TSA Pat-Down Leaves Bladder Cancer Patient Humiliated, Crying & Soaked in Urine

The Blaze ^ | November 21, 2010 | Meredith Jessup

[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.”

[Gene Eric]

>> Yes, we can protest, but if we don’t show our revulsion for this by not submitting it won’t make any difference.

Quite honestly, I’m getting ‘sick and tired’ of bashing our neighbors instead of those that are responsible for this shit we’re sufferin’.

[Politicalmom]

Apparently, they’ve already “taken care of” that thread already. I get an error.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Rush: Obama groping flyers to punish them for voting GOP - ‘This is all about control...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-backroom/2629003/posts

[Smokin' Joe]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'bashing our neighbors'.

If we fail to bring significant pressure to bear on DC over this, nothing will change.

Congress has been bombarded with letters, polls, etc. showing two thirds of America was against something and passed it without even reading it.

They have shown they can ignore that, and it has cost some of them their jobs, but the new crew won't be able to do anything about this egregious crap until they are sworn in, next year.

By then, the 'new' will wear off the news stories and the networks will move on to something else while the sheep continue to get groped. For most non-flying Americans, it will become a non-issue asother things take precedence in their day-to-day lives.

Americans are a forgiving and adaptable people and the administration is counting on the perishability of our outrage in this matter, much as removing shoes and giving up penknives and embroidery scissors.

Some planes sitting idle, something the whole world would notice, something the airlines would raise unholy hell about, would be more effective than just us sitting at keyboards and bitching, writing letters and making calls to a lame duck Congress or a hostile administration, especially if anything is going to be done about this before Christmas travel begins.

[Nickname]

In reading story after story about American citizens being violated, harassed and humiliated by their government, I’m reminded of the stories of East Germany and the USSR that we used to hear about and be horrified by.

It could never happen here? It has. They just aren’t shooting at us yet.

[Myrddin]

If I can’t drive there, I won’t go...

So you haven't been to Hawaii?

BTW, I traveled to Hawaii at age 4 without a plane. A Navy ship was used to move dependents to Hawaii from a ship departing from San Francisco. The trip to San Francisco was a mix of train from San Diego to San Francisco, then bus to the pier for departure. My 5th birthday occurred on the ship. The return trip to San Diego was on a Boeing 707 when I was 6. The terminal in San Diego was still on the east side of the field then.

I've adopted the same policy. I'm driving. Piss on the TSA.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That’s what irks me. At airports I look out over the vast sea of sheep winding their way through the maze on the way to the machines and I think of the millions of wasted manhours and now the indigities and loss of personal freedoms. Inevitably, in the next moment, I always think of just one thing...the islamderthals responsible for all of this and how we lack the will to go after them.

Instead, they will be allowed to “self-check” themselves at airport security because our squeamish attitudes. Worse, the Supreme Court has handed enemy combatants over to our courts and accorded them privileges of citizenship with the well-known result last week.

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

[jonrick46]

Everyone needs to opt for the “pat down” instead of the X-ray scan. Pat downs take a lot more time than the scans. This would slow the processing of passengers to a crawl. It would create such a bottleneck in the airport that flights would be delayed and thrown off schedule. This would create such havoc that the airlines would be screaming bloody murder to get this stuff stopped.

[Smokin' Joe]

Just don’t fly. Empty planes don’t make money, and no one has to be violated.

[tutstar]

shameful ! And i just saw a video where the searched a little boy. I want to see az video of a muslim woman in traditional clothing being searched . this is garbage !

[Candor7]

From the Thread article:

“I am a good American and I want safety for all passengers as much as the next person,” Sawyer said. “But if this country is going to sacrifice treating people like human beings in the name of safety, then we have already lost the war.”

IMHO, Obama's TSA is waginng war on th people, and yes, we have indeed lost the war against terrorism and jihadism.

But according to Obama , there are no more terrorists, only enemy combatants.Why then, are the American people being treated as terrorists?

Liberal fascism and the cowardice of this so called president are now apparent for ALL the people to see as Obama's TSA wages terrorism on we the people.

THIS WILL NOT STAND!

Demand the resignaton of this POS so called president, IMMEDIATELY!!!

Obama is an unqualified usurper who has no feeling or loyalty to the people.

[central_va]

I wonder if the TSA has a DADT policy for their screeners? Or can a openly gay TSA screener do pats downs (of children, ugh)? Inquiring minds what to know....

[PIF]

This is their goal though. People will quit flying and there won't be any money for roads and bridges. There’ll be nice, shiny trains and mass transit buses to haul people around.

---

Only after they are stripped searched and scanned. The ultimate idea is to force everyone into very large urban areas and leave the former suburbs and rural areas to return to the wild.

Permit-only access corridors will connect the urban areas. Venturing outside of the corridors will be permitted only to researchers, certain NGOs, and the very wealthy political elite (to reach their vast country estates).

[PIF]

They are making people’s lives MISERABLE, and we are no safer

—
That’s the point...

[Twinkie]

Someone in my family wears a colostomy bag. If they did the same thing to him that they pulled on this man, they would be left holding their hands full of hot, wet doo-doo that they could feel through their torn rubber gloves!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I'm sure the ACLU is all over this stuff. Right? Right?

*Crickets Chirping*

I just want to be clear: I was AGAINST this stuff when President Bush was in charge post-9/11. Profiling swarthy men of middle-eastern backgrounds between the ages of 17 and 44? You betcha! Bothering the rest of us? Nope!

Where the HELL are the LibTards on this issue? We've had MORE rights taken from us in the past two years than ALL of President Bush's eight.

Such hypocrites! I heard one of them yesterday stating, "We're at WAR!" Oh. My. God. That's their argument/justification for this NOW? Yeesh!

[sthguard]

“There’ll be nice, shiny trains and mass transit buses to haul people around.”

And Comrade Zero will make them all run on time!

[RetiredArmy]

This is what you get when you have a federal government that is all powerful, answers to no one except once every four years at the election box. This is government gone nuts. We have Muzzie women who can pat themselves down and assholes with 3d grade educations patting down these people, feeling them up, doing this crap. UNTIL THE CITIZENS of this republic DEMAND better, this is the crap we get. I DON'T FLY. IF PEOPLE WOULD REFUSE TO FLY FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS, THESE ASSHOLES WOULD GET THE STINKING MESSAGE. A NATION WIDE NO FLY FOR A FEW DAYS CAMPAIGN IS WHAT IS NEEDED TO GET THESE PEOPLE'S ATTENTION!!