TSA Harasses Woman, Forces Her to Miss Flight Over Breast-Milk

. . . After begging him to figure it out, they finally let me through. I called and complained to TSA and was instructed to travel with the TSA breast milk rules printed out and present them whenever there is a problem.

As my items come through security this time, I notice immediately that I was dealing with the same people from the week before. The woman tells me right away that my milk might have to go through the x-ray, and then I tell her I printed the rules. I go to grab the rules on top of my bag and she freaks out and pushes my arm away. Another guy comes over and calls for “back up” and they put in me back in the glass cage. Standing 50 ft away are the same manager and supervisor I had dealt with the previous week.

They will stall for 20 minutes before coming over to me.

Meanwhile, one of the guys comes over to me and tells me “to be quiet if I know what’s good for me.” At the end of this portion I have been locked up for just under 10 minutes. The whole ordeal takes just under 1 hour.

. . . In this segment, the TSA manager tells me I can leave security, redistribute the milk into half full containers (his completely made-up rule) and go through security all over again if I want to avoid x-rays on the milk.

With tears continuing to stream down my face, I did that.

I also missed my flight playing along with his ridiculous game. Curiously, my second screening video (another 20 minutes) has been erased . . . .

By Stacey Armato.  Read the whole thing here.

UPDATE:  Watch the video, which is now all over the web.  They make her wait over 40 minutes in the glass prison booth, then close the security line so no other passengers come through, then take her out and search her.  What can we conclude but that they do this so no one else can witness them harassing her?

Comments

[litbrit]

Absolutely unforgivable behavior by a bunch of power-drunk morons.

In this case, I think the power-drunk b.s. stems from a healthy dose of class resentment on the part of the TSA workers, who are clearly not trained, not even as pertains to their own damned rules. This is a pregnant mother, well-educated and concerned for the health of her baby (or else she would not bother with the pumping and proper storing of breast milk and would just go with forumula), as well as well-dressed (look at all the unkempt schlubs streaming by her, unharrassed) and well-prepared (or so she thought). They smack her hand away from her own belongings (I've been there!) and sequester her in a glass box, where she gets to feel the punitive double-whammy of the humiliation of being on display and the frustration of time slipping away while her flight loads up and leaves without her.

It's almost cartoonish, isn't it? What a faithful, letter-perfect rendition of Authoritarianism Theatre: The Reckoning.

[Sir Charles]

This stuff really is getting out of control and I suspect that you have a classic case of giving authority to petty little people who can't handle the responsibility. They are incapable of exercising discretion and judgment

This is also indicative of poor leadership in the organization and bad training.

I remember coming back from a trip to San Francisco back in 1993 with my wife and she was carrying about nine bottles of frozen breast milk -- and we had a bit of a hastle, long before the current nonsense, so I can't imagine what it would be like now.

[Lisa Simeone]

In the past I traveled with a printed copy of the TSA's rules from its own website. This was before the policy of groping and assault.

Now, for this one last air trip of my life, I don't know where to stash the printed rules (not that they'll pay attention to them anyway). I can't put them on my body; they'll get found and taken. It's pointless to put them in my bag, because I'll be separated from it and not allowed to retrieve them. I can't tape them to my dress, because that will be regarded as provocation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: we DON'T have rights anymore when we fly, we DON'T have protection against unreasonable search and seizure, the 4th Amendment DOESN'T protect us at the airport, and I don't care how many people claim otherwise. As of now, we don't have these rights.

I can't keep up with all the news articles that prove my assertion. And I can't post every single one here -- well, I can, but it just becomes background noise. People are being detained at the checkpoints, and told they MUST submit to screening once they've started the process, even if they decide to forfeit their flight. The TSA itself is saying this.

In practice, we don't have rights anymore at the airport.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/sfl-airport-scans-pat-downs-refual-20101121,0,5604032.story

http://noblasters.com/post/1656164483/my-tsa-encounter-audio

http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2010/11/tsa-optout-day.php

[Don K]

My guess is we have a bunch of police-training flunk-outs who have been carrying a grudge and now at last have a chance to exercise some authoritah. And no matter what they do, their management will back them up with something about "despite the printed rules, monitoring at the checkpoint is up to the officers' discretion, and they know it.

That and a good dose of class resentment, as mentioned above. Imagine the schlubs who were hall monitors in school with the power to do way more than have you sentenced to a day's detention, like have you put on the secret list that means you'll get groped every flight for the rest of your life.

[Crissa]

What would X-rays do to breast milk? O-o