about treason and assault against the United States of America. Where has the land of the free and home of the brave moved to?
- rachel ten bruggencate
  
  What they will do is ground that plane like a teenager out past curfew.
  - Donald Petersen
    
    Yeah, they’ve emptied entire terminals and grounded fleets of planes when a couple of people kissed past the wrong painted stripe. Good luck getting your fellow passengers to join your Norma Rae moment there, Mr Sweeney.
    - Over the River
      
      “Norma Rae moment”
      
      Nice. Very nice.
    - Martijn
      
      Just get everybody to do this to every single plane. Are they going to keep all planes grounded forever?
      - Betsumei
        
        You may not like the answer to that…
- Navin_Johnson
  
  You lead us o’ fearless baggertarian!
- http://plantsarethestrangestpeople.blogspot.com/ mr_subjunctive
  
  What are they gonna do? Taser 400 people?
  
  Probably?
  - Judas Peckerwood
    
    Easier to just shoot them, I think.
    - http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
      
      Too public. They’d be ‘disappeared’.
      
      Although, having said that, since the ‘authorities’ don’t seem to care how they look any more, you’re probably right. Yeah. Just shoot ‘em.
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Cooper-DiBiase/100000445446098 Cooper DiBiase
      
      My money’s on gas. Tear gas, one hopes.
  - bcsizemo
    
    Come on now. Taser 400 people. We don’t have high tech weapon companies burning through tax payer dollars just so they have to go around zapping 400 people. Tear gas might be old school, but it is effective in enclosed environments. Not to mention those acoustic weapons and non-lethal force ammo.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  All those gun folks in Florida dream of moments like this and no revolution happened. Disappointing.
  - http://twitter.com/Theranthrope Theranthrope
    
    Do you say “those gun folks” like “those speech folks”?
    - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=30003282 Houston Lang
      
      Mark is obviously referring to the population of sentient firearms that live in Florida.
- Brandon Wright
  
  “Where has the land of the free and home of the brave moved to?”
  …
  It moved when people here in the US stopped defending themselves against even the simplest problems, like harassment…
Thomas Valley

Half the horror of this article is in the comments section. Controversial subjects like this bring the worst out in people, apparently.
- http://twitter.com/MissingString31 MissingString
  
  What’s controversial about this? Is there a subsection of Boingboing readers that desecrate remains as a hobby?
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Um…
  - http://www.facebook.com/dpease Dave Pease
    
    oh yeah, i desecrate whenever i have the time.
  - http://twitter.com/AwesomeRobot AwesomeRobot
    
    Define “desecrate”
    - Donald Petersen
      
      And “hobby.” Some of us don’t appreciate being lumped in with the dilettantes and dabblers.
    - rachel ten bruggencate
      
      Witness my four-prop grampa-copter
      - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=30003282 Houston Lang
        
        You should see my corpse-clock.
    - Judas Peckerwood
      
      sexsecrate?
  - http://twitter.com/Theranthrope Theranthrope
    
    The official term is: “mung” or “munging” by “mungers” thank you very much…
  - z7q2
    
    Ever watch ‘Oddities’? People do interesting things with dead bones and flesh, some quite artistic.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  You obviously have never tread into the murky sewer of MSNBC or CNN comments.
PathogenAntifreeze

I can’t be the only reader who is completely unsurprised by this. La-and of the Freeeee, and the Home of the Brrrrraaaave.
BillStewart2012

That’s one of those times you yell “Stop that and get your supervisor now!”, but of course the TSA supervisor will authoritatively tell you that his employee is following the rules that have always existed and you should know it and obey.

And if you do get the supervisor afterwards, there’s really only one thing they can do about it, which is to declare the area to be a biohazard zone and not let any more passengers through it for the day, making sure to tell everybody that it’s your fault.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=30003282 Houston Lang
  
  I’m pretty sure if you yell anything near the TSA you’ll get tackled and kicked in the kidneys.
benher

The TSA’s assy antics are always made worse by their snarky attitudes. Being forced to bite my tongue as these nobs chuckled and made racial slurs against my partner for fear that we’d never be able to fly again was the nadir of my travel to the United States last spring.
- Work_Watch_Buy_Repeat
  
  For what it’s worth, TSA line employees don’t yet have easy access to a discretionary mechanism for putting a permanent blackmark on your record. It’s still only Police State Lite at the TSA checkpoint. So far.
  
  Not so for the *much* more powerful (and often far more abusive) US Customs officers that are encountered at international arrivals: if they decide that you have “failed the attitude check”, they can easily flag your name in their national database, and make your every US border crossing a living Hell thereafter.
  - digi_owl
    
    Police state claims may well be the only place where i accept a absolutist stance.
    
    Seriously, how can one have a “lite” police state?
    - SoItBegins
      
      Lite? Easy. Less taste, more filling.
      - digi_owl
        
        Not sure i even want to try wrapping my head around that in a police state sense…
    - benher
      
      Who knows – I was too cheap to pony up $.99 for the privilege of a full police state in the App Store.
  - http://profiles.google.com/marc.k.mielke Marc Mielke
    
    I believe anyone with any authority whatsoever is bound to abuse it eventually.
    - http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan
      
      Which is why I for one, at all times, eschew any authority thrust upon me.
      
      Nobody takes anything I say seriously though.
  - Death of Cool
    
    I can totally attest to “if they decide that you have “failed the attitude check”, they can easily flag your name in their national database, and make your every US border crossing a living Hell thereafter.”
    
    This happened to me after I *suspiciously* crossed the border to visit friends in the US in my early twenties. The flags that seemed to raise their ire: that I owned property at that age, and that I flinched a little when they brought out their great, big, scary drug-sniffing dogs. It obviously never occurred to them that I simply could be intimidated by big, strange dogs, and not have something to hide.
    
    After that, every single flight I took to the US involved getting pulled into the little room to have my luggage completely searched and disassembled while I was grilled about my life and travel plans.
    
    It took eight years – and a nice, understanding US customs agent – to finally free me from that inappropriately branded suspicion. And, I’m happy to say, since then I’ve never had another search, hold up or problem crossing the border.
    
    But those eight years were hell.
- Navin_Johnson
  
  Why didn’t you complain?
  - kringlebertfistyebuns
    
    What difference would it make? Especially when assclowns discount, deride and minimize every “isolated” incident.
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      Nice non-answer…..
      - kringlebertfistyebuns
        
        Okay, an answer that might suit you: Because complaining has heretofore produced no positive result other than perhaps a half-assed lame apology.
        
        That better?
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        Uh, no. It seems obvious that the OP may be telling us all a story.
http://profile.yahoo.com/65CSAR3QATRNKJW4NYNB2BESZE JohnQPublic

On the TSA’s brave stand against terror, I’ve read about old ladies in wheelchairs being forced to disconnect their colostomy bag, little girls being fondled, nursing mothers being forced to demonstrate lactation equipment in public, and now a man’s remains are handled like trash. and still no real public outcry. Just a bunch of us nerds acting outraged on an internet forum for a moment and going about our business quietly, not making a single wave.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  I always thought when it happened to the average folk they’d be forced to change but I guess not. The terrorist boogeyman trumps grandma and little kids.
  - http://twitter.com/james4765 Jim Nelson
    
    And being too goddamn tired, and afraid of the tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees it would take if we violated one of the nebulous ‘rules’ the TSA sports. Not everyone is willing to be the Judas goat for their liberties – they just want to get this damn flight over so they can attend the East Central Division Regional Meeting for Doodads and Widgets.
    
    It’s mostly a matter of not giving a shit anymore.
    
    Let them do what they want – after all, it’s for *those* people, right? Not for good, honest Americans. You’ll never be targeted if you follow the rules and keep your head down.
    
    And until they get pulled into the gears of this system, that attitude serves them very well. It’s the same attitude that let people ignore the Gulag. And other, Godwin-level vileness…
    - kringlebertfistyebuns
      
      The movie Brazil wasn’t just cinema, it was Prophecy.
- ocatagon
  
  and not taking airplanes anymore.
  - Judas Peckerwood
    
    And to be honest, where would you take them anyway?
    - Douglas Stuart
      
      Well, Dave, Chainsaw, I see summer school did a lot for you.
- johnny15150
  
  the wave is there , its small but when the wave reaches its destination, it gains momentum
  just like “change”
  babysteps
crashed

Isn’t it a crime to improperly dispose of a dead body, couldn’t the TSA agent be arrested for that?
- matlockexpressway
  
  I think ‘desecration of human remains’ would be a more fitting description, and it is a crime in many places.
- johnny15150
  
  wall of blue
Hakuin

how odd. So many years now, so many passengers – and yet, not ONE single TSA agent has been killed where they stood for outrageous provocation.

Why is that, do you suppose?
- http://twitter.com/Theranthrope Theranthrope
  
  It more important to point out: THE TSA HAS CAUGHT ZERO TERRORISTS TO DATE.
  None.
  Nada.
  Not one.
  Zip.
  Zilch.
  A perfect batting average of 0000.
  - digi_owl
    
    And their boss will use that as a argument that the system works…
    - Judas Peckerwood
      
      Hey, it’s like the Anti-Lion Karmic Crystal I wear around my neck. Five years in Seattle and not a single lion attack to date!
      - HahTse
        
        Where can I buy one?
      - Just_Ok
        
        My grandma got one, but they put the batteries in backwards. It was horrible, just horrible!
    - Ryan Lenethen
      
      I haven’t caught any using my system, proving it also works. I am also going to throw out there I will provide this service to the US government for 0.25 of whatever they pay the TSA. Bargain! You can put the other 0.75 towards “balancing the budget” (wink wink, nudge nudge)
  - johnny15150
    
    The TSA has molested american citizens I got it because I have tattoos
    anyone know the TSA budget? millions
    hey they are jobs right?
    did the guards at Auschwitz enjoy such benefits?
    - HahTse
      
      Duuuuuude. Not cool. The TSA gropes people. The guards at Auschwitz killed people. See the difference?
      
      But yeah, they did.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        You have to start somewhere, and dehumanizing your fellow citizens is a pretty good place.
      - HahTse
        
        That slippery slope is a little too steep, even for me…
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Do you honestly believe that if a supervisor ordered TSA employees to take a passenger into a back room and torture him, that a significant percentage of them wouldn’t comply without making any objection?
      - HahTse
        
        Of course not. Milgram’s experiments are still valid.
        
        But jumping from a few instances of crass misbehavior to genocide IS a pretty steep slippery slope.
      - JontKopeck
        
        Well Hitler became Chancellor in 1933, the first death camps were commissioned in 1942. Where did they find the talent to run them? Whether they trained them up or found them in the wild, you have to admit those are HR skills most foul. How slippery would you like your slope today?
      - benher
        
        We have a president who authorizes drones to slay US civilians. Concentration camps an uncomfortable subject? We had them in the 40s on US soil. Your “concern” for Johnny’s slippery slope is understood, but you must surely see that the slope upon which your nation rests is of far greater slip-ti-tude.
      - HahTse
        
        My nation?
        
        …I’m German.
      - johnny15150
        
        while the sheeple sat back and helped by not doing anything
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      Ridiculous, childish, and offensive comparison to all parties involved.
    - Navin_Johnson
      
      @JontKopeck:disqus If you want real examples of *torture* and murder you only have to look to the armed services and many U.S. police forces. No need to make such ridiculous paranoid theories about working stiff TSA folks.
      - JontKopeck
        
        I think the comparisons are valid, since we’re talking about basic human nature via the Milgram experiment. The magnitude of the [inhumanity*] is greatly different, that should be clear.
        
        *really, the behaviour here is no less human. Whatever we do, that is us.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        “I think the comparisons are valid”
        
        How pathetic, sad and embarrassing. A grown “adult” comparing the TSA to the REAL horrors and genocide of the holocaust. Shame on you.
  - benher
    
    Don’t tell the TSA – zeros are an ARABIC INVENTION!!!
- occula
  
  Because no matter how outrageous the provocation, most people trying to catch their flight just aren’t murderers?
- Navin_Johnson
  
  Probably because millions and millions of people are constantly flying and considering these numbers, these incidents are not that numerous, and are often exaggerated stories by idiots or people deliberately trying to provoke a reaction.
  - unclemike
    
    I know every time I fly with a loved one’s ashes I deliberately try to provoke a reaction. It’s how I mourn.
    
    Read the original article, Navin.
jpnewyork

when TSA agents go to parties, do they tell people what they do for a living?
- penguinchris
  
  Last year I went out for a while with a girl who worked as a TSA screener. To be fair to her (and myself) she is completely unlike any TSA screener I’ve encountered in my frequent travels.
  
  But – a couple of interesting points. It took something like a month before I could get her to reveal where she worked – she was (rightfully) deeply embarrassed about it and I think even some people in her immediate family didn’t know, and most of her friends didn’t know. She worked early morning shifts at John Wayne airport in Orange County CA.
  
  She had some stories but I could tell that there was a lot she wouldn’t talk about – she said of course that she couldn’t talk about it or she could get fired (or worse) but I suspect she didn’t want to admit to me (or perhaps to herself) that she just stood by and watched as other TSA screeners were being dicks.
  
  She did relate to me that once somebody complained to her supervisor about something she did (and I believe her when she says it was a spurious complaint). This had serious consequences – the supervisor took it seriously and she got into trouble. Ultimately she received no sanctions – I’m sure they all cover for each other to some extent – but I think it may actually be helpful to make formal complaints (only if they do something that’s actually dickish, which admittedly is a low bar to overcome when it comes to the TSA).
  - digi_owl
    
    John Wayne airport, Orange County CA? Not sure if i should chuckle or worry…
    
    And i suspect it is for her as it is for straight cops around corrupt cops, if she speaks up they may not cover her back when push comes to shove…
  - Judas Peckerwood
    
    She sounds like a really GOOD Ger… I mean TSA agent!
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    I’m sure with the way they are politically vilified that she would be hesitant to say. Probably much of it has to do with class as well. Many people would look down on her for having to do such a job, something that is glaringly exhibited by entitled Boing Boing readers (and trolls) every time one of these sensationalist stories pops up. Much of the anger here is about entitled people feeling that having to follow rules enforced by lower class workers is beneath them and simply intolerable.
    - Richard Dagenais
      
      Oh FFS now BB readers are the 1%?
      
      These agents are empowered by the state, elevating them to an authority status. That’s why TSA critics spend so much time reminding people of the limits of their powers, to dispel some of their perceived authority.
      
      The outrage against the TSA and the administration of it is different from the reaction to these individual encounters.
      
      When an agency treats the public with such disrespect, they are criticized. Its an institution and everyone understands that institutions on the whole are inefficient and flawed.
      
      When an individual treats another individual with this kind of disrespect, its personal and this quite justifiably inspires powerful emotional reactions.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        Oh FFS now BB readers are the 1%?
        
        Probably not, I would say more like financially comfortable “lifestyle liberals”.
        
        As for the rest, it’s a cop out. 1.7 million fly every single day. This is manufactured, class driven, political “outrage”.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      You really never quit with this, do you? Championing “the workers” when they do the work of totalitarian government agencies is fascist apologism. This attitude is what allows fascism to take hold.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        I don’t, because it’s obvious bullshit. Put your antenna up already, this is an otherwise smart site, but the libertarian, entitled shit is pathetic.
        
        Also, no reply to Obama being the one who in the end appoints the head of the TSA and who is ultimately responsible for these policies……
        
        Silence is deafening…..
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        Defending the working class against imagined enemies was the Third Reich’s whole propaganda effort. Please stop repeating it.
      - Navin_Johnson
        
        Defending the working class against imagined enemies was the Third Reich’s whole propaganda effort. Please stop repeating it.
        
        Nicely done, now like many black, white, latino, asian, etc. working class people trying to pay their bills: I’m a “nazi” too…..
        
        Championing “the workers” when they do the work of totalitarian government agencies is fascist apologism. This attitude is what allows fascism to take hold.
        
        So I expect you will work to have Obama’s “totalitarian” “nazi” government kicked out? Right? Yeah, I thought so.
        
        Congrats. I’m just glad you didn’t employ: “socialist”, “reverse racism”, “gay agenda”, “PC police”, or “nazi”….wait!!..oh shit…you did…
    - penguinchris
      
      Yeah, you’re right, in part. She came from a poor family – Hmong refugees actually – and is working her way through college. For her circumstances the TSA was the only thing she could get that paid well enough and worked with her schedule.
      
      Knowing the specific circumstances that led one person in particular to work as a TSA screener should help me empathize a little bit, but it doesn’t… one of the reasons we stopped seeing each other after a couple of months is related to the fact that she didn’t really see a problem with the concept of the TSA in general. Kind of incompatible world views :)
      
      Of course, in reality at least 2/3 of TSA screeners are not bad at all. You just don’t notice them. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there like the one I knew. But like with cops, being complicit is essentially just as bad.
http://twitter.com/Blackbird_2 Bob Dunkin

I was just going to suggest that this might be the crime of “desecration of human remains”. It IS an actual crime, but I’m not sure where the line is drawn…
But, I will say this: Any person who thinks it’s okay to open up a jar labelled “Human Remains” and poke around inside needs to think long and hard about what they’re doing.
http://www.facebook.com/peter.dilworth Peter Dilworth

you get who you vote for…
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Unless I missed a big news story, the TSA isn’t elected.
  - digi_owl
    
    And the only way any elected official may get that particular rabid cat back in the bag is by having the whole hill on his or her side. Not going to happen when even internally there is fracture lines over taxes, healthcare and whatsnot.
  - ffabian
    
    Guess what … those Gestapo-guys weren’t elected too.
    
    The USian stance toward the atrocities committed by their government is a clear case of double standards.
    
    WWII: Those nazi-german bastards did it.
    German Gov. denies tax exempt status to Scientology: *points finger* Look! Those nazi-genes rearing their ugly head again!
    Post-9/11 torture camp: Well … some misguided souls working for my government did it … aaaand I never voted for Bush anyway.
  - Navin_Johnson
    
    The head of the TSA is appointed by Obama as you all well know. Much easier to rip on poor workers though, and dutifully defend the elite that set their policies. Soooo if all these childish “Nazi” comparisons are valid, then who is Obama’s historical counterpart? lol!! You know who! The H man!!
    
    Pistole was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration on 17 May 2010 and was unanimously confirmed to serve in that position by the United States Senate on 25 June 2010. On 16 November 2010 Pistole defended his agency’s new extensive pat-down procedures and Advanced Imaging Technology (A.I.T) as necessary.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_S._Pistole
    - unclemike
      
      Adolph and Barack both have 6 letters each.
      
      Oh. My. God.
      - ffabian
        
        His name was AdolF not Adolph mmkay.
      - unclemike
        
        That’s even worse! Adolf Hitler and Barack Obama have the SAME NUMBER OF LETTERS!
        
        His name was AdolF not Adolph mmkay.
novium

I’m kind of surprised this happened in Orlando. I just went through security there- twice, due to a delayed flight- a few days ago and it was probably my most pleasant interaction with the TSA ever. Well, at least the guys checking IDs in the front- they were very convivial, asking people how they liked Florida, joking back, gently teasing a couple of shy kids about being secret agents. I was actually shocked. But I guess the people running the scanners and such were the usual drones. Still.
- penguinchris
  
  Being friendly is good, obviously, but when they act like that – making jokes and so on – it makes me extremely uncomfortable. Worse when it’s customs people at the Canadian border (the ones at international airports are never friendly) because I always feel like they’re trying to trick me, even when they aren’t (though usually they really are).
  - novium
    
    I think I know what you mean, but there was nothing forced about this, it didn’t seem insincere…really, my best guess is that the main guy was just one of those people who likes chatting with people and who was livening up an otherwise painfully dull job.
    - penguinchris
      
      Yeah – there have been times when it seemed like they were sincere and were just trying to alleviate dullness and boredom, but as someone with asperger’s-like symptoms it’s often difficult for me to tell.
  - MythicalMe
    
    Going north or south? I’m a dual citizen now, but I always found traveling into Canada much better than traveling home. Of course I was traveling into Canada almost every weekend to visit my soon-to-be wife and the border guards knew this (I swear that they about cheered when I presented my permanent residence paperwork).
    
    On the flip side the US border guards were less congenial and once my, then, wife a licensed physician was stopped and questioned for 30 minutes about some prescription drug samples she had in her purse (like she was going to smuggle 15 pouches with 2 tablets of Norvasc, meant for treating hypertension, for sale on the black market). Some supervisor finally decided that as a doctor she had legal permission to carry small quantities of drugs.
    - Judas Peckerwood
      
      Fuck yes. In my extensive border-crossing experience, Canadian border officers without exception have acted like concerned public servants. In contrast, the US officers have inevitably been douche-y cowboys who act that they are at war with their fellow Americans and are just itching for an excuse to fuck with you/blow you away.
      
      Someday I’m just going to stay on the other side.
    - http://blog.insightvr.com John Harrison
      
      I used to travel to Canada weekly for work. It was usually ok, though inefficient. Then one day I was detained for hours because I brought a printer to demo to a client. Much of the time I was locked in a room by myself. Then I was subjected to lectures about Walmart. It was surreal.
    - penguinchris
      
      Mainly going into the US. I grew up in Buffalo NY, a border town, and went back and forth fairly frequently. I am living at home right now and have gone to Toronto a few times for various reasons in the last few months and the border experience is always awful (I’m a young male traveling by myself), although when I went to a comics convention in Toronto recently the US customs guy was more interested in that (and asked about what kind of comics I like) than asking me the normal questions ;)
      
      Notably though it has gotten a lot worse in recent years going into Canada as well, though they’re only up to the point that the US border people were several years ago.
      
      I’ve been mistaken for people on the terrorist watch list coming into the US (they had me in a room for an hour while I guess they were checking if my passport was real), and I’ve had people on the Canadian side be extremely rude and belligerent toward me for small mistakes in paperwork (I’ve worked at a summer camp in Canada and other things like that so I have more experience with them than simply crossing the border to go shopping).
http://www.facebook.com/MorganPielli Morgan Pielli

I’ve never heard of bone fragments being in cremains. There certainly weren’t any among my mother’s when we scattered them. In fact, from what I understand, the majority of the ash is from the box that the body was cremated in (the human body is, after all, mostly water, which evaporates). If this story is true, it’s certainly horrible. But it sounds embellished to me.
- ryuthrowsstuff
  
  It depends on how the remains are processed after burning. After cremation there’s bone fragments in there, sometimes quite large ones. Everything gets run through a grinder. So depending on how thoroughly they get ground you’ll have fragments or you wont.
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  Picking bone fragments from cremated remains at a Japanese funeral:
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Collecting_the_ashes_after_the_funeral_-J._M._W._Silver.jpg
  
  It happens. But I can see how you’d want to imply the victim is lying, just to be on the safe side
- Ice Lore
  
  There are lots of ways to process cremated bodies. Some are put through a grinder after the initial firing to remove any large chunks, some are left as-is, and some are sifted, and only the powder/ashes presented to families, and the larger chunks disposed of.
  - http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul
    
    Think of all the replacement knees and hips.
    - jahxman
      
      Those are valuable titanium, and are often recycled by the crematorium:
      http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2012/02/23/cremation-the-creation-of-the-implant-recycling-industry/
      
      Anyhow, in the cremains I have personally observed, there were definitely small pebble sized bone fragments left from the grinder, together with the fine ash material.
- kringlebertfistyebuns
  
  Because your experience is universal and definitive.
  
  Solipsism in action, ladies and germs.
http://www.facebook.com/moosestudiospottery Moose Gueydan

Facultatieve Technologies Makes the Cremulator, a ball mill for the pulverization of Human remains . Some cultures/religions dont want the remains processed at all, the bone bits are kept in a family reliquary. But in North america , more cremains are processed to a 60 screen size (a screen with 60 holes per inch). the cremains are Sterile and safe to handle, but as still legally considered “human Remains”.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

OK, I have to admit I burst out laughing at the title of this post. I am totally inured to my own outrage. I have achieved some kind of satori like that of starving 19th century Russian intellectuals. Fuck it
Mitchell Glaser

The victim in the article is demanding an apology from the TSA. I say fuck that! An apology from the TSA will accomplish exactly nothing.
- Betsumei
  
  Much like the TSA.
Aeron

TSA workers shouldn’t be fired. Oh no, they should be lined up against a wall and summarily executed.

I used to joke that all TSA employees were drug addicts and mental patients in some useless rehabilitation program… but now, I really think they are.
Fisher1949

This screener is a disgrace. She spills human ashes then laughs at the passenger struggling to collect them, what kind of animal does that? This is what we get when TSA hires high school dropouts with rap sheet, gives them a mall cop badge and allows them to harass innocent people with impunity.

Yet another case where a TSA screener disobeyed regulations, abused their position and caused harm to a passenger. This is the same agency that allows a known pedophile, Thomas Harkin, to stay on as a supervisor in Philadelphia.

TSA and the airlines refer to passengers as “fares” and have absolutely no regard for the feelings or welfare of the passenger. They regularly treat us with less respect than a freight shipment.

Every other occupation is accountable for their actions including police, medical personnel and teachers. If they exceed their authority or abuse their position, the victim can prosecute the individual and sue their employer.

There are laws to protect citizens from abuses by police for a reason and the same standards should be applied to TSA.

It is unacceptable to continue to allow these creeps to harass and humiliate people on a whim. The agent should be prosecuted for desecrating human remains and the agency sued for damages
PJG

Can we start an IndieGoGo campaign to fund a massive civil suit against the TSA? Or maybe just give Mr Gross a nice cruise vacation?
irny

I have seen so many horror stories about TSA and their appalling treatment of members of the public, and am sufficiently bothered by the body scanners and retina scans, that I would genuinely think twice about whether or not I would fly to America if I had to go there.
emo hex

We have met the terrorist, and he is us.
teapot

I’m happy I’ve not had to deal with any TSA-era American airports. Reading the comments for these kinds of TSA-did-something-stupid posts is like watching a thriller where the plot gets so ridiculous you lose the ability to suspend disbelief while simultaneously having you hooked because of its raw stupidity.
http://twitter.com/wilmcdaniel wilmcdaniel

WALTER
Shit, I’m sorry Dude.

He starts brushing off the Dude with his hands.

WALTER
Goddamn wind.

Heretofore motionless, the Dude finally explodes, slapping Walter’s hands away.

DUDE
Goddamnit Walter! You fucking asshole!

WALTER
Dude! Dude, I’m sorry!

The Dude is near tears.

DUDE
You make everything a fucking travesty!

WALTER
Dude, I’m–it was an accident!

The Dude gives Walter a furious shove.

DUDE
What about that shit about Vietnam!

WALTER
Dude, I’m sorry–

DUDE
What the fuck does Vietnam have to do with anything! What the fuck were you talking about?!

Walter for the first time is genuinely distressed, almost lost.

WALTER
Shit Dude, I’m sorry–

DUDE
You’re a fuck, Walter!

He gives Walter a weaker shove. Walter seems dazed, then wraps his arms around the Dude.

WALTER
Awww, fuck it Dude. Let’s go bowling.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

Wow, more than a hundred and twenty comments, and yet no one seems to have mentioned this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utHmeN31RT0
nosedigger

So now the TSA is not only sexually groping our children and taking x-rated pictures of our grandmothers, they are also desecrating the remains of our loved ones. Remind me again how many terrorists have they caught after spending billions of our tax dollars? That’s right none. What waste and abuse.
Navin_Johnson

I’m so glad that all of you well be joining me and voting third party in the coming election!
Brandon Wright

@ Trail Blazed

How does telling everyone to vote third party make him a troll?
That_Anonymous_Coward

Is anyone else waiting to hear how Blogger Bob is going to tell us this was a single isolated incident and shouldn’t be considered a failure of the TSA?
Rob

I don’t believe cremains is a word at all.
niktemadur

I hope so too, the story sounds too extreme, but if it turns out to be true and there is no accountability, the problem would be systemic.

Just one instance of something like this would be one too many, just ONE innocent citizen abused like this with no accountability should terminate this organization with extreme prejudice and put all involved in a permanent employment blacklist.

There is no place in a functional society for the following attitude: “I’ve got a little bit of power and my wife was mean to me this morning, I’m gonna fuck with you people – hey, the powers-that-be protect me, all in the name of Freedom!”
QPhysics

Rob, I believe five seconds of Google search would save you some embarrassment.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/cremains
SomeGuyNamedMark

Now I have to Google “pedant”
Andrew Pam

”pendant” or “pedant”?
SomeGuyNamedMark

I swear I checked my spelling knowing I’d mess it up. Ah well, at least I made Antinous happy.
Antinous / Moderator

Or ‘pendejo’?
bryan rasmussen

Hey, if her wife was mean to her this morning I got to say that’s progress in the U.S!