Posted on 11/19/2010 8:35:02 AM PST by markomalley
(CBS) A flight attendant and cancer survivor said she was forced to remove and show her prosthetic breast to a TSA agent during a security pat-down.
Cathy Bossi of Charlotte, who has been a flight attendant for the past 32 years, told CBS Affiliate WBTV that in August she was asked to go through the new full-body scanners at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
As a 3-year breast cancer survivor Bossi said she didn't want the added radiation through her body, but reluctantly agreed.
"The TSA agent told me to put my ID on my back," Boss told WBTV correspondent Molly Grantham. "When I got out of there, she said because my ID was on my back, I had to go to a personal screening area."
Bossi was taken to a private room where two female Charlotte TSA agents began what she calls an "aggressive" pat-down.
Bossi said the exam halted when they got around to feeling her right breast - the one where she'd had surgery.
"She put her full hand on my breast and said, 'What is this?' Bossi recalled. "And I said, 'It's my prosthesis because I've had breast cancer.' And she said, 'Well, you'll need to show me that.'"
Bossi was asked to remove her prosthetic breast from her bra and show it to the agent.
She said she did not take down the name of the agent because of the "horrific" nature of the experience.
"It just blew my mind. I couldn't believe that somebody had done that to me,'" she told WBTV.
Bossi has since contacted the flight attendants union's Legislative Affairs Team.
She says there are better alternatives to such intrusive examinations.
"There are blowers and there are dogs that could sniff out bombs," she said. "There's no reason to have somebody's hands touching your body parts."
A TSA representative told WBTV that agents are allowed to ask to see and touch any passenger's prosthetic, but aren’t supposed to remove them. Later, the TSA contacted the station and said they would review the Bossi matter.
What about a 3rd option. Refuse the scan, refuse the pat-down but instead go through the metal detector and demand for a bomb sniffing dog to check you out instead. This would be much less intrusive and much more effective.
So if I dissent here and agree that, given the threats Muslims present and the tactics theyre constantly developing, this isnt so bad..will I get booted from the site? I mean is it beyond reason that such a prosthetic,such as this, could be used as a IED? TSA screeners are just like like any other area of employment....there are good and bad apples. This applies to the McDonalds frycook,the CPA,the local police force and the US military.Its easy to hold a light on the offenders that have become derelict or abusive with thier authority...I see alot of unfair criticism and broadbased attacks on thousands of people trying to make a living.
*shudders*
The makers of Depends could see their profits jump.
BINGO!
I'm a senior citizen, so I think I'll put on one or two pairs of those "Depends" just to go through TSA, then once I'm through security, take them off in the restroom before boarding.
If these Depends really hold water [never tried 'em], maybe I'll pour a glass of water in the outer pair. That ought to ruin TSA's day!
[Hopefully, the inner pair of Depends will keep ME dry!]
It’s my understanding that you only have TWO options—get scanned or get molested. If you choose to leave the line rather than either of these, you’re subject to government harassment, if the fellow from San Diego is any indication. They’ve opened an investigation on him, and all he did was refuse, then leave the airport.
Well, you know what they say about people who are willing to give up their freedom for what’s really an illusion of safety...They deserve, and are unlikely to get, either one.
The story of those experiments should be required reading in every school. Although it is usually described as revealing that most people go with obedience to authority rather than their own most basic moral convictions, I would say that the experiment reveals that obedience IS a basic moral conviction, or pre-moral if you will; so deeply engrained that we hardly realize it until circumstances bring it into play. Then, we discover that obedience is stronger than those enlightened convictions of which we are so proud.
He left the airport after THEY escorted him out of the security area. I think he may have a good case against them if they try to collect.
Sweeny and his duple the hapless Janet Napoitano KNOW this.
Reminds me of the metal detector scene in “Spinal Tap.”
Just came thru security at Sky Harbor Airport here in Phoenix. Took me a while to get thru .... they had a pretty Tand A agent doing the pat downs ... so I went thru 3 times
... now I’m looking for a place to have a cigarette ...
Sweeny and his dupe the hapless Janet Napoitano KNOW this.
This is in line with the theory that if you make people miserable enough they'll go along with you to save them from your abuse.
And the only way they could tell is by actually squeezing the breast, and that would be beyond intolerable for them to squeeze every single female passenger's breasts. Rememeber, the Michael Chertoff's radiation machines do not see under skin, only under clothing.
I wonder about a terrorist implanting a bomb in a woman's uterus. How can the smurfs (TSA workers) detect that? By squeezing pregant bellies? It's so absurd. I hope this issue takes down Obama and all his minions. And I'll take special joy in seeing Claire McCaskill get attacked without mercy when she's up for reelction in 2012 for calling TSA gropping "lovepats."
It's so clear that there is no machine or human that can screen every single passenger for explosives and the only solution is the Israeli system of intelligent behavior profiling.
All kidding aside ... I always wear my Vietnam veterans hat to the airport. I have never had a problem at the airport when I wear it ... I just went thru security about 20 minutes age ...I did not have to get a body scan or a pat down ... just the old metal detector. They had the body scan machines there but they were only using them on a few elderly people. I guess they don’t complain so much
At least that was supposed to be funny. This stuff is beyond the pale and people should not stand for it.
You may not get booted, but you will get lambasted.
Why the he** is it YOUR prerogative to decide that the inalienable rights recognized by the fourth amendment of the constitution no longer apply?
Why is it the TSA’s?
Let me raise my voice a bit:
INALIENABLE MEANS TSA AND ANYONE WHO DEFENDS THIS GARBAGE CAN KISS MY YOU-KNOW-WHAT.
You obviously didn't learn more about Milgram than that it happened. Milgram wasn't about electric shocks. No one in Nazi Germany got electric shocks either. Milgram was about following orders. Specifically it was about following orders that cause humiliation or harm to strangers.
I hope you didn't get any sort of degree for your studies.
ML/NJ
I can fix this. U.S. Policy should be:
1. Bomb sniffing mass spectrometers
2. Issue everybody over the age of 18 a 18” bowie knife when they board the airplane. Return it when you disembark.
3. Announce that mecca and medina will be nuked if we have a terrorist hijacking or any kind of airline attack by a muslim. We need to mean it also.
No need for further measures.
ML/NJ
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