The humiliations and the abominations at the hands of the TSA just keep on coming.
From MSNBC.com Travel News:
A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.(Thomas D.) Sawyer, 61, is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his stomach. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”
I can relate to this man. Before he passed away last year, my father had two surgeries for colon cancer which left him with colostomies on two separate occasions. He was lucky enough to be eligible for two subsequent resections. In the meantime, he had to learn how to install his own bags, empty his bags, and deal with life. I also had to learn how to purchase the very specific bags he needed, the very specific seals/wafers he needed, and thence to install them over his stoma.
On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure.”Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He’d taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. “I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts,” said Sawyer, “And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn’t need to know about that.”
Completely wrong. Yes, they did need to know about that. And it just gets worse.
Before starting the enhanced pat-down procedure, a security officer did tell him what they were going to do and how they were going to it, but Sawyer said it wasn’t until they asked him to remove his sweatshirt and saw his urostomy bag that they asked any questions about his medical condition.“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”
Come on, people. Please, just come on. Can’t anyone have a molecule of common sense here? Can’t anyone see the clear and plain results of their actions? Can’t anyone foresee the obvious results of their physical actions?
The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”Humiliated, upset and wet, Sawyer said he had to walk through the airport soaked in urine, board his plane and wait until after takeoff before he could clean up.
So, in order to make his flight in a timely fashion, Mr Sawyer had to forego stopping in an airport bathroom and managed to clean himself up only after boarding the plane he had to catch? He had to run down the terminals with piss-soaked pants in public?
Let me pause a moment to collect my thoughts, because I wish not to be misinterpreted.
To TSA and allied personnel and agencies:
You should be very glad that my father, during his times of duress and challenge, wasn’t forced to fly. Had I accompanied him or, later, had I learned of his being treated in a fashion similar to Mr Sawyer, there would have been some very serious problems.
Had these actions occurred in front of me — had my father been treated like that — searched and then forced to have his seal broken and his body resultingly soaked in not just piss but shit . . .
. . . I would be writing to you now from a federal prison.
Because, on the other hand, the individual who had treated my father in a way similar to Mr Sawyer would himself be shitting out of a bag, or attempting to learn his alphabet all over again after the brain swelling subsided following the encounter.
Those of my readers who know me personally — or those readers who have been accompanying me on this blog journey for a number of years — realize that I am not kidding. Not about my father.
My father is dead now. This will never happen. I can only thank God for that.
Ladies and gentlemen, you simply cannot treat human beings like this.
You simply cannot.
BZ
Where is the ADA on this one?
Indeed. What is there to do about this?
The TSA trumps the ADA any day.
Susannah: first, thanks for taking the time to read and, further, thank you kindly for taking the time to comment. That said, there is only one real action to be taken and it will be Draconian — but Draconian is the ONLY thing our government will understand.
Stop flying.
Stop flying until REAL action is proffered. Like PROFILING. Using LOGIC and common sense to sort through those persons who are current threats and those who are NOT.
People can STILL get through various screening with fibrous, liquid and/or non-metallic objects jammed up their anus — that has already occurred.
So, TSA, how do you plan to combat THAT? And readers, how far do YOU plan to let TSA inspect you — literally?
BZ
BZ~ You’re welcome – pleasure’s mine. Wow, that’s drastic, yeah.
To lighten things up a bit, I just posted a ‘joke’ (sent to me via email) about the TSA deal. When you’re in the mood, swing by. Mean time, keep up the good work!
If everyone that plans to fly over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays didn’t, the TSA would be out of a job in January…
The Israelis and El-Al Air have tried to tell the morons at TSA, and in the White House, there is a better way, but said MORONS are NOT listening…
Money talks, keep yours in your pocket and don’t give TSA the go ahead consent nod by PAYING them to molest you…
That’s my angle, TF, but I doubt it will work. Too many people rail against logic.
Thereby guaranteeing more innocent Americans killed.
And now TSA considers exempting Muslim women from checks.
Whose America is this?
BZ
I’m there with ya BZ… this is just TOTALLY out of control!
Business people are the key here, and at my blog you discussed where this is headed, BZ…
Up to this point businesspersons have been able to justify the trouble to fly. Some percentage of them will now decide teleconferencing is easier and more efficient than all the hassle caused by going through security. Those folks are the airline’s “bread and butter”, and when those numbers tank the political pressure will be something to behold.
Pop the popcorn. I suspect when the new Congress is in position we’ll see some fun.
What I would like to know who is doing the profiling on these passengers?
Why are they choosing the elderly and the very young for the pat-downs?
They need to focus on the younger people. At this point, I would probably do the full body scan and refuse the pat-down.
It is reprehensible what they put that poor man through, and it was unnecessary and very cruel. I would file a complaint.
I used Delta last week. A business trip to Detroit. I sent them an email telling them I may fly when my employer requires it but not for my personal travel. Their response was to blame TSA. Every time, from now on, when my employer sends me, I will send a similar email to the airline(s) used for the trip.
I am serious. Unless a critical emergency, I won’t travel on an airline for personal travel. Guess I need to renew my FBO acquaintance.
Leticia: TSA will tell you this is random. And by that I mean that your grandmother could be standing directly behind the precise likeness of Mohamed Atta and SHE could be selected “at random” for a pat-down; it is this “random-ness” with which TSA is actually PROUD.
Go figure THAT one out.
WSF: I am not flying, even if there is a massively time-critical issue with the family. Since my family all resides in Fornicalia, I’ll be driving.
BZ
Figures TexassFred would blame Obama. If he did nothing he’d still blame him. Funny how our cargo is left 98% uninspected.
Figures the GOP would cash in on your loss of privacy:
During a one-minute speech on the House floor, Rep. Ted Poe (Texas) also blasted former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as a “political hack” and accused him of profiting from the proliferation of the devices. “There is no evidence these new body scanners make us more secure. But there is evidence that former Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff made money hawking these full body scanners,”
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/tags … -chertoff/
That’s funny, I mention ‘the morons in the White House’ and Deacon Blo assumes I meant Obama…
Guilty conscience there DB?
I find it hilarious that when GWB was in office all we heard from liberpukes like Blew-a-deacon was “Invasion of Privacy” over the patriot act… Now his hero’s are in control and they can stick a finger up his ass and he’s good with it… Odd huh?
Bushwack, apparently, Deacon Blo likes taking it in the ass… Just sayin’…
Ah, typical righties, can’t put forth a credible argument, just insult with obscenities. This plan was in place before Obama took office and like I said, A Bushie (Chertoff)is getting rich off of it. And now look who is wanting to privatize it! Wake up sheep.
Blew-decons; The plan was in place before Obama? WOW that’s stretching even liberpuke reasoning.
1st, didn’t your hero say he was changing all the bad stuff Bush did? So he has the option to NOT follow that plan doesn’t he…
2nd, Why would this plan be in place when GWB was in office? the only thing Bush’s time resulted in was shoe inspections. When exactly did Bush say that molestation of travelers was his next step?
3rd You gotta be the dumbest son of a bitch ever to grace the pages of BZ. Take a bow.
BZ, smacking around your liberal troll is fun but I’m growing tired. Seems that he;s too busy reading KO’s and listening to Olberdouche to see his fate. Oh well you can’t have change without a few bodies…. So long Sheep.
I never respond to trolls.
But I have to admit I enjoy how quickly they can turn and change, trying not to look like absolute idiots.
Comic relief.
We all need a little in these desperate times.
(And as an aside, Bozama’s approval rating is now at 39%. Thanks liberals!)
Bushwack — Did you notice?? Deacon Blo didn’t DENY taking it in the ass??
I didn’t want to break your confidence lap man, lol!
Let’s not forget the Former Secretary of State Michale Chertoff hawked these machines when the policy went in place during the Bush administration and he has made millions.
It’s so obvious you all are righty parrots who will bitch about anything Obama does. If he stops this, you’d be claiming he’s making us less safe.
My, my, my, deaconb…do we really want to summon Bush’s name in this controversy?? It makes one’s mind go to what the MSM would be saying/doing if this TSA @#$% were happening on Bush’s watch…
Can you just imagine the spontaneous human combustion that we’d have witnessed on MSNBC by now? The apoplexy on CNN? The morning team from the Today Show all dropping dead of anneurism while they’re trying to tell us how horrid, wicked, anti-american, Hitler-esque the Bush Admin. is for putting the TSA up to these grotesque indignities??
But it’s not Bush. It’s the Prince. And what do we hear from the list of epithets above??
Right.
* crickets *
Damn… It’s common for Blew-a-deacon to get slapped around by Fred, BZ and myself but when Susannah lays the hand across the your ass as well, you gotta be sensing your argument is a loser..
I fully expect the Deaconblower to come back and call someone a racist or bigot or whatever the Olberdouche moniker of the day is….
Well done Susannah
Thanks, BW. (I’ve had my moments…)
Btw, I just visited your blog (where you posted a rather eloquent piece that was eerily similar to my last comment — are we twins separated @ birth?); tried to leave a comment there, but got shunted to your spam folder. Just thought you oughta know.
Wow. That’s all I gotta say. Wow.
BZ
Ah, well. If you guys want to pin everything thing on Obama, go ahead. Smart people know this is residue of the The Patriot Act from the previous corrupt administration who are making millions from it.
And Obama could order that the machines not be bought, that the policies be changed and that the TSA shape up and respect the traveling public.
He does NONE of those things.
If there are millions going to the company Chertoff works for then it is because Obama wants that money to go there. He can order it stopped at any moment for the convenience of the government. That is a T4C in government contracting, btw, and it is written into every contract the government has by statute.
So what’s up with Obama funding the company Chertoff worked for? You would think he wouldn’t want to do that… strange that hasn’t happened, no?