Thursday, June 17, 2010

More TSA humiliation of the mundanes

Daniel Rubin
Philadelphia Inquirer -

Nancy Anne Phillips, a 63-year-old retired professor from Southern California, was passing through Philadelphia in April when, she says, she had one of those nightmares at the airport that give this city a bad name.

Her knees have been replaced with titanium, and a metal plate supports her back. She's used to setting off alarms.

But she's not used to the sort of screening she experienced April 5 when a Transportation Security Administration worker motioned Phillips to the side for a secondary screening. Phillips says the screener's metal-detecting wand went north of the retirees knees and brushed against her crotch.

Phillips jumped, aghast.

And when she asked for a different female screener, she says, a standoff led to her being detained for nearly two hours - until a Philadelphia police sergeant sent her on her way.

Phillips says her problem was not having metal implants; it was complaining. Because she rocked the boat, she says, she was threatened, accused, harassed, and humiliated.

"Something is very wrong at the Philadelphia airport . . .," she wrote me. "Shameful. Shame on you, Philadelphia. I'm sure this represents a small group of renegade employees of the TSA and the Philadelphia police, but they should be held accountable."

Read all of it.

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