On November 24, 2010 Christopher Collette, a reporter for WKMG, Local 6, wrote the following article on Eliana Sutherland. The original article can be found at the following site:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/topstories/story.aspx?storyid=158458&catid=250
Eliana Sutherland Says TSA Agents Singled Her Out For Her Breasts
ORLANDO, Florida --The head of the Transportation Security Administration said the agency will look further into allegations that two male TSA workers picked a woman for additional screening because of her breasts.
Eliana Sutherland recently flew from Orlando International Airport and told our sister station WKMG Local 6 she felt the two male TSA workers were staring at her breasts and chose her for additional screening because of their size.
"It was pretty obvious. One of the guys that was staring me up and down was the one who pulled me over," said Sutherland. "Not a comfortable feeling."
Experiences like Sutherland's have been reported across the country. Whether it's pat-downs or full-body scans, the changes are making some people question who gets chosen and why.
But it appears out of the tens of thousands going through security, only a small part of them may have to deal with this controversial checkpoint.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
TSA Abuse Videos
I wish I were more adept at blogs and videos on the internet. Until I become more familiar with how this all works, I will simply post sites one may go to in order to see some of the TSA abuse videos.
Someone has done a great job compiling the TV interviews that have been done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5AlfFCMKk
Someone has done a great job compiling the TV interviews that have been done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5AlfFCMKk
A Nightmare for Prosthetic Users: Sharon Kiss, Marlene McCarthy, Musa Mayers, and Cathy Bossi
For Americans who wear prosthetics — either because they are cancer survivors or have lost a limb — or who have undergone hip replacements or have a pacemaker, the humiliation of the TSA's new security procedures — choosing between a body scan or body search — can be a real nightmare.
SHARON KISS - MENDOCINO, CA:
Sharon Kiss, 66, has a pacemaker, but also has to fly often for her work.
"During a recent enhanced pat-down, a screener cupped my breasts and felt my genitals," she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com "To 'clear my waistband' she put her hands down my pants and groped for the waistband of my underwear.
"I expressed humiliation and was told 'You have the choice not to fly.' "
The remark infuriated Kiss, who lives in Mendocino, Calif. "Extrapolate this to we should not provide curb cuts and ramps for people confined to wheelchairs because they can choose to stay home ... This a violation of civil rights. And because I have a disability, I should not be subjected to what is government-sanctioned sexual assault in order to board a plane."
MARLENE MC CARTHY - RHODE ISLAND:
Marlene McCarthy of Rhode Island said she went through the body scanner and was told by a TSA agent to step aside. In "full view of everyone," McCarthy said in an e-mail, the agent "immediately put the back of her hand on my right side chest and I explained I wore a prosthesis.
"Then, she put her full hands ... one on top and one on the bottom of my 'breast' and moved the prosthesis left, right, up, down and said 'OK.' I was so humiliated.
"I went to the desk area and complained," McCarthy wrote. "The woman there was very nice and I asked her if the training included an understanding of how prosthetics are captured on the scanner and told her the pat-down is embarrassing. She said, 'We have never even had that discussion and I do the training for the TSA employees here, following the standard manual provided.' She said she will bring it up at their next meeting."
If she has to go through the scanner again, McCarthy said, "I am determined to put the prosthesis in the gray bucket," provided to travelers at the security check-ins for items such as jewelry. "Let the TSA scanners be embarrassed .... not me anymore!" she wrote.
MUSA MAYER:
Musa Mayer has worn a breast prosthesis for 21 years since her mastectomy and is used to the alarms it sets off at airport security. But nothing prepared her for the "invasive and embarrassing" experience of being patted down, poked and examined recently while passing through airport security at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
Here are a few more details regarding her story:
”In response to a request from Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News last evening, I wrote the following report of a recent airport security experience I found very disturbing. I have already complained to the Transportation Security Administration about this incident. I wonder if any of you have ideas about what else could be done. In the early morning of November 6, 2010, I arrived at Dulles Airport in DC for JetBlue flight 1304 to JFK, where I was to meet my family and fly on to Florida for a cruise. I had been in suburban Washington teaching fellow breast cancer advocates at a science training seminar run by the National Breast Cancer Coalition. After checking in, I went to security, where I was instructed to enter a full body scanner. It was my first time in one of these machines. It was immediately clear that there was a problem. I was taken aside, to an unused security line, with a male and female security officer carrying over the bins which held my possessions. The male officer searched my bag and purse, and I was patted down and examined by the female officer. A few feet away, people on the security line I’d just left began staring curiously at me. The female officer then told me she was going to examine my chest area, and touch me directly with her fingers, not with the backs of her hands. She felt all around and between my breasts. As I was in a public area, standing with my arms outstretched, in full view of other passengers passing through security, this felt invasive and embarrassing. By then, as a breast cancer survivor, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on: the body scanner had seen the breast prosthesis I've worn for 21 years since my mastectomy, and had sounded some sort of alarm. I was then asked to wait while they called a female supervisor, who took at least 15 minutes to come from another part of the terminal. When she finally did arrive, I was escorted some distance away, still barefoot, to an enclosed area that was obviously being used to store construction tools and materials--the whole area was very dirty and my socks were by then filthy. In this area my breasts were again examined by this supervisor. I finally said to her: "Look, I'm wearing a prosthesis, do you need to see it?" She said yes, and I unbuttoned my blouse enough to lift my bra and show her the edge of my prosthesis. By then I was feeling quite humiliated by the whole process, and had spent over 45 minutes in security. I was determined not to undress for them, or take out my prosthesis and show it to them. I asked the supervisor if she realized that there are three million women who have had breast cancer in the US, many of whom wear breast prostheses. Will each of us now have to undergo this humiliating, time-consuming routine every time we pass through one of these new body scanners? Of course, she had no answer for me. Finally, after nearly an hour, I was allowed to go to my gate, where fortunately my flight had not yet departed. Thinking back on the incident, I am outraged that I will now be forced to show my prosthesis to strangers, remove it and put in the x-ray bin for screening, or not wear it at all whenever I fly. To me, this seems unfairly discriminatory and embarrassing for me, and for all breast cancer survivors.”
CATHY BOSSI - CHARLOTTE, N.C.:
Cathy Bossi from Charlotte, N.C. is a longtime flight attendant and cancer survivor. She told a local television station that she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
Cathy, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns. The TSA screener "put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' " Bossi told the station. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.' "
Bossi said she removed the prosthetic from her bra. She did not take the name of the agent, she said, "because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me. I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."
SHARON KISS - MENDOCINO, CA:
Sharon Kiss, 66, has a pacemaker, but also has to fly often for her work.
"During a recent enhanced pat-down, a screener cupped my breasts and felt my genitals," she said in an e-mail to msnbc.com "To 'clear my waistband' she put her hands down my pants and groped for the waistband of my underwear.
"I expressed humiliation and was told 'You have the choice not to fly.' "
The remark infuriated Kiss, who lives in Mendocino, Calif. "Extrapolate this to we should not provide curb cuts and ramps for people confined to wheelchairs because they can choose to stay home ... This a violation of civil rights. And because I have a disability, I should not be subjected to what is government-sanctioned sexual assault in order to board a plane."
MARLENE MC CARTHY - RHODE ISLAND:
Marlene McCarthy of Rhode Island said she went through the body scanner and was told by a TSA agent to step aside. In "full view of everyone," McCarthy said in an e-mail, the agent "immediately put the back of her hand on my right side chest and I explained I wore a prosthesis.
"Then, she put her full hands ... one on top and one on the bottom of my 'breast' and moved the prosthesis left, right, up, down and said 'OK.' I was so humiliated.
"I went to the desk area and complained," McCarthy wrote. "The woman there was very nice and I asked her if the training included an understanding of how prosthetics are captured on the scanner and told her the pat-down is embarrassing. She said, 'We have never even had that discussion and I do the training for the TSA employees here, following the standard manual provided.' She said she will bring it up at their next meeting."
If she has to go through the scanner again, McCarthy said, "I am determined to put the prosthesis in the gray bucket," provided to travelers at the security check-ins for items such as jewelry. "Let the TSA scanners be embarrassed .... not me anymore!" she wrote.
MUSA MAYER:
Musa Mayer has worn a breast prosthesis for 21 years since her mastectomy and is used to the alarms it sets off at airport security. But nothing prepared her for the "invasive and embarrassing" experience of being patted down, poked and examined recently while passing through airport security at Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
Here are a few more details regarding her story:
”In response to a request from Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News last evening, I wrote the following report of a recent airport security experience I found very disturbing. I have already complained to the Transportation Security Administration about this incident. I wonder if any of you have ideas about what else could be done. In the early morning of November 6, 2010, I arrived at Dulles Airport in DC for JetBlue flight 1304 to JFK, where I was to meet my family and fly on to Florida for a cruise. I had been in suburban Washington teaching fellow breast cancer advocates at a science training seminar run by the National Breast Cancer Coalition. After checking in, I went to security, where I was instructed to enter a full body scanner. It was my first time in one of these machines. It was immediately clear that there was a problem. I was taken aside, to an unused security line, with a male and female security officer carrying over the bins which held my possessions. The male officer searched my bag and purse, and I was patted down and examined by the female officer. A few feet away, people on the security line I’d just left began staring curiously at me. The female officer then told me she was going to examine my chest area, and touch me directly with her fingers, not with the backs of her hands. She felt all around and between my breasts. As I was in a public area, standing with my arms outstretched, in full view of other passengers passing through security, this felt invasive and embarrassing. By then, as a breast cancer survivor, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on: the body scanner had seen the breast prosthesis I've worn for 21 years since my mastectomy, and had sounded some sort of alarm. I was then asked to wait while they called a female supervisor, who took at least 15 minutes to come from another part of the terminal. When she finally did arrive, I was escorted some distance away, still barefoot, to an enclosed area that was obviously being used to store construction tools and materials--the whole area was very dirty and my socks were by then filthy. In this area my breasts were again examined by this supervisor. I finally said to her: "Look, I'm wearing a prosthesis, do you need to see it?" She said yes, and I unbuttoned my blouse enough to lift my bra and show her the edge of my prosthesis. By then I was feeling quite humiliated by the whole process, and had spent over 45 minutes in security. I was determined not to undress for them, or take out my prosthesis and show it to them. I asked the supervisor if she realized that there are three million women who have had breast cancer in the US, many of whom wear breast prostheses. Will each of us now have to undergo this humiliating, time-consuming routine every time we pass through one of these new body scanners? Of course, she had no answer for me. Finally, after nearly an hour, I was allowed to go to my gate, where fortunately my flight had not yet departed. Thinking back on the incident, I am outraged that I will now be forced to show my prosthesis to strangers, remove it and put in the x-ray bin for screening, or not wear it at all whenever I fly. To me, this seems unfairly discriminatory and embarrassing for me, and for all breast cancer survivors.”
CATHY BOSSI - CHARLOTTE, N.C.:
Cathy Bossi from Charlotte, N.C. is a longtime flight attendant and cancer survivor. She told a local television station that she was forced to show her prosthetic breast during a pat-down.
Cathy, who works for U.S. Airways, said she received the pat-down after declining to do the full-body scan because of radiation concerns. The TSA screener "put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' " Bossi told the station. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.' "
Bossi said she removed the prosthetic from her bra. She did not take the name of the agent, she said, "because it was just so horrific of an experience, I couldn't believe someone had done that to me. I'm a flight attendant. I was just trying to get to work."
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Nadine Pellegrino - Philadelphia Airport
Nadine Pellegrino wrote to following about her encounter with the TSA at the Philadelphia airport.
In 2006 Nadine Pellegrino was traveling home to Florida with her husband via the Philadelphia International Airport. During a provocative and abusive property damaging search, she told two TSA screeners she intended to report their conduct to TSA authorities. During the search Nuryiah Abdul Malik twice insisted to her supervisor who Malik wanted to witness the search to call the police to arrest Pellegrino for speaking about their abuse and damage to her property. After the search ended the two TSA officers falsely accused her of assaulting them with her suitcase as she was leaving the search closet. Neither were touched by Pellegrino or her suitcases. Either one or both of the TSA officers threw articles of Pellegrino personal property into the trashcan while Pellegrino was out of the closet.
After the search TSA TSO Nuryiah Abdul Malik insisted to STSO Laura Labbee that Pellegrino be arrested. Labbee re-detained her and marginalized Pellegrino at a table on the checkpoint and confiscated her drivers license, asked her husband invasive questions about her private health information without Pellegrino's knowledge or permission. Both Pellegrino and her husband repeatedly requested to speak to the TSA Official in Charge at the airport while re-detained. Labbee ignored their requests. Labbee and Malik told TSA Officials and the Phila. Police who were called to the checkpoint that Pellegrino assaulted them and they wanted her arrested. Abdul Malik adamantly insisted on "pressing charges" against Pellegrino. Once Labbee knew Abdul Malik was following through on "pressing charges" Labbee also said she would file a complaint. Both falsely incriminated Pellegrino. Pellegrino was arrested for fictitious crimes and became a TSA crime victim. The Phila Police obliged frisked and tightly handcuff Pellegrino not telling her the reason she was being arrested as her husband watched in disbelief, shock, and horror. Her husband was not told why she was arrested. Pellegrino was locked up in horrific, filthy conditions in Phila jail cells until the next afternoon --no food 1/2 pint of foul smelling water. Over the course of approximately 20 months, the ten criminal counts disappeared from the charge sheet, were discharged for lack of evidence, and were acquitted at trial.
According to the pronouncement of Preliminary Hearing Judge Deleon, Pellegrino, the Crime victim of the TSA, was to stand trial for treating the TSA Officers as handmaidens. During a court ordered hearing, TSA Asst. Field Counsel Lisa Eckl, Esq. fessed up to another Phila. Municipal Court judge that TSA Aviation Inspectors made a deliberate decision to have the digitally recorded video evidence destroyed while Pellegrino, her husband and her defense attorneys were requesting copies of the surveillance evidence for a proper defense. Matters changed at another hearing, testimony was suppressed for trial after TSA Field Counsel, Patrice Scully, tried to put the blame for the destruction of the best factual evidence on the Phila. Airport. The judge didn't buy it. At trial the last of the charges were acquitted after the TSA and the Phila Asst. District Attorney Andre Martino presented a feeble, incoherent, and unsubstantiated prosecution with Labbee and her false witness, Denice Kissinger directly contradicting each other's testimony. No substantial evidence was presented, only contradictory testimony. Pellegrino was not required to defend herself at trial. The cases ended after the Prosecutor embarrassed himself. The judged named the TSA responsible for violation of Pellegrino's civil rights to a fair trial and delivered quick verdicts of Not Guilty. Not Guilty.
The TSA had admitted on court records that the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors made a thoughtful deliberate decision to have what the judge referred to as The Best Factual Evidence destroyed thus violating Pellegrino rights to a fair trial. The TSA denies any liability in the 20 month costly nightmare they created for Pellegrino and her husband. Instead they have demonized and maligned Pellegrino. Pellegrino and her husband have filed a federal civil rights violations lawsuit against the USA, the TSA, Abdul Malik, Labbee, Kissinger, the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors and TSA Officials who covered up the deliberate destruction of best factual evidence and also intended to withhold discoverable exculpatory evidence from her attorneys during due process proceedings. Their website www.pellegrinovstsa.com provides more details and will keep people posted regarding the proceedings as a public service. The transcript of the TSA admission of deliberate destruction is posted on the website as well as other documents.
In 2006 Nadine Pellegrino was traveling home to Florida with her husband via the Philadelphia International Airport. During a provocative and abusive property damaging search, she told two TSA screeners she intended to report their conduct to TSA authorities. During the search Nuryiah Abdul Malik twice insisted to her supervisor who Malik wanted to witness the search to call the police to arrest Pellegrino for speaking about their abuse and damage to her property. After the search ended the two TSA officers falsely accused her of assaulting them with her suitcase as she was leaving the search closet. Neither were touched by Pellegrino or her suitcases. Either one or both of the TSA officers threw articles of Pellegrino personal property into the trashcan while Pellegrino was out of the closet.
After the search TSA TSO Nuryiah Abdul Malik insisted to STSO Laura Labbee that Pellegrino be arrested. Labbee re-detained her and marginalized Pellegrino at a table on the checkpoint and confiscated her drivers license, asked her husband invasive questions about her private health information without Pellegrino's knowledge or permission. Both Pellegrino and her husband repeatedly requested to speak to the TSA Official in Charge at the airport while re-detained. Labbee ignored their requests. Labbee and Malik told TSA Officials and the Phila. Police who were called to the checkpoint that Pellegrino assaulted them and they wanted her arrested. Abdul Malik adamantly insisted on "pressing charges" against Pellegrino. Once Labbee knew Abdul Malik was following through on "pressing charges" Labbee also said she would file a complaint. Both falsely incriminated Pellegrino. Pellegrino was arrested for fictitious crimes and became a TSA crime victim. The Phila Police obliged frisked and tightly handcuff Pellegrino not telling her the reason she was being arrested as her husband watched in disbelief, shock, and horror. Her husband was not told why she was arrested. Pellegrino was locked up in horrific, filthy conditions in Phila jail cells until the next afternoon --no food 1/2 pint of foul smelling water. Over the course of approximately 20 months, the ten criminal counts disappeared from the charge sheet, were discharged for lack of evidence, and were acquitted at trial.
According to the pronouncement of Preliminary Hearing Judge Deleon, Pellegrino, the Crime victim of the TSA, was to stand trial for treating the TSA Officers as handmaidens. During a court ordered hearing, TSA Asst. Field Counsel Lisa Eckl, Esq. fessed up to another Phila. Municipal Court judge that TSA Aviation Inspectors made a deliberate decision to have the digitally recorded video evidence destroyed while Pellegrino, her husband and her defense attorneys were requesting copies of the surveillance evidence for a proper defense. Matters changed at another hearing, testimony was suppressed for trial after TSA Field Counsel, Patrice Scully, tried to put the blame for the destruction of the best factual evidence on the Phila. Airport. The judge didn't buy it. At trial the last of the charges were acquitted after the TSA and the Phila Asst. District Attorney Andre Martino presented a feeble, incoherent, and unsubstantiated prosecution with Labbee and her false witness, Denice Kissinger directly contradicting each other's testimony. No substantial evidence was presented, only contradictory testimony. Pellegrino was not required to defend herself at trial. The cases ended after the Prosecutor embarrassed himself. The judged named the TSA responsible for violation of Pellegrino's civil rights to a fair trial and delivered quick verdicts of Not Guilty. Not Guilty.
The TSA had admitted on court records that the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors made a thoughtful deliberate decision to have what the judge referred to as The Best Factual Evidence destroyed thus violating Pellegrino rights to a fair trial. The TSA denies any liability in the 20 month costly nightmare they created for Pellegrino and her husband. Instead they have demonized and maligned Pellegrino. Pellegrino and her husband have filed a federal civil rights violations lawsuit against the USA, the TSA, Abdul Malik, Labbee, Kissinger, the TSA Aviation Security Inspectors and TSA Officials who covered up the deliberate destruction of best factual evidence and also intended to withhold discoverable exculpatory evidence from her attorneys during due process proceedings. Their website www.pellegrinovstsa.com provides more details and will keep people posted regarding the proceedings as a public service. The transcript of the TSA admission of deliberate destruction is posted on the website as well as other documents.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Quality Quinn, Fayette Veverka, Lynne Lechter - Philadelphia International Airport
On June 21, 2010 Daniel Rubin, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote the following article about the experiences of Quality Quinn, Fayette Veverka, and Lynne Lechter. These woman had similar humiliating experiences when flying out of Philadelphia International Airport.
Is it a Philly thing?
Are complaints about strange security screenings at the airport something you'll find across the country, or is there a particular problem here?
I can't give you statistical certainty on this. But when you listen to frequent fliers like Quality Quinn, you have to wonder.
"There is something wrong with the culture at this airport," Quinn, a 55-year-old educational consultant, told me last week.
For 20 years she has flown around the country, giving talks on literacy, and in January she moved from Austin, Texas, to Philadelphia.
"Never in my life have I experienced what I go through almost every other week at the Philadelphia airport," she said. "I have had the most excruciating, embarrassing [screenings] there."
She called me after my column last Monday about retired professor Nancy Anne Phillips, who complained that before an April flight an airport screener's wand made contact with her crotch.
The TSA has reviewed a tape of that encounter and concluded its security officer did nothing inappropriate. The agency has since erased the tape.
Quinn said she, too, had endured a recent wanding that went too far.
So did Fayette Veverka, a Villanova University theology professor.
And Lynne Lechter, a King of Prussia lawyer who has run for the state House.
"I cannot stress enough that this behavior has not been encountered in any of the other cities from which I have gone through security," Lechter wrote last week to US Airways CEO Doug Parker.
Lechter was complaining about an April 19 flight to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. She isn't sure why, after she went through the metal detector, she was selected for a secondary screening.
But she said in an interview that the woman holding the wand had run it up and down the inside of her legs - Lechter was wearing a skirt - and that Lechter had found it "sexually suggestive."
Worse, she said, "a leering man watched the entire search." When she complained to a supervisor at a desk, he investigated, but the man was gone, Lechter said.
Like Phillips, she declined a private screening. "The last thing I wanted to do was go in a private room," Lechter said. "I'd rather have the public humiliation."
Veverka said she was heading for an early-morning flight to Cleveland on June 11 when her metal replacement knees set off the alarms.
"I had on a loose skirt," the professor said, and when the female screener wanded her, "I just jumped. I was like, 'Excuse me?' . . . I just found it very invasive."
She said the screener had put her hands under and between her breasts, presumably because Veverka's bra contained metal.
"The press was too hard for what they're looking for," she said. "I felt groped."
Quinn's most recent adventure at the airport was on May 28 as she was heading to Charleston, S.C. She's had two hip replacements, and her back and knee are girded with metal. After the detector sounded, she walked to a glass enclosure for a secondary inspection.
She had to stop the screener who wanded her.
"I just said, 'Too invasive.' The person examining me slapped her hands at her side. A supervisor dismissed her and sent someone else over."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said she couldn't address the specifics of the women's complaints, but recommended that anyone uncomfortable with a screening should approach the agency's customer-service representative.
"We want to treat every passenger with dignity and respect," she said, "and if they feel that isn't happening, we want to hear about it so we can give the screeners remedial training in standard operating procedures."
When I told Quinn that I'd heard from two other women who complained about screenings after my column about Phillips ran, she offered a theory about why these incidents involved professional women.
It wasn't what I expected. I had written in the spring about Deirdre Walker, a former Maryland police official who has concluded from personal experience that the TSA likes to select those who look least likely to put up a fuss.
Quinn ventured that she and other multitasking businesswomen had a super-focused look that screeners could take for haughtiness.
"We always just look like our hair is on fire," she said. "I'm sure we have that look that says, 'Make it snappy.' "
Is it a Philly thing?
Are complaints about strange security screenings at the airport something you'll find across the country, or is there a particular problem here?
I can't give you statistical certainty on this. But when you listen to frequent fliers like Quality Quinn, you have to wonder.
"There is something wrong with the culture at this airport," Quinn, a 55-year-old educational consultant, told me last week.
For 20 years she has flown around the country, giving talks on literacy, and in January she moved from Austin, Texas, to Philadelphia.
"Never in my life have I experienced what I go through almost every other week at the Philadelphia airport," she said. "I have had the most excruciating, embarrassing [screenings] there."
She called me after my column last Monday about retired professor Nancy Anne Phillips, who complained that before an April flight an airport screener's wand made contact with her crotch.
The TSA has reviewed a tape of that encounter and concluded its security officer did nothing inappropriate. The agency has since erased the tape.
Quinn said she, too, had endured a recent wanding that went too far.
So did Fayette Veverka, a Villanova University theology professor.
And Lynne Lechter, a King of Prussia lawyer who has run for the state House.
"I cannot stress enough that this behavior has not been encountered in any of the other cities from which I have gone through security," Lechter wrote last week to US Airways CEO Doug Parker.
Lechter was complaining about an April 19 flight to Raleigh-Durham International Airport. She isn't sure why, after she went through the metal detector, she was selected for a secondary screening.
But she said in an interview that the woman holding the wand had run it up and down the inside of her legs - Lechter was wearing a skirt - and that Lechter had found it "sexually suggestive."
Worse, she said, "a leering man watched the entire search." When she complained to a supervisor at a desk, he investigated, but the man was gone, Lechter said.
Like Phillips, she declined a private screening. "The last thing I wanted to do was go in a private room," Lechter said. "I'd rather have the public humiliation."
Veverka said she was heading for an early-morning flight to Cleveland on June 11 when her metal replacement knees set off the alarms.
"I had on a loose skirt," the professor said, and when the female screener wanded her, "I just jumped. I was like, 'Excuse me?' . . . I just found it very invasive."
She said the screener had put her hands under and between her breasts, presumably because Veverka's bra contained metal.
"The press was too hard for what they're looking for," she said. "I felt groped."
Quinn's most recent adventure at the airport was on May 28 as she was heading to Charleston, S.C. She's had two hip replacements, and her back and knee are girded with metal. After the detector sounded, she walked to a glass enclosure for a secondary inspection.
She had to stop the screener who wanded her.
"I just said, 'Too invasive.' The person examining me slapped her hands at her side. A supervisor dismissed her and sent someone else over."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said she couldn't address the specifics of the women's complaints, but recommended that anyone uncomfortable with a screening should approach the agency's customer-service representative.
"We want to treat every passenger with dignity and respect," she said, "and if they feel that isn't happening, we want to hear about it so we can give the screeners remedial training in standard operating procedures."
When I told Quinn that I'd heard from two other women who complained about screenings after my column about Phillips ran, she offered a theory about why these incidents involved professional women.
It wasn't what I expected. I had written in the spring about Deirdre Walker, a former Maryland police official who has concluded from personal experience that the TSA likes to select those who look least likely to put up a fuss.
Quinn ventured that she and other multitasking businesswomen had a super-focused look that screeners could take for haughtiness.
"We always just look like our hair is on fire," she said. "I'm sure we have that look that says, 'Make it snappy.' "
Monday, April 5, 2010
Dr. Nancy Phillips - Philadelphia Airport
Nancy Phillips wrote the following letter to TSA:
The purpose of this emailed letter is to file a complaint about inappropriate behavior of TSA employees and the Philadelphia airport police on Monday, April 5, 2010 at the Philadelphia airport. My trip originated on a US Airways flight from Barcelona, Spain at 10:30 a.m. local time and continued through Philadelphia. The plane arrived late in Philadelphia which necessitated my flight out of Philadelphia to San Diego being changed from 3:35 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. After 18 hours, I arrived at San Diego to find my bags were lost. I finally got my bags more than two days later. The contents seemed disheveled, the outside was damaged, and the strap was missing.
The incident occurred while I was going through a transit security screening area in Phildelphia. To the best of my recollection and according to my notes, it was a transit screening area between Gates B & C. The time of the incident was approximately 3:15 p.m. and went on for several hours.
It is important for you to review the video and audio security tape of what happened that day. I am 63 years old. I have metal knees and metal in my back, which usually triggers the alarm and requires me to go through a secondary security check. This time, the TSA person took me into a glass cage to conduct the wanding with a metal detector. She told me to spread my legs. There is a mat on the floor with pictures of footprints where my feet were to be placed. However, when I placed my feet there, I was told to spread my legs wider than the foot patterns on the floor. I did as I was told. She then moved the stick up into my crotch, where the metal detector came into contact in the area of my vagina. It was not an inadvertent touch. The video will show when the stick was placed in my crotch that I jumped back. I was shocked. I then asked for someone else to finish the task. I did not want that person to touch me again. The TSA person then became rude. When I first tried to report the incident, the TSA agent went out, told others I assumed were her peers, and they were all laughing. When I asked to speak with a supervisor, a lady with short gray hair came in and started rolling her eyes in disgust.
At some point my passport was taken away from me, and a big deal was made about them having it and that "I wasn't going anywhere".
When each person reported it to the next person, they embellished it a bit until it came back to me that I "refused to go through the procedure or process" I forget which term they used. I already had, but I was made to go through it again, and later went through it for a third time. I then asked for another supervisor. A person named Shiela Woods came but did nothing. As the first security person walked out of the glass room, she stood with at least 7 other employees who seemed to instantly appear and lined up outside the glass room laughing and mocking me.
The police were called. I was not privy to the conversations outside the glass room. When badge #6087 came in, I asked him why he was called. He ignored me, but demanded information from me. When I again asked what the questioning was for, he just stared at me. As he filed the report, I asked for a copy and was told I could go online to find out how to get a copy. He was very rude. I asked for the online address from the officer (badge #6087), but he ignored my request. He was standing right next to me. There is no chance he did not hear me. I do not know why this information was obtained, where it was sent, and why he refused to provide information to me so I could obtain a copy.
From that time on, I was surrounded and guarded at all times by police and TSA employees. I was not allowed to leave the glass cage. During this time, both the TSA and the police were rude, verbally abusive and obnoxious. Passengers who were going through the security lines right next to me were staring. I was treated in a way I felt a suspected terrorist would be treated.
And remember, I initiated a complaint. I did nothing wrong. Reporting this incident resulted in me being verbally attacked, interrogated, harassed, detained, humiliated and threatened
Because I reported this incident, I was immediately treated like a criminal. A criminal background check was immediately run on me. When they found nothing, I was required to give my social security number out loud in a room with several strangers. . I asked the officer if I was required to give this information and why he needed this information but he refused to answer my questions. As with the criminal check, my social security number was put in a laptop-type machine. I feel my social security number is no longer secure. Of course, they found nothing. My passport was confiscated, and a big deal was made as they told me I "was going nowhere" while the TSA kept my passport. My driver's license was taken and the information was inputed into the portable computer looking for yet another criminal trail. Again, none was found.
No one would take a report on what happened to me, but about 5 separate reports were made about me which I believe were in retaliation. Every person refused to review the video tape until much later when, at my request, the Desk Sergeant was called.
When I said I wanted to file a complaint, the first police officer (badge #6087), said he was calling backup who would be "transporting" me to the police station to make a victim's report. I was told they notified US Airline that I was being detained by TSA and the Philadelphia police and to not expect me on my scheduled flight. They were simply attempting to make me miss my flight for reporting the inappropriate activities by the TSA employee.
At one point I was told I was going to be arrested because I refused to go through security. Each time, I forcefully replied that I had been through the same security procedure not one, but three times, and to look at the security video. However, they refused. I believe they were trying everything they could to arrest me.
I tried to report this over and over again during the time I was detained, but my attempts were ignored and I then became the object of verbal attacks, lies, threats, harassment, and humiliation. No one would take a report about what happened to me. I was finally tossed a card with an email address on it and told I could call the 800 number if I wanted to in order to file a complaint.
I then remembered in working with various police departments with child protective services reporting and as a school counselor and professor of school counseling and school psychology that there is a Desk Sergeant who is a supervisor with the police. I requested the Desk Sergeant be called. Finally he was. Thankfully, he was the only person with common sense, and the only decent guy out of the whole bunch. He took charge, reviewed the video, and then walked back into the glass cage where I was being held, and told me I was free to go. I didn't get his name, but I am grateful to him. No one apologized or made any attempt to rectify what they did to me.
Although I asked for names and business cards, I got very few. The first thing usually asked when there is an incident is what were the names of those involved. In this case, most refused, saying things like, "you don't need my name', etc. The few I did get were:
1. Shiela A. Woods - gave me her business card. She is the supervisor of the TSA worker who inappropriately wanded me with the metal detector. She did nothing.
2. Mike, one of the TSA people who would not give me his name, business card or contact number. He kept telling me "he" hadn't decided yet whether or not I was going to be able to get on my plane to go home. He spoke to me in an abusive and condescending manner. His manner sent a message to the others that it was OK to be abusive to me. Of all the awful people in the Philadelphia airport that day, he was the worst. His ego is much bigger than his brain. Of course he said he viewed the security tape and said he found nothing wrong. Is he an example of the best that TSA can hire? Security is a primary importance and we need intelligent and competent people at security points overseeing and supervising these activities. He is not one of them. I found out later he is Shiela Woods' supervisor.
3. Man in a blue jumpsuit. He was a rude TSA employee who refused to give me his name or business card.
4. An airport police officer, badge number # 6087. He was rude and inept. He was the person who kept trying to arrest me. He had a filthy mouth and spoke to me in a threatening manner.
By the time I finally got on the plane, I was so upset from the indignity and false accusations along with the shameful way I was treated and the attempts to have me miss my flight, that I had chest pains, difficulty breathing and palpitations almost all the way to California, although I was too fearful to say anything.
It is correct and responsible to report inappropriate incidents by TSA employees at a security checkpoint. Passengers should never be discouraged, harassed, ridiculed, interrogated or investigated for this. The whole bunch exhibited very little common sense, decency or respect.
So the clear message is that if you are going through Philadelphia airport and are inappropriately touched by a TSA employee, be prepared to be harassed, intimidated, falsely accused, interrogated, investigated, embarrassed, threatened, talked to rudely, and yelled at if you report it.
The bumbling and bungling of these people was alarming. Then they had the gall to blame that on me--I held things up. What a disgrace!!!! Each person I spoke with tried to escalate this to a higher level to cover for the prior person. How terrible! The way everyone covered for everyone else was disgusting
Something is very wrong at the Philadelphia airport. Whatever I reported was not only not acted upon-it was denied. When I told Ms. Woods that there were 5 or 6 TES agents behind her laughing and patting the original TSA agent on the back, she looked around, saw them, looked back and said she didn't see anything. That is how every incident went. Shameful. Shame on you, Philadelphia. I'm sure this represents a small group of renegade employees of the TSA and the Philadelphia police, but hey should be held accountable.
Airport security is a very serious matter. It is disheartening to find the TSA and airport police to be so blatantly bad. Philadelphia, you are better than that, but I saw the worst of Philadelphia today. I await your response.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nancy Phillips
As of today, June 8, 2010, Dr. Phillips has not heard back from the Customer Service Manager at the Philadelphia airport.
*****
Daniel Rubin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote the following article on Nancy Phillip's experience; it was published on June 14, 2010. There were a few statements made by Mr. Rubin that were objected by Ms. Phillips; her statements have been included in bold type.
Nancy Anne Phillips, a 63-year-old retired professor from Southern California, was passing through Philadelphia in April when, she says, she had one of those nightmares at the airport that give this city a bad name.
Her knees have been replaced with titanium, and a metal plate supports her back. She's used to setting off alarms.
But she's not used to the sort of screening she experienced April 5 when a Transportation Security Administration worker motioned Phillips to the side for a secondary screening. Phillips says the screener's metal-detecting wand went north of the retirees knees and brushed against her crotch. Nancy Phillips commented: "She (the TSA agent) then moved the stick up into my crotch, where the metal detector came into contact in the area of my vagina. It was not an inadvertent touch. The video (which was destroyed by the TSA) will show when the stick was placed in my crotch that I jumped back. I was shocked... The overriding issue here is the erasing of the video tapes. As soon as TSA did that, they indicted themselves. If they acted appropriately they would want the tapes to prove their point. The proof was in the tapes. Destroying them negates every accusation and statement the TSA and police made."
Phillips jumped, aghast.
And when she asked for a different female screener, she says, a standoff led to her being detained for nearly two hours - until a Philadelphia police sergeant sent her on her way.
Phillips says her problem was not having metal implants; it was complaining. Because she rocked the boat, she says, she was threatened, accused, harassed, and humiliated. Nancy Phillips wrote: "I never said this happened because I complained. I reported a serious incident. I never made the statement about "rocking the boat".
"Something is very wrong at the Philadelphia airport . . .," she wrote me. "Shameful. Shame on you, Philadelphia. I'm sure this represents a small group of renegade employees of the TSA and the Philadelphia police, but they should be held accountable."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis says her agency has a starkly different view of what happened. She says statements from TSA employees portray Phillips as "defensive and uncooperative." And videotape showed nothing wrong with the initial screening, Davis said.
But she says that tape has been destroyed according to airport policy, which calls for erasure of most digital recordings after 30 days.
We'll go back to that part later.
Phillips was flying from Barcelona, Spain, to San Diego, changing planes in Philadelphia. A Ph.D. in education from Claremont Graduate University, she works as a school psychologist and was reading reports in the air when not watching episodes of Nip/Tuck.
She cleared customs and wound up at a TSA screening area between Gates B and C by 3:40 p.m. After the alarm went off, she recalls, she told the screener, "It's my knees." The screener, a woman, directed Phillips to an area no more than 10 feet away, in view of other passengers.
Phillips saw the outlines of two feet on a mat below her, so she opened her stance to accommodate the screener. "Wider," she recalls the woman saying. After the wand brushed her pants at the crotch, she asked if someone else could finish the screening.
That's where accounts diverge. "Each person I spoke to tried to escalate this to a higher level to cover for the prior person," Phillips says, and no TSA employee would take a report of her complaint.
She was screened twice more after refusing to go into a private room, which to her felt unsafe. Nancy Phillips reported: "I was offered a private screening room for one of the screenings. It was offered to me as a courtesy. At no time was it required and at no time did I refuse. I was simply asked if I would like to go to a private room to finish the screening. I did not want to go anywhere out of public view. I did not refuse. It was not required. Again, it was offered to me. I wanted to remain out in public areas and at no time did TSA react or respond as if that was not acceptable to do so." She was told her airline was on notice that she was being detained. A TSA supervisor named Mike told her that he "hadn't decided yet whether or not I was going to be able to get on my plane to go home," she says.
A police officer came and ran a background check. "I felt like I was treated like a terrorist," Phillips says. He asked her if she wanted to make a criminal complaint. She didn't.
Davis, of the TSA, says that even before the screening, Phillips had caught the attention of airline officials. A US Airways supervisor told her that Phillips was "irate" when her flight from Spain arrived late and she was told she would have to take a later plane to San Diego.
The video, Davis adds, shows that the initial screener held the wand correctly, horizontally, and that Phillips reacted before any unwelcome contact was made.
"It was like she was anticipating a negative experience," Davis says, "vs. actually having one."
Phillips asked that a police sergeant get involved. He reviewed what had happened, then told her she was free to go.
"Looks like you had a few personalities that clashed," says Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman.
I agree, although it's hard to get to the bottom of what happened. Was Phillips a difficult passenger who was already agitated over having to take a later flight? Or was she a distressed passenger with a valid complaint, who couldn't get anyone to listen?
What is beyond dispute is this: The TSA should have to keep the tapes. Particularly when a complaint has been lodged. Particularly at an airport that's been such rich fodder for columns this year, what with the University of Michigan student who had a bag of white powder planted in her bag by a joking TSA employee, and the 4-year-old disabled boy made to walk without his leg braces through the metal detectors.
One other case has particular relevance - that of Nadine Pellegrino, a Florida businesswoman jailed for 17 hours after she objected to a screening by TSA workers who say she assaulted them.
Once Municipal Judge Thomas F. Gehret heard that the TSA had erased the tape of Pellegrino, he threw out the charges against her because she'd been denied the best evidence. Her record has been expunged.
In that case, airport security manager Renee Tufts testified that the electronic memory required to keep all tapes was not within the city's budget.
"With all the stuff that is happening, I would think you'd want to keep it. You could keep that forever," Gehret said. He was talking about terrorism. But he could have been talking about complaints like Phillips'.
The purpose of this emailed letter is to file a complaint about inappropriate behavior of TSA employees and the Philadelphia airport police on Monday, April 5, 2010 at the Philadelphia airport. My trip originated on a US Airways flight from Barcelona, Spain at 10:30 a.m. local time and continued through Philadelphia. The plane arrived late in Philadelphia which necessitated my flight out of Philadelphia to San Diego being changed from 3:35 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. After 18 hours, I arrived at San Diego to find my bags were lost. I finally got my bags more than two days later. The contents seemed disheveled, the outside was damaged, and the strap was missing.
The incident occurred while I was going through a transit security screening area in Phildelphia. To the best of my recollection and according to my notes, it was a transit screening area between Gates B & C. The time of the incident was approximately 3:15 p.m. and went on for several hours.
It is important for you to review the video and audio security tape of what happened that day. I am 63 years old. I have metal knees and metal in my back, which usually triggers the alarm and requires me to go through a secondary security check. This time, the TSA person took me into a glass cage to conduct the wanding with a metal detector. She told me to spread my legs. There is a mat on the floor with pictures of footprints where my feet were to be placed. However, when I placed my feet there, I was told to spread my legs wider than the foot patterns on the floor. I did as I was told. She then moved the stick up into my crotch, where the metal detector came into contact in the area of my vagina. It was not an inadvertent touch. The video will show when the stick was placed in my crotch that I jumped back. I was shocked. I then asked for someone else to finish the task. I did not want that person to touch me again. The TSA person then became rude. When I first tried to report the incident, the TSA agent went out, told others I assumed were her peers, and they were all laughing. When I asked to speak with a supervisor, a lady with short gray hair came in and started rolling her eyes in disgust.
At some point my passport was taken away from me, and a big deal was made about them having it and that "I wasn't going anywhere".
When each person reported it to the next person, they embellished it a bit until it came back to me that I "refused to go through the procedure or process" I forget which term they used. I already had, but I was made to go through it again, and later went through it for a third time. I then asked for another supervisor. A person named Shiela Woods came but did nothing. As the first security person walked out of the glass room, she stood with at least 7 other employees who seemed to instantly appear and lined up outside the glass room laughing and mocking me.
The police were called. I was not privy to the conversations outside the glass room. When badge #6087 came in, I asked him why he was called. He ignored me, but demanded information from me. When I again asked what the questioning was for, he just stared at me. As he filed the report, I asked for a copy and was told I could go online to find out how to get a copy. He was very rude. I asked for the online address from the officer (badge #6087), but he ignored my request. He was standing right next to me. There is no chance he did not hear me. I do not know why this information was obtained, where it was sent, and why he refused to provide information to me so I could obtain a copy.
From that time on, I was surrounded and guarded at all times by police and TSA employees. I was not allowed to leave the glass cage. During this time, both the TSA and the police were rude, verbally abusive and obnoxious. Passengers who were going through the security lines right next to me were staring. I was treated in a way I felt a suspected terrorist would be treated.
And remember, I initiated a complaint. I did nothing wrong. Reporting this incident resulted in me being verbally attacked, interrogated, harassed, detained, humiliated and threatened
Because I reported this incident, I was immediately treated like a criminal. A criminal background check was immediately run on me. When they found nothing, I was required to give my social security number out loud in a room with several strangers. . I asked the officer if I was required to give this information and why he needed this information but he refused to answer my questions. As with the criminal check, my social security number was put in a laptop-type machine. I feel my social security number is no longer secure. Of course, they found nothing. My passport was confiscated, and a big deal was made as they told me I "was going nowhere" while the TSA kept my passport. My driver's license was taken and the information was inputed into the portable computer looking for yet another criminal trail. Again, none was found.
No one would take a report on what happened to me, but about 5 separate reports were made about me which I believe were in retaliation. Every person refused to review the video tape until much later when, at my request, the Desk Sergeant was called.
When I said I wanted to file a complaint, the first police officer (badge #6087), said he was calling backup who would be "transporting" me to the police station to make a victim's report. I was told they notified US Airline that I was being detained by TSA and the Philadelphia police and to not expect me on my scheduled flight. They were simply attempting to make me miss my flight for reporting the inappropriate activities by the TSA employee.
At one point I was told I was going to be arrested because I refused to go through security. Each time, I forcefully replied that I had been through the same security procedure not one, but three times, and to look at the security video. However, they refused. I believe they were trying everything they could to arrest me.
I tried to report this over and over again during the time I was detained, but my attempts were ignored and I then became the object of verbal attacks, lies, threats, harassment, and humiliation. No one would take a report about what happened to me. I was finally tossed a card with an email address on it and told I could call the 800 number if I wanted to in order to file a complaint.
I then remembered in working with various police departments with child protective services reporting and as a school counselor and professor of school counseling and school psychology that there is a Desk Sergeant who is a supervisor with the police. I requested the Desk Sergeant be called. Finally he was. Thankfully, he was the only person with common sense, and the only decent guy out of the whole bunch. He took charge, reviewed the video, and then walked back into the glass cage where I was being held, and told me I was free to go. I didn't get his name, but I am grateful to him. No one apologized or made any attempt to rectify what they did to me.
Although I asked for names and business cards, I got very few. The first thing usually asked when there is an incident is what were the names of those involved. In this case, most refused, saying things like, "you don't need my name', etc. The few I did get were:
1. Shiela A. Woods - gave me her business card. She is the supervisor of the TSA worker who inappropriately wanded me with the metal detector. She did nothing.
2. Mike, one of the TSA people who would not give me his name, business card or contact number. He kept telling me "he" hadn't decided yet whether or not I was going to be able to get on my plane to go home. He spoke to me in an abusive and condescending manner. His manner sent a message to the others that it was OK to be abusive to me. Of all the awful people in the Philadelphia airport that day, he was the worst. His ego is much bigger than his brain. Of course he said he viewed the security tape and said he found nothing wrong. Is he an example of the best that TSA can hire? Security is a primary importance and we need intelligent and competent people at security points overseeing and supervising these activities. He is not one of them. I found out later he is Shiela Woods' supervisor.
3. Man in a blue jumpsuit. He was a rude TSA employee who refused to give me his name or business card.
4. An airport police officer, badge number # 6087. He was rude and inept. He was the person who kept trying to arrest me. He had a filthy mouth and spoke to me in a threatening manner.
By the time I finally got on the plane, I was so upset from the indignity and false accusations along with the shameful way I was treated and the attempts to have me miss my flight, that I had chest pains, difficulty breathing and palpitations almost all the way to California, although I was too fearful to say anything.
It is correct and responsible to report inappropriate incidents by TSA employees at a security checkpoint. Passengers should never be discouraged, harassed, ridiculed, interrogated or investigated for this. The whole bunch exhibited very little common sense, decency or respect.
So the clear message is that if you are going through Philadelphia airport and are inappropriately touched by a TSA employee, be prepared to be harassed, intimidated, falsely accused, interrogated, investigated, embarrassed, threatened, talked to rudely, and yelled at if you report it.
The bumbling and bungling of these people was alarming. Then they had the gall to blame that on me--I held things up. What a disgrace!!!! Each person I spoke with tried to escalate this to a higher level to cover for the prior person. How terrible! The way everyone covered for everyone else was disgusting
Something is very wrong at the Philadelphia airport. Whatever I reported was not only not acted upon-it was denied. When I told Ms. Woods that there were 5 or 6 TES agents behind her laughing and patting the original TSA agent on the back, she looked around, saw them, looked back and said she didn't see anything. That is how every incident went. Shameful. Shame on you, Philadelphia. I'm sure this represents a small group of renegade employees of the TSA and the Philadelphia police, but hey should be held accountable.
Airport security is a very serious matter. It is disheartening to find the TSA and airport police to be so blatantly bad. Philadelphia, you are better than that, but I saw the worst of Philadelphia today. I await your response.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nancy Phillips
TSA then wrote the following response to Dr. Nancy Phillips:
Re: TSA Complaint <<#465239-590431#>>
InboxX
Reply TSA-ContactCenter to me
show details Apr 9
Thank you for your email message. We are sorry you were unhappy with your recent travel experience.
Because your complaint is regarding screening at PHL, we have forwarded a copy of your email to the Customer Service Manager at that airport. The Customer Service Manager is responsible for ensuring that the screener workforce adheres to TSA principles for professional processing.
We monitor the number and nature of complaints we receive to track trends and spot areas of concern that may require special attention. This ongoing process will enable us to ensure prompt, corrective action whenever we determine that security-screening policies need modification or specific employees or screener teams are the subjects of repeated complaints.
Again, the TSA offers sincere apologies for the discomfort you experienced while traveling and encourage you to check the latest information at www.tsa.gov.
TSA Contact Center
As of today, June 8, 2010, Dr. Phillips has not heard back from the Customer Service Manager at the Philadelphia airport.
*****
Daniel Rubin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote the following article on Nancy Phillip's experience; it was published on June 14, 2010. There were a few statements made by Mr. Rubin that were objected by Ms. Phillips; her statements have been included in bold type.
Nancy Anne Phillips, a 63-year-old retired professor from Southern California, was passing through Philadelphia in April when, she says, she had one of those nightmares at the airport that give this city a bad name.
Her knees have been replaced with titanium, and a metal plate supports her back. She's used to setting off alarms.
But she's not used to the sort of screening she experienced April 5 when a Transportation Security Administration worker motioned Phillips to the side for a secondary screening. Phillips says the screener's metal-detecting wand went north of the retirees knees and brushed against her crotch. Nancy Phillips commented: "She (the TSA agent) then moved the stick up into my crotch, where the metal detector came into contact in the area of my vagina. It was not an inadvertent touch. The video (which was destroyed by the TSA) will show when the stick was placed in my crotch that I jumped back. I was shocked... The overriding issue here is the erasing of the video tapes. As soon as TSA did that, they indicted themselves. If they acted appropriately they would want the tapes to prove their point. The proof was in the tapes. Destroying them negates every accusation and statement the TSA and police made."
Phillips jumped, aghast.
And when she asked for a different female screener, she says, a standoff led to her being detained for nearly two hours - until a Philadelphia police sergeant sent her on her way.
Phillips says her problem was not having metal implants; it was complaining. Because she rocked the boat, she says, she was threatened, accused, harassed, and humiliated. Nancy Phillips wrote: "I never said this happened because I complained. I reported a serious incident. I never made the statement about "rocking the boat".
"Something is very wrong at the Philadelphia airport . . .," she wrote me. "Shameful. Shame on you, Philadelphia. I'm sure this represents a small group of renegade employees of the TSA and the Philadelphia police, but they should be held accountable."
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis says her agency has a starkly different view of what happened. She says statements from TSA employees portray Phillips as "defensive and uncooperative." And videotape showed nothing wrong with the initial screening, Davis said.
But she says that tape has been destroyed according to airport policy, which calls for erasure of most digital recordings after 30 days.
We'll go back to that part later.
Phillips was flying from Barcelona, Spain, to San Diego, changing planes in Philadelphia. A Ph.D. in education from Claremont Graduate University, she works as a school psychologist and was reading reports in the air when not watching episodes of Nip/Tuck.
She cleared customs and wound up at a TSA screening area between Gates B and C by 3:40 p.m. After the alarm went off, she recalls, she told the screener, "It's my knees." The screener, a woman, directed Phillips to an area no more than 10 feet away, in view of other passengers.
Phillips saw the outlines of two feet on a mat below her, so she opened her stance to accommodate the screener. "Wider," she recalls the woman saying. After the wand brushed her pants at the crotch, she asked if someone else could finish the screening.
That's where accounts diverge. "Each person I spoke to tried to escalate this to a higher level to cover for the prior person," Phillips says, and no TSA employee would take a report of her complaint.
She was screened twice more after refusing to go into a private room, which to her felt unsafe. Nancy Phillips reported: "I was offered a private screening room for one of the screenings. It was offered to me as a courtesy. At no time was it required and at no time did I refuse. I was simply asked if I would like to go to a private room to finish the screening. I did not want to go anywhere out of public view. I did not refuse. It was not required. Again, it was offered to me. I wanted to remain out in public areas and at no time did TSA react or respond as if that was not acceptable to do so." She was told her airline was on notice that she was being detained. A TSA supervisor named Mike told her that he "hadn't decided yet whether or not I was going to be able to get on my plane to go home," she says.
A police officer came and ran a background check. "I felt like I was treated like a terrorist," Phillips says. He asked her if she wanted to make a criminal complaint. She didn't.
Davis, of the TSA, says that even before the screening, Phillips had caught the attention of airline officials. A US Airways supervisor told her that Phillips was "irate" when her flight from Spain arrived late and she was told she would have to take a later plane to San Diego.
The video, Davis adds, shows that the initial screener held the wand correctly, horizontally, and that Phillips reacted before any unwelcome contact was made.
"It was like she was anticipating a negative experience," Davis says, "vs. actually having one."
Phillips asked that a police sergeant get involved. He reviewed what had happened, then told her she was free to go.
"Looks like you had a few personalities that clashed," says Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman.
I agree, although it's hard to get to the bottom of what happened. Was Phillips a difficult passenger who was already agitated over having to take a later flight? Or was she a distressed passenger with a valid complaint, who couldn't get anyone to listen?
What is beyond dispute is this: The TSA should have to keep the tapes. Particularly when a complaint has been lodged. Particularly at an airport that's been such rich fodder for columns this year, what with the University of Michigan student who had a bag of white powder planted in her bag by a joking TSA employee, and the 4-year-old disabled boy made to walk without his leg braces through the metal detectors.
One other case has particular relevance - that of Nadine Pellegrino, a Florida businesswoman jailed for 17 hours after she objected to a screening by TSA workers who say she assaulted them.
Once Municipal Judge Thomas F. Gehret heard that the TSA had erased the tape of Pellegrino, he threw out the charges against her because she'd been denied the best evidence. Her record has been expunged.
In that case, airport security manager Renee Tufts testified that the electronic memory required to keep all tapes was not within the city's budget.
"With all the stuff that is happening, I would think you'd want to keep it. You could keep that forever," Gehret said. He was talking about terrorism. But he could have been talking about complaints like Phillips'.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Steve Bierfeldt - Lambert-St. Louis (Illinois) International Airport
Steve Bierfeldt claims that the TSA agents harassed him. Below is his story from CNN:
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steve Bierfeldt says the Transportation Security Administration pulled him aside for extra questioning in March. He was carrying a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and an iPhone capable of making audio recordings. And he used them.
Steve Bierfeldt is accusing the Transportation Security Administration of "harassing interrogation."
On a recording a TSA agent can be heard berating Bierfeldt. One sample: "You want to play smartass, and I'm not going to play your f**king game."
Bierfeldt is director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an outgrowth of the Ron Paul presidential campaign. He was returning from a regional conference March 29 when TSA screeners at Lambert-St. Louis (Missouri) International Airport saw a metal cash box in his carry-on bag. Inside was more than $4,700 dollars in cash -- proceeds from the sale of political merchandise like T-shirts and books.
There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money.
The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Bierfeldt's cause and is suing Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, whose department includes the TSA. Their complaint alleges that Bierfeldt was "subjected to harassing interrogation, and unlawfully detained."
Larry Schwartztol of the ACLU said the TSA is suffering from mission creep.
"We think what happened to Mr. Bierfeldt is a reflection that TSA believes passenger screening is an opportunity to engage in freewheeling law enforcement investigations that have no link to flight safety," he said.
Schwartztol believes many other passengers have been subjected to the same kind of treatment, which he claims violates constitutional protections against unlawful searches.
The TSA wouldn't comment on the lawsuit, but said in a statement that the movement of large amounts of cash through a checkpoint may be investigated "if suspicious activity is suspected."
Unbeknownst to the TSA agents, Bierfieldt had activated the record application on his phone and slipped it into his pocket. It captured the entire conversation.
An excerpt:
Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question.
Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question.
Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money.
Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question?
Officer: So you refuse to answer that question?
Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing.
Officer: Well, you're not answering.
Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law.
The officers can be heard saying they will involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and appear to threaten arrest, saying they are going to transport Bierfeldt to the local police station, in handcuffs if necessary.
Bierfeldt told CNN he believes their behavior was inappropriate.
"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me."
But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money.
Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul?
Bierfeldt: Yes, sir.
Officer: You're free to go.
According to the TSA, "Passengers are required to cooperate with the screening process. Cooperation may involve answering questions about their property. A passenger who refuses to answer questions may be referred to appropriate authorities for further inquiry"
Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights.
"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't."
The TSA says disciplinary action has been taken against one of its employees for inappropriate tone and language.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steve Bierfeldt says the Transportation Security Administration pulled him aside for extra questioning in March. He was carrying a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and an iPhone capable of making audio recordings. And he used them.
Steve Bierfeldt is accusing the Transportation Security Administration of "harassing interrogation."
On a recording a TSA agent can be heard berating Bierfeldt. One sample: "You want to play smartass, and I'm not going to play your f**king game."
Bierfeldt is director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an outgrowth of the Ron Paul presidential campaign. He was returning from a regional conference March 29 when TSA screeners at Lambert-St. Louis (Missouri) International Airport saw a metal cash box in his carry-on bag. Inside was more than $4,700 dollars in cash -- proceeds from the sale of political merchandise like T-shirts and books.
There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money.
The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Bierfeldt's cause and is suing Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, whose department includes the TSA. Their complaint alleges that Bierfeldt was "subjected to harassing interrogation, and unlawfully detained."
Larry Schwartztol of the ACLU said the TSA is suffering from mission creep.
"We think what happened to Mr. Bierfeldt is a reflection that TSA believes passenger screening is an opportunity to engage in freewheeling law enforcement investigations that have no link to flight safety," he said.
Schwartztol believes many other passengers have been subjected to the same kind of treatment, which he claims violates constitutional protections against unlawful searches.
The TSA wouldn't comment on the lawsuit, but said in a statement that the movement of large amounts of cash through a checkpoint may be investigated "if suspicious activity is suspected."
Unbeknownst to the TSA agents, Bierfieldt had activated the record application on his phone and slipped it into his pocket. It captured the entire conversation.
An excerpt:
Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question.
Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question.
Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money.
Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question?
Officer: So you refuse to answer that question?
Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing.
Officer: Well, you're not answering.
Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law.
The officers can be heard saying they will involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and appear to threaten arrest, saying they are going to transport Bierfeldt to the local police station, in handcuffs if necessary.
Bierfeldt told CNN he believes their behavior was inappropriate.
"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me."
But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money.
Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul?
Bierfeldt: Yes, sir.
Officer: You're free to go.
According to the TSA, "Passengers are required to cooperate with the screening process. Cooperation may involve answering questions about their property. A passenger who refuses to answer questions may be referred to appropriate authorities for further inquiry"
Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights.
"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't."
The TSA says disciplinary action has been taken against one of its employees for inappropriate tone and language.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Ryan Thomas - Philadelphia Airport
Daniel Rubin, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote the following article about Ryan Thomas' experience at the Philadelphia airport. Ryan was 4 years old.
February 15, 2010
Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.
Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?
Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.
Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.
The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.
Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.
The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.
The alarm went off.
The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.
The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.
"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "
Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.
No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.
Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.
They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn't be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.
By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.
"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "
The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said.
Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.
A Philadelphia police officer approached and asked what the problem was. Thomas said he identified himself and said he was a Camden officer. The Philadelphia officer suggested he calm down and enjoy his vacation.
Back home in Glassboro a week later, Bob Thomas called the airport manager and left her what he calls a terse message.
He was still angry enough last week to call me after I'd written a couple of columns about travelers' complaints of mistreatment by screeners at the airport.
"This was just stupid," he told me.
At the very least, it was not standard procedure.
On Friday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.
TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials.
She said she wished Thomas had reported the matter to TSA immediately. "If screening is not properly done, we need to go back to that officer and offer retraining so it's corrected."
Davis also said TSA's security director at the airport, Bob Ellis, called Thomas last week to apologize. He gave Thomas the name of the agency's customer service representative, in case he has a problem at the airport in the future.
Afterward, Thomas said he appreciated Ellis' call. He said he had no interest in pursuing the matter further or in filing a lawsuit.
"I'm just looking for things to be done right," he said. "And I just want to make sure this isn't done to anyone else. Just abide by your standard operating procedures."
February 15, 2010
Just when I thought I was out of the Transportation Security Administration business for a few columns, they pull me back in.
Did you hear about the Camden cop whose disabled son wasn't allowed to pass through airport security unless he took off his leg braces?
Unfortunately, it's no joke. This happened to Bob Thomas, a 53-year-old officer in Camden's emergency crime suppression team, who was flying to Orlando in March with his wife, Leona, and their son, Ryan.
Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.
The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.
Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart.
The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.
The alarm went off.
The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.
The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.
"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "
Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.
No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.
Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.
They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn't be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.
By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.
"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "
The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said.
Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.
A Philadelphia police officer approached and asked what the problem was. Thomas said he identified himself and said he was a Camden officer. The Philadelphia officer suggested he calm down and enjoy his vacation.
Back home in Glassboro a week later, Bob Thomas called the airport manager and left her what he calls a terse message.
He was still angry enough last week to call me after I'd written a couple of columns about travelers' complaints of mistreatment by screeners at the airport.
"This was just stupid," he told me.
At the very least, it was not standard procedure.
On Friday, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said the boy never should have been told to remove his braces.
TSA policy should have allowed the parents to help the boy to a private screening area where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials.
She said she wished Thomas had reported the matter to TSA immediately. "If screening is not properly done, we need to go back to that officer and offer retraining so it's corrected."
Davis also said TSA's security director at the airport, Bob Ellis, called Thomas last week to apologize. He gave Thomas the name of the agency's customer service representative, in case he has a problem at the airport in the future.
Afterward, Thomas said he appreciated Ellis' call. He said he had no interest in pursuing the matter further or in filing a lawsuit.
"I'm just looking for things to be done right," he said. "And I just want to make sure this isn't done to anyone else. Just abide by your standard operating procedures."
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Rebecca Solomon - Philadelphia Airport
Daniel Rubin, a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote the following article on what happened to 22 year old Rebecca Solomon.
January 21, 2010
In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile.
The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.
Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school after holiday break. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff, given the new regulations.
She would be flying into Detroit on Northwest Airlines, the same city and carrier involved in the attempted bombing on Christmas, just 10 days before. She was tense.
What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.
After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.
A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.
Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.
She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?"
Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn't looking.
She'd left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line.
Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.
Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears.
Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't.
Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.
Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.
And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall.
Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened.
A joke? You're not serious. Was he hitting on her? Was he flexing his muscle? Who at a time of heightened security and rattled nerves would play so cavalierly with a passenger's emotions?
When someone is trying to blow planes out of the sky, what is a TSA employee doing with his eyes off the ball?
When she complained to airport security, Solomon said, she was told the TSA worker had been training the staff to detect contraband. She was shocked that no one took him off the floor, she said.
"It was such a violation," the Wynnewood native told me by phone. "I'd come early. I'd done everything right. And they were kidding about it."
I ran her story past Ann Davis, regional TSA spokeswoman, who said she knew nothing to contradict the young traveler's account.
Davis said privacy law prevents her from identifying the TSA employee. The law prevents her from disclosing what sort of discipline he might have received.
"The TSA views this employee's behavior to be highly inappropriate and unprofessional," she wrote. "We can assure travelers this employee has been disciplined by TSA management at Philadelphia International Airport, and he has expressed remorse for his actions."
Maybe he's been punished enough. That Solomon's father, Jeffrey, is a Center City litigator might mean this story isn't over.
In the meantime, I think the TSA worker should spend time following passengers through the scanners, handing them their shoes. Maybe he could tie them, too.
Update: Ann Davis, the TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Daniel Rubin
at 215-854-5917 or drubin@phillynews.com.
January 21, 2010
In the tense new world of air travel, we're stripped of shoes, told not to take too much shampoo on board, frowned on if we crack a smile.
The last thing we expect is a joke from a Transportation Security Administration screener - particularly one this stupid.
Rebecca Solomon is 22 and a student at the University of Michigan, and on Jan. 5 she was flying back to school after holiday break. She made sure she arrived at Philadelphia International Airport 90 minutes before takeoff, given the new regulations.
She would be flying into Detroit on Northwest Airlines, the same city and carrier involved in the attempted bombing on Christmas, just 10 days before. She was tense.
What happened to her lasted only 20 seconds, but she says they were the longest 20 seconds of her life.
After pulling her laptop out of her carry-on bag, sliding the items through the scanning machines, and walking through a detector, she went to collect her things.
A TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him.
Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on - the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder.
She remembers his words: "Where did you get it?"
Two thoughts came to her in a jumble: A terrorist was using her to sneak bomb-detonating materials on the plane. Or a drug dealer had made her an unwitting mule, planting coke or some other trouble in her bag while she wasn't looking.
She'd left her carry-on by her feet as she handed her license and boarding pass to a security agent at the beginning of the line.
Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK.
Solomon, 5-foot-3 and traveling alone, looked up at the man in the black shirt and fought back tears.
Put yourself in her place and count out 20 seconds. Her heart pounded. She started to sweat. She panicked at having to explain something she couldn't.
Now picture her expression as the TSA employee started to smile.
Just kidding, he said. He waved the baggie. It was his.
And so she collected her things, stunned, and the tears began to fall.
Another passenger, a woman traveling to Colorado, consoled her as others who had witnessed the confrontation went about their business. Solomon and the woman walked to their gates, where each called for security and reported what had happened.
A joke? You're not serious. Was he hitting on her? Was he flexing his muscle? Who at a time of heightened security and rattled nerves would play so cavalierly with a passenger's emotions?
When someone is trying to blow planes out of the sky, what is a TSA employee doing with his eyes off the ball?
When she complained to airport security, Solomon said, she was told the TSA worker had been training the staff to detect contraband. She was shocked that no one took him off the floor, she said.
"It was such a violation," the Wynnewood native told me by phone. "I'd come early. I'd done everything right. And they were kidding about it."
I ran her story past Ann Davis, regional TSA spokeswoman, who said she knew nothing to contradict the young traveler's account.
Davis said privacy law prevents her from identifying the TSA employee. The law prevents her from disclosing what sort of discipline he might have received.
"The TSA views this employee's behavior to be highly inappropriate and unprofessional," she wrote. "We can assure travelers this employee has been disciplined by TSA management at Philadelphia International Airport, and he has expressed remorse for his actions."
Maybe he's been punished enough. That Solomon's father, Jeffrey, is a Center City litigator might mean this story isn't over.
In the meantime, I think the TSA worker should spend time following passengers through the scanners, handing them their shoes. Maybe he could tie them, too.
Update: Ann Davis, the TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact Daniel Rubin
at 215-854-5917 or drubin@phillynews.com.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Introduction To This Website
In April of 2009 I was falsely charged and arrested for misdemeanor battery by a TSA agent in Burbank, California. Although I cannot go into details on my case at this time, I can say that the case is scheduled for dismissal in October 2010.
Because of my experience I have been able to network with others that have had similar traumatic episodes at the airports. I have set up an e-mail address where abuse can be reported; it is "TSA_abuse@hotmail.com"; that's TSA, underscore for the space, abuse.
The purpose of this blog is to highlight some of these events. My intention is to create a non-governmental reporting agency where abuses can be cited. If TSA agents know that they will be reported for unprofessional and/or unethical behavior, perhaps they will spend more time doing their job rather than harrassing the passengers as they go through the screening process.
There are some commonalities I have found in many of the abuses done by TSA. A few of them include things such as:
1. Refusal to cooperate with passenger's request for name and/or badge number.
2. False allegations made by TSA agent(s). These allegations often are translated as a criminal offense.
3. Onlooking TSA agents often laugh and joke at the scene with the passenger being abused.
4. When video is requested, it has either been destroyed or the cameras were not functioning and therefore no video was made.
I personally would not hesitate to record, on my camera or cell phone, abuse that was being done and give my contact information to the individual being abused. I would not provide my personal information to the TSA agents unless they told me I legally had to. The individual being abused should definitely file a complaint with TSA even though they will probably only get a letter of apology for "the uncomfortable experience" and an expression that they will try to use the information obtained to try to improve the screening process.
There have been so many complaints about the TSA screening process and abuses by TSA agents that Rep. Darrell Issa has begun an official investigation. The letter he wrote can be seen below; simply click on the box in the top right corner with the 4 arrows and the document will be enlarged:
TSA Investigation Underway -
I have actually had a few kind and rofessional agents help me in the airport. I wish I could say that the majority of the agents were that way, but at this time I cannot. It is indeed a shame that the negative behavior of some agents can create a negative image for all agents, including the good ones...but that's just the way it is. Maybe we can actually start to have the good agents reprimand and report the bad ones. Wouldn't that be a novel idea?
Because of my experience I have been able to network with others that have had similar traumatic episodes at the airports. I have set up an e-mail address where abuse can be reported; it is "TSA_abuse@hotmail.com"; that's TSA, underscore for the space, abuse.
The purpose of this blog is to highlight some of these events. My intention is to create a non-governmental reporting agency where abuses can be cited. If TSA agents know that they will be reported for unprofessional and/or unethical behavior, perhaps they will spend more time doing their job rather than harrassing the passengers as they go through the screening process.
There are some commonalities I have found in many of the abuses done by TSA. A few of them include things such as:
1. Refusal to cooperate with passenger's request for name and/or badge number.
2. False allegations made by TSA agent(s). These allegations often are translated as a criminal offense.
3. Onlooking TSA agents often laugh and joke at the scene with the passenger being abused.
4. When video is requested, it has either been destroyed or the cameras were not functioning and therefore no video was made.
I personally would not hesitate to record, on my camera or cell phone, abuse that was being done and give my contact information to the individual being abused. I would not provide my personal information to the TSA agents unless they told me I legally had to. The individual being abused should definitely file a complaint with TSA even though they will probably only get a letter of apology for "the uncomfortable experience" and an expression that they will try to use the information obtained to try to improve the screening process.
There have been so many complaints about the TSA screening process and abuses by TSA agents that Rep. Darrell Issa has begun an official investigation. The letter he wrote can be seen below; simply click on the box in the top right corner with the 4 arrows and the document will be enlarged:
TSA Investigation Underway -
I have actually had a few kind and rofessional agents help me in the airport. I wish I could say that the majority of the agents were that way, but at this time I cannot. It is indeed a shame that the negative behavior of some agents can create a negative image for all agents, including the good ones...but that's just the way it is. Maybe we can actually start to have the good agents reprimand and report the bad ones. Wouldn't that be a novel idea?
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