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TSA Pat-Down Leaves Bladder Cancer Patient Humiliated, Crying & Soaked in Urine
The Blaze ^ | November 21, 2010 | Meredith Jessup

Posted on 11/20/2010 10:53:27 PM PST by FTJM

When I went to the airport today, I was put in the uncomfortable position of a so-called “naked” full-body scan. Today’s experience was very different from the last flight I made, nearly two weeks ago; at that time I only had to go through a magnetometer. Today there was no option — it was either the full-body scan, a humiliating pat-down or no flight. All passengers flying out of Washington, DC were subjected to the new procedures. So, like confused cattle, our uneasy line of air travelers was herded through the machine.

But my experience today was nothing compared to that of Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, a 61-year-old retired special education teacher from Lansing, Michigan. Sawyer was reportedly on his way to a wedding in Orlando when his medical condition caught the special attention of security.

As a survivor of bladder cancer, Sawyer wears his pants two sizes to large to accommodate medical equipment he must now wear. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the [urostomy] bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes,” he recounted to MSNBC.

On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security checkpoint at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure,” he said. Because of his medical condition, Sawyer says he asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”

(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...


TOPICS: Government
KEYWORDS: detroit; florida; hillaryclinton; johnpistole; lansing; michigan; orlando; tsa; tsapervs; tsascanners
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To: FTJM

TSA Agents involved must be PERSONALLY indicted on EVERY conceivable charge, and Napolitano MUST be named as a co-conspirator.


201 posted on 11/21/2010 3:00:41 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: FTJM

Since the airport has the option to say yes or no to TSA presence, the airport and all of its executives must be named as defendants.


202 posted on 11/21/2010 3:01:39 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: FTJM

This S$!% has GOT to be STOPPED! The TSA flunkies, their supervisors, managers, the airports that allow them and that freak in Washington, Napolitano, MUST be the target of UNRELENTING criminal charges, lawsuits, and investigations.

Call your Congressman and DEMAND that the B!@#$ be fired!


203 posted on 11/21/2010 3:05:02 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: FTJM

Napolitano should step down for her own personal safety. If this crap goes on much longer under her regim3e, SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE is going to bust a frackin’ screw loose and go after her like a rabid dog.

I mean, not that there’s a lot of difference between Napolitano and a rabid dog, and — on further consideration — I apologize to all the ordinary, self-respecting rabid dogs around the world, but...well, you get the idea.


204 posted on 11/21/2010 3:08:01 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: FTJM

There are moments in human history where ONE person causes SO MUCH human debasement and suffering that the focus shifts to them, and they MUST either relent voluntarily or be MADE to relent by FORCE.

Napolitano now faces exactly that choice. She needs to be put “up against the wall” so to speak, and be made to choose, and I mean like MONDAY MORNING she needs to be in a press conference choosing to either relent or be frog-marched to the gallows.

And, YES, it IS that bad, and yes I AM that serious.


205 posted on 11/21/2010 3:14:50 PM PST by HKMk23 (Quit worryin' what other folks think; they don't do it all that much anyway.)
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To: ex 98C MI Dude; All

Thanks for the explanations. I can see your point.
I remember the ‘unlawful search’ thing.


206 posted on 11/21/2010 3:16:06 PM PST by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: 1000 silverlings
Are we men or mice?

Well...I like cheese. :o)

Credit to Sylvester and buds. No really, I AM concerned. I have a spinal cord stimulator installed under the skin on my right butt cheek. I cannot go through the scanners (I can't even have an MRI anymore). It will be embarrassing enough that someone will have to feel my butt to prove it. They are nuts if they think I'm going to pull my pants down to see for themselves it's under the skin. I have only flown one time since 9/11 and do not plan to again if they don't get some common sense about the whole thing!

207 posted on 11/21/2010 3:31:15 PM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to him.)
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To: FTJM

No media coverage...too busy carrying Obama’s piss in buckets.

Only Drudge and he has the boy getting strip searched; he should have both side by side.


208 posted on 11/21/2010 4:05:08 PM PST by CincyRichieRich (Keep your head up and keep moving forward!)
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To: CincyRichieRich

“No media coverage...too busy carrying Obama’s piss in buckets.”

Well said. State run media only cares about Republican rule. It isn’t fascism they hate, just Republicans.


209 posted on 11/21/2010 4:09:32 PM PST by Luke21
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To: Smokin' Joe

My comment was a generalization and I did not mean to direct my frustration at you. Sorry about that.

I completely agree DC is responsible for the state of things and needs to be held accountable. The TSA agents are, in my opinion, the scapegoats for policy that fails to meet the threshold of Constitutional legitimacy.

Excluding the opportunistic creeps employed by the TSA, I’m not sure it helps to castigate all TSA agents who are no doubt decent folks, some who may be relatives, friends, or ‘neighbors’. They’re getting a political beating for following the DC edicts. This too is a general comment regarding public outrage.

Yes, I agree that timing and conditioning are great concerns.


210 posted on 11/21/2010 4:40:16 PM PST by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

>> Our country is rapidly coming apart because those we elect have no balls anymore.

I tend to agree with that sentiment.


211 posted on 11/21/2010 4:43:03 PM PST by Gene Eric (Your Hope has been redistributed. Here's your Change.)
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To: El Gato
Their employer is not going to allow them to take the time to drive from Miami to Seattle for a business meeting.

I understand that often there is no substitute for being physically present, but I'd wager an awful lot could be conducted over video link in a pinch. At what point does an employer insist on having their employees humiliated or violated by these searches and scans, and at what point is the paycheck no longer worth it?

Talk about demeaning. It would be the equivalent of employer ordered public nudity (It's public if even only one stranger sees it) or being ordered to have your genitalia groped by a stranger. How far will people bend over for a paycheck? Is there no limit to the depredations an employer will submit their employees to?

Talk about opening a kettle of worms. If an employer ordered this done to their employees it would open them up to a host of harassment suits, but ordering them to fly and submit to this isn't actionable, somewhere?

Me, I'd softly explain why, then tender my resignation. I won't sell my soul for any paycheck, and you can't buy self-respect.

212 posted on 11/21/2010 5:53:58 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: 1000 silverlings
we flew all the time in the 70’s and 80’s

Not only flew, but in those days I wore a razor-sharp folding knife with a blade just short of three inches in a sheath on my belt and flew. It wasn't considered a problem.

Nail clippers?? Feh!

213 posted on 11/21/2010 6:10:41 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

Well you never know...when you might have to cut your seat belt off.


214 posted on 11/21/2010 6:12:24 PM PST by Osage Orange (MOLON LABE)
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To: GOPJ
Funny how the idea of 're-education' camps has become part of the American reality.

You mean like forcefully take children from their homes, not let them have contact with their families, not let them speak their native tongue, even change their mode of dress...

Nothing new here, it was done in the 1800s and later. They called them "Indian Schools".

215 posted on 11/21/2010 6:15:51 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Osage Orange
Actually, a friend died, trapped in his seat belt in an inverted vehicle for hours. He was a large and physically powerful man by any standard, and I wondered why he couldn't get out...

Hang 320 lbs in a seat belt. The contact area of the latch is between 1/3 and 1/4 of a square inch in surface area, which means the force to overcome between the contact elements is the weight multiplied by a factor of three or four, depending on that surface area--in his case, well over 1000 psi. between the contact elements of the latch...

I carry several knives distributed on my person routinely as tools and also for such a possibility, but I also have a pickup with a seat belt latch which is difficult to open under ordinary circumstances.

That is on the ground, but in an inverted piece of aircraft cabin, the same problems would apply as hanging in the belt in an inverted vehicle.

216 posted on 11/21/2010 6:51:19 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe
I have a tool...that I have in my car.

Busts windows out...and cuts seat belts.

I hear you....

217 posted on 11/21/2010 6:54:09 PM PST by Osage Orange (MOLON LABE)
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To: Osage Orange

Keep it within either arm’s reach...


218 posted on 11/21/2010 6:58:22 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Candor7
“You need to adjust your attitude and do as you are told.”
219 posted on 11/22/2010 5:03:50 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going.)
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To: GlockThe Vote

Not; not Tea Parties!

(This website does NOT allow me to post what I am REALLY thinking!)


220 posted on 11/22/2010 5:06:13 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going.)
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