At what point does an airport search step over the line?

[Teresa]

At what point does an airport search step over the line?

How about when they start going through your checks, and the police call your husband, suspicious you were clearing out the bank account?

That's the complaint leveled by Kathy Parker, a 43-year-old Elkton, Md., woman, who was flying out of Philadelphia International Airport on Aug. 8.

She says she was heading to Charlotte, N.C., for work that Sunday night - she's a business support manager for a large bank - and was selected for a more in-depth search after she passed through the metal detectors at Gate B around 5:15 p.m.

A female Transportation Security Administration officer wanded her and patted her down, she says. Then she was walked over to where other TSA officers were searching her bags.

"Everything in my purse was out, including my wallet and my checkbook. I had two prescriptions in there. One was diet pills. This was embarrassing. A TSA officer said, 'Hey, I've always been curious about these. Do they work?'

"I was just so taken aback, I said, 'Yeah.' "

What happened next, she says, was more than embarrassing. It was infuriating.

That same screener started emptying her wallet. "He was taking out the receipts and looking at them," she said.

"I understand that TSA is tasked with strengthening national security but [it] surely does not need to know what I purchased at Kohl's or Wal-Mart," she wrote in her complaint, which she sent me last week.

She says she asked what he was looking for and he replied, "Razor blades." She wondered, "Wouldn't that have shown up on the metal detector?"

In a side pocket she had tucked a deposit slip and seven checks made out to her and her husband, worth about $8,000.

Her thought: "Oh, my God, this is none of his business."

Two Philadelphia police officers joined at least four TSA officers who had gathered around her. After conferring with the TSA screeners, one of the Philadelphia officers told her he was there because her checks were numbered sequentially, which she says they were not.

"It's an indication you've embezzled these checks," she says the police officer told her. He also told her she appeared nervous. She hadn't before that moment, she says.

She protested when the officer started to walk away with the checks. "That's my money," she remembers saying. The officer's reply? "It's not your money."

At this point she told the officers that she had a good explanation for the checks, but questioned whether she had to tell them.

"The police officer said if you don't tell me, you can tell the D.A."

So she explained that she and her husband had been on vacation, that they'd accumulated some hefty checks, and that she was headed to her bank's headquarters, where she intended to deposit them.

She gave police her husband's cell-phone number - he was at her mother's with their children and missed their call.


Read more:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/daniel_rubin/100960429.html?page=1&c=y#ixzz0yllkJ3qX

[srkruzich]

You know what i flew back to ga this past may to get some of my stuff.  When i went through tsa at wichita, i had my cpap machine with me and it was a bit dusty.  the officer looked at me and said you actually use that, i looked back at him and said what kind of dumb question was that, yeah i use it otherwise i wouldn't be taking it.  I can't stand tsa people. 

[Warph]

The new security screening device being tested by the T.S.A. has come under fire for the lack of privacy and for the intensity of the scan. The machine sees through clothing and can reveal intimate parts of a person's anatomy or undergarments.

Women at the Monroe, Louisiana airport recently contacted the F.A.A. and Department of Homeland Security after they felt sexually harrassed by the men operating the new scan machine.

The complaint said that, as they would walk through the machine, the men operating it would respond with words like "thong and full Brazilian" or "granny panties and full patch." Another worker to the side would look at and read size tags on the brassieres, responding with things like "36B and silver dollars", "32A and still padded", or
"40D with implants."

Ms. Candice Tuttlebaum of Elkmont, Oklahoma, who was "bikini and neatly trimmed" and "probably B, braless and perky" was upset by the experience. "This is invasive and violates my privacy. It's worse than when the boys used to buy those x-ray glasses from the comic books and ogle the girls when we were twelve. Those men should be fired!"

The men in question, Bubba and Leroy (last names withheld on account of they couldn't spell them) said that they were just having fun and enjoying their jobs. They did make a statement, however, that "we's we're waitin' fer some cheerleaders to come to town. When that happens, we's takin' pictures too."

aaaa.... okay.


Then there is this:


Miami FL Criminal Law: Genital jokes lead to attack; TSA worker arrested
05/07/2010 // West Palm Beach, Florida, USA // Sandra Quinlan //

Miami, FL—A Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker endured incessant humiliation after walking through one of the new high-tech security scanners at Miami International Airport (MIA). Seemingly unable to cope the repetitive workplace humor, which consisted of jokes regarding his "small genitalia," the TSA employee attacked a co-worker in the parking lot. The violent episode occurred in the MIA employee parking lot on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, according to information provided by MSNBC Miami.

TSA employee Rolando Negrin, 44, apparently walked through one of the airport's new and controversial security scanners during a training session. Upon doing so, his unidentified supervisor began to tease him. His supervisor and other co-workers continuously made fun of him with regard to his small penis.

Negrin, equipped with a police baton, reportedly followed a fellow worker into the employee parking lot after ending his shift Tuesday. He reportedly struck his unidentified co-worker on the arm and back, "then told the victim to kneel down and say 'your sorry'", the police report stated. It was fear that seemingly pushed Negrin's coworker to obey his wishes and apologize for the unappreciated humor.

Police officials arrested Negrin when he arrived to work the next day. According to the police report, "[Negron] stated he could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind." He was subsequently booked in Miami-Dade County jail for aggravated assault.

True story.

[Anmar]

well, this is what happens when you want to give up your liberty and freedom for security.  Its been going on for a long time, and the republican party pushed and supported it.  You made your bed, now lay in it.  Personally, I've been driving everywhere i need to go for the last 5-6 years, I refuse to participate in this kind of bull

[Diane Amberg]

Train works great too. None of that stuff.

[srkruzich]

well, this is what happens when you want to give up your liberty and freedom for security.  Its been going on for a long time, and the republican party pushed and supported it.  You made your bed, now lay in it.  Personally, I've been driving everywhere i need to go for the last 5-6 years, I refuse to participate in this kind of bull

Excuse me anmar, the republicans didn't do it by themselves. The democrats were 100% in agreement too.  IT WAS a kneejerk reaction that went badly.   
Thank God folks that created it implemented a sunset provision in it that requires it to be reviewed every so many years. 

[Anmar]

steve, you are absolutely correct.  I failed to point out that the democrats extended the patriot act just recently after Obama took office.  These are the things we should be talking about, not stupid arguments like birth certificates or muslims.    Issues are what matter.  As a people, we have to start looking ahead and act with a little more intelligence.  We have to hold our leaders accountable regardless of political party.   Far too many republicans and conservatives stood behind Bush while he turned his back on conservatism and his own country.  Nobody had the guts to say he was wrong, because they were all too worried about getting re-elected.  Even democrats supported him for the same reasons.

[Diane Amberg]

Slightly off subject, but I hope you all were nice enough to put your flags out today?

[srkruzich]

Slightly off subject, but I hope you all were nice enough to put your flags out today?

Mine flys every day. 

[Teresa]

As does mine.........