“I was on the phone all the way to Orlando trying to figure out what was going on with her. It was terrifying. I don’t ever want to go through it again.”-Tami Gibbs, mother of TSA victim
Despite promises of improved, and more respectable security screenings, the Transportation Security Administration continues to behave like a bully. In one case they forced an 85 year old woman to strip, and banned a pregnant 17 year old from boarding the plane because of the design on her her purse!
“It’s my style. It’s camouflage. It has an old western gun on it…She was like, ‘This is a federal offense because it’s in the shape of a gun.’ I’m like, ‘But it’s a design on a purse. How is it a federal offense?'”-Vanessa Gibbs, banned because of purse design
Gibbs says she was told by TSA officials, in Norfolk, Virginia, she could not get on the plane with her studded purse, because it also has the image of a revolver. They claim a federal law says you can not have anything that represents weapons on an airliner. In Gibbs’ case the TSA officials called her purse a ‘replica weapon’! Doesn’t that violate our right to Freedom of Expression?
In another recent case, 85 year old Lenore Zimmerman said she was called a terrorist: “I walk with a walker. I really look like a terrorist. I am tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I am strip searched.”
The strip search took place at the JFK airport. Zimmerman says they forced her to strip search because she refused to go through scanners with her defibrillator.
She says she asked to be patted down instead, but the TSA officer refused. During the search her walker hit her leg and caused bleeding. Medics were called.
TSA officials are flat denying they strip searched her: “While we regret that the passenger feels she had an unpleasant screening experience, TSA does not include strip searches as part of our security protocols and one was not conducted in this case.”
It’s interesting that the TSA makes that claim because it seems to be a common offense reported by TSA victims.