Video Mom stands up to TSA

By now, it is becoming clear that TSA screeners know that recording is allowed at security checkpoints in airports, they just choose to tell passengers that it is not allowed with the hope that the passenger will not know any better.
No different than the routine we see from police and security guards on a daily basis.
After all, the policy has been in effect since the inception of the Transportation Security Administration in 2002 and numerous videos have surfaced where TSA screeners have been forced to acknowledge that recording at checkpoints is allowed.
And you would think that someone would mention it to them in their training considering the TSA has had the information posted on its blog in very easy-to-read language since 2009.

We don’t prohibit public, passengers or press from photographing, videotaping, or filming at screening locations. You can take pictures at our checkpoints as long as you’re not interfering with the screening process or slowing things down. We also ask that you do not film or take pictures of our monitors.​

In the above video recorded earlier this month at an airport that I didn’t see mentioned, a mother begins recording as TSA screeners attempt to frisk her daughter who is in a wheelchair.
The girl who appears to be around three is crying and saying she doesn’t want to go to Disney World, so you can imagine how scared she must have been.
The mother starts video recording and the TSA screener tells her it is illegal to record.
The mother continues recording, saying nobody is going to touch her daughter unless she records it.
The screeners eventually back down from harassing her.
But the mother was obviously intimidated from recording their faces, which is something we all must learn to do when we find ourselves in such a situation.
This is at least the third time in less than a year that a video has emerged of TSA screeners attemping to frisk children in wheelchairs.
But it is the umpteenth time they’ve tried to tell passengers that video recording is illegal.
UPDATE: Fox News has more details on the incident.

The incident happened on Feb. 9th at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.
Forck and his wife Annie, along with their three children were heading to Disney World for a family vacation. Lucy, their three-year-old, has Spina bifida and is confined to a wheelchair.
The family managed to make it through the TSA checkpoint without any problems. But as they prepared to walk to their gate, a TSA agent pulled aside Lucy for additional screening measures.
“They specifically told me that they were singling her out for this special treatment because she’s in a wheelchair,” he told Fox News. “They are specifically singling out disabled people for this special scrutiny. It’s rather offensive to me as a father of a disabled child.”
The agent said they needed to pat down Lucy and swab her wheelchair – even though both had already gone through the checkpoint.
Forck’s wife started filming the entire episode – over the objections of the TSA agent.
“You can’t do touch my daughter unless I record it,” she can be heard telling the agent.
The agent replied by telling the parents “It is illegal to do that.”​

Continue reading...

 

Truth Out: TSA Now Traumatizing Disabled Toddlers in Strollers

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But there's always been a dynamic tension between freedom and security, as Ben Franklin identified after the Constitutional Convention. And when security is overdone, it can sometimes end up somewhere between an oppressive institution and a clown show.​

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That's where 3-year-old Lucy Forck comes in.​

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Earlier this month, TSA officials at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport in St.Louis, Missouri detained 3-year-old Lucy, on her way to a family vacation in Disney World. The agents threatened the frightened little girl with an invasive pat-down. Little Lucy is confined to a wheelchair, and her mother took cell phone video of the entire traumatic experience, and put it up online for the world to see. In the video, you can clearly see a scared Lucy, and hear her mother questioning why such invasive security techniques need to be performed on a wheelchair-bound toddler.​

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But Lucy's story is just one of many tragic and unnecessary acts in America's modern security theater.​

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(read more)

 

I like that the TruthOut article remembers to put blame on the GWB administration. I don't like, though, that it forgets to also put blame on Obama and his.

Good article, though. Nice little switcharoo with the "It's only natural that...but then we went nuts."

 

Even under the Bush administration, it was a bi-partisan effort, with Democrats (esp. Tom "you-can't-professionalize-unless-you-federalize" Daschel among the staunchest proponents.

 

I never knew that all European airlines already had hardened cockpit doors or that there had been legislation proposed to harden US airlines' doors but it was dropped 'cause the airlines didn't want to spend the money. Surprise, surprise.

One learns something every day.

 

So the almighty dollar was responsible for 9/11, not Bin Laden. Wish I could find the links to those stories.

 

including some nifty insurance on the WTC.

 

John Pistole on CNN: "I empathize with this family"...
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2...-and-im-sorry-for-the-inaccurate-information/
Comments, anyone?

 

I'll bet that's part of the new friendliness training for TSA employees. They teach them about the word empathy, what it means, and then to use it a lot while they're feeling people up and tearing through their stuff and damaging their valuables. "I empathize with you... Blah blah blah... Whoops, did I break your laptop? Snicker, snicker. I really empathize with you..."

 

The only fault I have with the mom is that she answered a TSA employee's question about where they were traveling to. Any such questioning should be rebuffed.

My take on it right now is that the entry level screeners (one stripers) and Lead screeners (two stripers) will huff and puff, but when a Supervisor (three striper) or Transportation Security Manager (guy in a suit) shows up, it can magically becomes a non-issue.

"Passenger Support Specialist" turns up nothing, so Pistole is either talking out of his butt, or referencing some sort of training module for the employees under his control to snooze through.

 

It's too bad they can't teach them to actually feel/have empathy.

Of course, that'd mean they're no longer qualified to work for the TSA. Same goes for honesty, honor, and a conscience.

 

It's a Catch-22, because if they learned to have empathy they'd quit their jobs. Or at least stop doing their jobs as directed.

 

I fail to see a downside to TSA employees leaving their jobs in droves in protest.

 

A satirical piece from Popehat that fits this nicely.

WON'T ANYONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN? YES! THE TSA WILL. | Popehat‏
http://www.popehat.com/2013/02/27/memorandum-wont-anyone-think-of-the-children-yes-the-tsa-will

 

LOL: "Tell them what you think the rules are, and we'll work out the nuances later."

 

Passenger Support Specialist is a program that has been coming online nationwide. It may not be in all locations as of now, but each TSA staffed airport is supposed to have PSS members that get additional training and are designated to assist passengers with special needs or situations. It is not an actual hired position, but rather a collateral duty position. I have seen some positive results from it here, in dealing with passengers that are unfamiliar with the process or have special needs (such as handicapped passengers, and in some cases families with several children). I actually like this program, as it affords the ability for a TSO to take the extra time to communicate effectively and assist those that need it. Now if we could transfer this type of atmosphere to the checkpoint areas en masse, we would be cooking with gasoline.

 

Operative words: "supposed to have PSS members"

 

Not pinging on you directly but I see no need for these PSS employees if TSA had an effective training program, supervised its employees effectively, and had stated screening standards that we all had acess to.

I see the need for PSS as proof that TSA is a failed organization from the top down to the newest employee.

 

To say nothing of the epic silliness that is the "Behavioral Detection" nonsense.

 

http://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/03/01/tsa-hiring-freeze/1957731/

TSA is already whining and nothing has happened. Where did professionalism go where internal issues are kept private. What happened to "Adapt and Overcome", obviously a concept foreign to the nonprofessionals at TSA? Does it take a blind person to point out to TSA that if they used their manpower effectively that checkpoints would be more efficient today and even tomorrow with perhaps one or two bodies less?

To be very frank about it I am sick and tired of hearing everyone in the Obama administration crying about the sequestration that Obama signed into law. Would be refreshing to see just a tad of leadership out of the Obama camp but I know that is hoping for to much.

It's time to stop the sob stories and get government to work.