TSA program helps injured service members navigate security

LA Times: TSA program helps injured service members navigate security

I left an excoriating comment.

 

If TSA has any involvement I doubt any claims to help others. TSA is out to help itself and no one else.

 

They'll beat the drums loudly to attract notice to their one good deed while continuing to sexually, molest, strip search, gate rape, and destroy the civil liberties of millions. Screw them and their one good deed.

 

I have participated in this program a few times, assisting the Wounded Warrior members and their families through check in and security. I think it is fantastic, especially since some of these folks have special needs or equipment they need help with. By knowing about it in advance, and being able to communicate directly with them ahead of time, it allows us to organize the process (airline interaction, security checkpoint and gate arrangements if needed) and help them through with as little trouble as possible.

I have also done the same with disabled folks that have communicated with us ahead of time.

Admittedly, I am from a smaller airport, and this is probably easier for us to coordinate, but I love this program and the help that it gives the folks participating.

 

Like this woman who communicated ahead of time?
TSA continues to harass passengers with medical conditions

 

I was not involved in that, and according to what I read, the TSO that sent the medicine through the x-ray after the passenger requested alternate screening was wrong. If passengers request that their meds not be x-rayed, we have a process of clearing them without the x-ray. If what is written happened as it is written, then there is no excuse to be made, it was wrong.

 

The problem is you can communicate all you want with the TSA, check the rules and regulations on their website but when you get to the airport you are at the mercy of whichever agent you come in contact with who decides which "rules" they'll follow and which "rules" they will not. And if you argue with them that you were told something different than what they want to do then you get threatened by either additional humiliating screening or told you aren't going to fly. The only thing consistent with the TSA is their inconsistencies.

 

I have yet to see any TSA agent openly admit they were EVER wrong in any instance on any particle.

Unless in a court with a judge and a whole table of evidence, but even then.....

 

Ok, the screener was wrong. How does that make it any better for the passenger?

How does it make it better to have urine from a medical appliance drained on a traveler?

How does forcing a child to remove leg braces and attempt to walk make it any better for the passenger?

You know as well as I that I could go on for pages where TSA has violated individuals and nothing TSA has done makes it better for the passengers.

I think its about time for TSA to figure out a way to train its employees, take aggressive corrective action when training fails, and make a public demonstration out of TSA employees who can't treat all people with due respect.

Sadly, I have no hopes of that happening!

 

Dude, in order to change to happen, they have to first admit they were every wrong in the first place.

 

For people who work for the Transportation (expletive deleted) Agency nothing is possible.

 

I have been wrong before, even here I have openly admitted when I was wrong on things.

 

It doesn't, but that is the only thing I can do for you or them at this point - I am not actively involved with that situation, and it did not happen under my control, so there is no active resolution I can give to them.

That situation was wrong as well according to what I have read.

That situation was wrong as well - there are protocols in place to make certain that folks wearing assistive devices of any kind, do not have to remove them - period.

Agreed.

I can find no fault in what you are saying here. Reinforce the training and hold those that do not follow it accountable - you know as well s I do, that I have been on the bandwagon for holding our workforce accountable for their lack of respect towards passengers, and I will continue to preach that sermon ad nauseum.

I wish that I could do something about your hopes, but the only thing I can do is my best to do what I can where I am (and in the interactions I have elsewhere as well).

 

Just like all of the other TSA propaganda,= bout no more child groping, old lady strip searches and the other garbage, they will say this until a video or eyewitness report of them harassing a wounded GI shows up.

Then they'll revert to the "one-off" or "additional training" excuse and go about molesting the young, old and infirm.

 

There've already been accounts of the TSA harassing wounded soldiers. They're in my Master List.

 

What you seem to have trouble understanding is that collectively you are part of these problems.

I don't think TSA as a whole has taken any actions to stop these types of events. I could be wrong but continuing events indicate that I am not.

 

Look, the simple fact of the matter is this: if TSA procedures are so onerous, cumbersome, and difficult that large groups of people need help with them, then they are, on their face, unreasonable.

Like nachtnebel says, screw you and your one good deed.

 

How many times will you fall back on the "I was not involved" or "I have no personal knowledge" excuses? Did you learn your weaseling from Boob and the blog or have you always been that way?

 

Any time I am not involved, I will not be able to accept the responsibility for that situation - the person doing something wrong is the one that should do that (and in absence of them stepping up, should be held accountable by management). If someone that worked with you robbed a bank, would you accept responsibility for their actions? I believe in holding people that do things outside of the regulations accountable, I push for it here in every case I see (and even the situations I simply hear about). Expecting someone to accept responsibility for someone elses action is a large part of many things that are wrong in the world right now (at least from my viewpoint). I hold myself accountable for my actions, and expect my management and co-workers to do so as well - when I mess up, I fess up and take my lumps for it. I would hope that the vast majority of TSA employees would do the same, but from what I read, there are some that do not follow this path.

 

Sorry, I'm not buying a word of this. The things we object to, which are violative of human decency and civil liberty in this country are not the isolated bad actions of a few, not "things outside of the regulations" as you claim. They are deliberate policies of your agency:

1. touching sex organs and buttocks and hair during opt out rubdowns
2. randomly doing the same to people who do not opt out.
3. strip searching people where backscatters are being used to render nude images of passengers
4. Forcibly feeling over the genitalia and anus and breasts with palm and fingers if an ETD swab test alarms, where this test alarms falsely 100% of the time.

These are part of your agency's procedure. They are not mistakes by isolated clerks. You can comfort yourself with the illusion that you aren't responsible for other's acts, but you are responsible for your own acts of supporting this agency and taking a paycheck from them when they do such horrible things BY PROCEDURE on YOUR fellow American citizens.