Posted on 12/02/2011 10:34:03 PM PST by GreaterSwiss
says she plans to sue the TSA after a humiliating strip search on Tuesday by agents at JFK Airport.
Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes.
“I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,” she said sarcastically. “I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.”
TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the airport shows “proper procedures were followed.”
But Zimmerman, whose hunched back puts her at 4-foot-11, said her ordeal began after her son, Bruce, drove her to the JetBlue terminal for the Florida flight. She lives in warm Coconut Creek during the winter.
She checked her bags, waited for a wheelchair and parted ways with her doting son — her only immediate relative.
When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.
She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and began to remove her clothes.
“I was outraged,” said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.
As she tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap, she says, the metal bars banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash.
“My sock was soaked with blood,” she said. “I was bleeding like a pig.”
She says the TSA agents showed no sympathy, instead pulling down her pants and asking her to raise her arms.
“Why are you doing this?” she said she asked the agents, who did not respond.
The TSA claims the footage does not show any sign of the injury.
“Our screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy,” Farbstein said.
Zimmerman says a medic arrived to treat her injury. The process took so long that she missed her 1 p.m. flight and had to catch a later one.
Her son said he was shocked when his mom called around 9 p.m. that night and described what happened.
“She was put through a hell of a day,” he said.
Zimmerman, who takes blood thinners, later had a tetanus shot for fear of infection from the walker wound.
Bruce Zimmerman, 53, said he can’t understand why the agents targeted his mom.
“She looks like a sweet, little old lady,” he said. “She’s not a disruptive person or uncooperative.”
nhirshon@nydailyn
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/lenore-zimmerman-85-hurt-strip-search-tsa-agents-jfk-airport-article-1.986198#ixzz1fRyYOOwe
I still fly as a consultant about once a month and have never had a problem with them. Get your inspection and move on.
My only complaint is some of these idiots do have a smirky ass attitude.
Just being a follower or convert to Islam does not a terrorist make.
Why so hostile? You think this was a good idea then?
“Just being a follower or convert to Islam does not a terrorist make.”
No, but it’s a good start. What I meant to convey was that not all Muslims are going to look like Middle Easterners. They have blue-eyed blond Muslims in Albania/former Yugoslavia, and the odd Californian in the States. The terrorists we’re worried about the most now are those willing to die to make their point. A hijacker taking over a plane is passe’. You have to worry about a suicide bomber with a couple pounds of C4 carried internally.
“Why so hostile? You think this was a good idea then?”
Didn’t mean to sound hostile, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be called a jackboot-licker soon. “Good idea” is relative. If you can’t profile by appearances, then everyone is a suspect. Short of very invasive searches or very good explosive dectection technology, you’re just pissing in the wind.
Yep. Dogs should be outside, and inside. They do excellent work.
You are right. And the terrorists will opt for private aircraft as well.
Honestly, they are going to strike in places we are not looking, with very little oversight.
Who are you stuck next to in traffic? Check it out.
If you have to undergo a pat-down on a damned ferry in NYC, Achmed has won.....period.
That's what terrorism is all about - Achmed has won.
I’m of English/Irish/Scotch descent myself, so I feel free to pick on them.
I was able to follow only 1 branch of the family tree back to the 1700’s and found some scotty’s in there.
Went to the Mormon site for genealogy on my mother side, listed dates of birth, death, where buried (if known) who they married etc...one ancestor was buried Atlantic Ocean. I guess they died crossing the ocean....
I guess you still think it is OK to feel up old white women, you dog.
Which TSA regulation allows for recording the private screening area?
-PJ
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