Earlier this week, Rep. Sharon Cissna (D-Anchorage) had to employ alternative means to return to Juneau to participate in the Legislature, after refusing to engage in what she called an "invasive pat-down search" at the Seattle airport. On Sunday, Cissna underwent a full-body scan at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport revealing scars from surgery she underwent as part of her battle against breast cancer, apparently this was enough of a red flag that agents for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) decided to subject her to an intensive physical search.
Yes, according to the TSA mastectomy scars are an indicator that a woman is possibly transporting terrorist devices. However, after the last grope-fest Cissna refused to comply, and instead opted to return by ferry to Alaska's capitol. This form of invasion, permissible under the Homeland Security Act, has led to multiple incidents of TSA agents abusing their positions, and using their authority to inappropriately search passengers and harass innocent Americans.
Keep in mind the case of Mandi Hamlin, 37, who on February 24, 2008 was forced by TSA officials in Lubbock, Texas to remove her nipple rings using a pair of pliers behind a flimsy security screen. You heard me, TSA agents had a passenger remove her nipple rings with a pair of pliers even though they weren't a security risk. Hamlin had already passed through the large walk-through metal detectors without incident, however after an agent ran a handheld detector over her chest, her piercings were discovered. Hamlin informed the female agent she was wearing nipple rings, whereupon the TSA employee called over her male colleagues who informed Hamlin she would have to remove her jewelry in order to board the plane, and insisted upon it even after she offered to display her pierced breasts for inspection to a female agent. Several male officers then told her if she wanted to fly, the jewelry would have to go, and escorted her to a screened area where she had to remove her rings using the pliers. According to Hamlin, she overheard the male officers snickering on the other side of the screen while she took out her piercings. TSA agents then allowed her to board the flight, even though she was still wearing a belly button ring.
So, nipple rings bad, belly rings good. Interesting.
Toddlers aren't safe from the long arm of TSA either, since on November 16, 2010, three-year old Mandy Simon was subjected to a search in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Why was she searched? Because, like any young child, she started crying after her security object, a teddy bear, was put through the X-Ray machine. This caused her to act like any stressed child therefore because she couldn't walk calmly through through the upright metal scanner she was subject to a hand search. How was this accomplished? By holding her down on the floor, and forcibly conducting the pat-down. Unfortunately for TSA and fortunately for Mandy, her father was a TV reporter, and caught seventeen seconds of the ordeal on his cell phone.
Wow.
Finally, Stacy Armato, 30, was kept from making her flight to return to her family in Los Angeles, California after asking TSA agents to adhere to their own policies and procedures regarding alternative screening methods for medically necessary liquids. What was the liquid? Her own breast milk which she had pumped earlier before arriving at the Phoenix International Airport, and even had a copy of the TSA's own guidelines in hand when she went through the checkpoints to back up her request that the milk not be subjected to the X-Ray machine because of possible radiation. Yet, TSA agents refused to follow their own federal guidelines, detained Armato for over an hour, forcing her to miss her flight, and eventually discard the milk intended for her seven-month old son waiting for her back in Los Angeles. If that's not bad enough, after filing a complaint and engaging in legal action, the Transportation Security Administration eventually turned over tapes displaying Armato's ordeal, minus thirty minutes of footage, and the portion where the TSA manager demanded her personal information on a piece of paper which he kept.
All of this in the name of safety, yet after reviewing dozens of incidents like these, it's obvious that these antics have less to do with safety, and everything to do with the institution of fascism. The majority of these searches are rife with incidents of blatant sexual assault, and violation of American's constitutional rights even when they come armed with copies of TSA's own federal guidelines!
The fact that Sharon Cissna had to be patted down even after submitting to a body scan which leaves very, very little to the imagination is absolutely absurd. This sort of treatment is unnecessary, and hasn't done jack for making us safer since all one has to do is look at the incident in 2010 with the underwear bomber to figure that out. Freedom, true freedom, requires risk, and I'm sorry in the words of Benjamin Franklin -
"Those who give up safety in the name of freedom deserve neither."
This will not stop until the men and men of this great nation stand up against this breech of our constitutional rights, which state that as citizens of this country we are exempt from UNLAWFUL SEARCHES AND SEIZURES, and tell these people no more.
***
Cissna Refuses To Be Felt-Up In The Name of National Security
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/21/rep-sharon-cissna-tsa-patdown_n_825851.html?ref=fb&src=sp
Mandi Hamlin Forced To Remove Her Nipple Rings Using A Pair Of Pliers
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/682189/mandi_hamlin_our_privacy_the_tsa_and.html
Mandy Simon Searched For Crying Over Her Teddy Bear At An Airport
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=77140
Stacy Armato Denied Flight For Asking For Alternative Screening Methods for Her Breastmilk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334228/Breast-feeding-passenger-claims-harassed-TSA-wanting-pumped-milk-passed-X-ray-machine.html
What The Airport Scans REALLY Show
http://www.livescience.com/5387-airport-body-scans-reveal.html
Yes, according to the TSA mastectomy scars are an indicator that a woman is possibly transporting terrorist devices. However, after the last grope-fest Cissna refused to comply, and instead opted to return by ferry to Alaska's capitol. This form of invasion, permissible under the Homeland Security Act, has led to multiple incidents of TSA agents abusing their positions, and using their authority to inappropriately search passengers and harass innocent Americans.
Keep in mind the case of Mandi Hamlin, 37, who on February 24, 2008 was forced by TSA officials in Lubbock, Texas to remove her nipple rings using a pair of pliers behind a flimsy security screen. You heard me, TSA agents had a passenger remove her nipple rings with a pair of pliers even though they weren't a security risk. Hamlin had already passed through the large walk-through metal detectors without incident, however after an agent ran a handheld detector over her chest, her piercings were discovered. Hamlin informed the female agent she was wearing nipple rings, whereupon the TSA employee called over her male colleagues who informed Hamlin she would have to remove her jewelry in order to board the plane, and insisted upon it even after she offered to display her pierced breasts for inspection to a female agent. Several male officers then told her if she wanted to fly, the jewelry would have to go, and escorted her to a screened area where she had to remove her rings using the pliers. According to Hamlin, she overheard the male officers snickering on the other side of the screen while she took out her piercings. TSA agents then allowed her to board the flight, even though she was still wearing a belly button ring.
So, nipple rings bad, belly rings good. Interesting.
Toddlers aren't safe from the long arm of TSA either, since on November 16, 2010, three-year old Mandy Simon was subjected to a search in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Why was she searched? Because, like any young child, she started crying after her security object, a teddy bear, was put through the X-Ray machine. This caused her to act like any stressed child therefore because she couldn't walk calmly through through the upright metal scanner she was subject to a hand search. How was this accomplished? By holding her down on the floor, and forcibly conducting the pat-down. Unfortunately for TSA and fortunately for Mandy, her father was a TV reporter, and caught seventeen seconds of the ordeal on his cell phone.
Wow.
Finally, Stacy Armato, 30, was kept from making her flight to return to her family in Los Angeles, California after asking TSA agents to adhere to their own policies and procedures regarding alternative screening methods for medically necessary liquids. What was the liquid? Her own breast milk which she had pumped earlier before arriving at the Phoenix International Airport, and even had a copy of the TSA's own guidelines in hand when she went through the checkpoints to back up her request that the milk not be subjected to the X-Ray machine because of possible radiation. Yet, TSA agents refused to follow their own federal guidelines, detained Armato for over an hour, forcing her to miss her flight, and eventually discard the milk intended for her seven-month old son waiting for her back in Los Angeles. If that's not bad enough, after filing a complaint and engaging in legal action, the Transportation Security Administration eventually turned over tapes displaying Armato's ordeal, minus thirty minutes of footage, and the portion where the TSA manager demanded her personal information on a piece of paper which he kept.
The fact that Sharon Cissna had to be patted down even after submitting to a body scan which leaves very, very little to the imagination is absolutely absurd. This sort of treatment is unnecessary, and hasn't done jack for making us safer since all one has to do is look at the incident in 2010 with the underwear bomber to figure that out. Freedom, true freedom, requires risk, and I'm sorry in the words of Benjamin Franklin -
"Those who give up safety in the name of freedom deserve neither."
This will not stop until the men and men of this great nation stand up against this breech of our constitutional rights, which state that as citizens of this country we are exempt from UNLAWFUL SEARCHES AND SEIZURES, and tell these people no more.
***
Cissna Refuses To Be Felt-Up In The Name of National Security
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/21/rep-sharon-cissna-tsa-patdown_n_825851.html?ref=fb&src=sp
Mandi Hamlin Forced To Remove Her Nipple Rings Using A Pair Of Pliers
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/682189/mandi_hamlin_our_privacy_the_tsa_and.html
Mandy Simon Searched For Crying Over Her Teddy Bear At An Airport
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfmoms/detail?entry_id=77140
Stacy Armato Denied Flight For Asking For Alternative Screening Methods for Her Breastmilk
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1334228/Breast-feeding-passenger-claims-harassed-TSA-wanting-pumped-milk-passed-X-ray-machine.html
What The Airport Scans REALLY Show
http://www.livescience.com/5387-airport-body-scans-reveal.html