Holiday travel stokes sex crime victims' TSA pat-down fears

[The Straight Story]

Holiday travel stokes sex crime victims' TSA pat-down fears

It was days after her pat down that Marcia reacted.

Not that the enhanced frisk at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport wasn't unsettling at the time; she had just allowed her mind to take her elsewhere as the agent patted down her breasts, groin and buttocks.

But sitting at home days later, as she made restaurant reservations for a trip to Las Vegas, Marcia snapped.

"All of a sudden, I got this wave of anxiety," the 58-year-old said. "I was feeling just fear, powerlessness. I was nauseated and I wanted to throw up, and I cried, cried for hours."

Marcia, who asked that CNN use only her first name, was molested by her uncle for almost a decade until she was 12. Her airport experience, and that of others, has advocacy groups concerned that the Transportation Security Administration's pat-down procedures could traumatize some sex crime victims.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/12/21/tsa.patdown.sex.crime.victims/index.html?hpt=C2

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

1. So the choose the microwave... I hear those lines are alot shorter.

[Mumble]

2. But then again,

anyone who has ever had a bad experience with a microwave would also be traumatized.

[LisaL]

4. What in the world does a microwave have to do with the OP story?

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. They employ the same technology

and unlike an X-Ray machine at a hospital, the airports do not have Radiologists on site to make sure the machines are calibrated correctly and working as they are supposed to do.

In addition, of all of the alphabet soup agencies that could be put in charge of regulating these machines (EPA, FDA, OSHA, you name it...) none are in charge. This is purely untrained TSA guards running the show.

[sabrina 1]

13. Anyone who has had a bad experience with living in a totalitarian

state would also be traumatized.

[pinboy3niner]

14. Joking about real trauma isn't funny. nt

[notesdev]

8. There's an idea

get your DNA scrambled instead, why didn't I think of that?

[hlthe2b]

17. Do you really think there are not sex crime victims with implants...

i.e., hip, knee, ankle replacements, rods post back surgery or any of the other myriad of internal devices that would then send them to the groping (aka "sexual assault") line after the scanners, regardless? I find this flippant attitude towards the very real trauma they may face to be repugnant.

[denem]

3. Just cut out this BS

It's a dead horse.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[2Design]

12. only a dead horse to those who chose to ignore sexual abuse

[denem]

15. You still don't get it do you?

A tabloid storm whipped up just in time for the House vote on Unemployment Benefits. Come December 1 - GOP will not pass any legislation unless Bush Tax Cuts extended, the controversy had mysteriously vanished. That's what I meant by a dead horse.

[LisaL]

16. Maybe it's you who don't get it. Think about it.

[hlthe2b]

18. It most certainly is not.... The lawsuits have not yet ended up in court

the issue has certainly not gone away just because the media has found a new "shiny object" to focus on.

[taught_me_patience]

7. Why not just go through the scanner?

"Though the TSA estimates that only 3 percent of passengers are subjected to pat downs -- and then, only after they have set off a metal detector or declined to step into a full-body scanner..."

[LisaL]

9. Maybe you should actually read the article.

[2Design]

10. because they still pull people and molest sexuall assault them and call it pat down

[taught_me_patience]

21. It's a pat down not sexual assult

To suggest otherwise is insulting to real sexual assult victims.

[MadHound]

22. If I walked up to a woman on the street

And patted her down like the TSA does, it would be called sexual assault. If a school official patted down a student in the same manner, it would be called sexual assault. But somehow because it is being carried out by the TSA, it isn't sexual assault? Not buying it, not at all.

[dana_b]

25. tell that to the woman in the article

who is a REAL sexual assault victim. it triggered memories in her and caused a great deal of anxiety and pain.

[justiceischeap]

11. Sometimes you go through the scanner and are picked from the line anyway

It's supposed to be "random" pat downs.

[pitohui]

20. well for one thing many people who go thru the scanner must be patted down anyway

agreeing to go thru the scanner is absolutely no guarantee that they won't need to do a patdown

this already happened to someone i know

the scanners basically aren't worth a happy crappy if you have any kind of implant, i don't know the nature of my friend's implant but i'm guessing it was her, erm, chest area

but i've heard the same abt knee implants, etc.

since the scanner is pretty much of no value -- there is debate whether it would have found the underwear bomber's device because of his location, at least without follow up from an "enhanced" pat down -- i don't know what to tell you

if getting a pat down causes you to have flashbacks to being molested, i'm curious to know how you get thru a doctor's exam, which for women is far more invasive

i'm not saying i don't believe the woman's claims, but i'm saying there's only so much we can do to humor people who can't ever get well, i can't protect the safety of someone too fearful to have their body touched or examined, but i can protect the safety of the majority of the population that doesn't suffer from hysteria

i'm afraid if you're truly that sensitive, maybe drive or hire a limo or something

i was a crime victim too, it doesn't mean i want to continue to be an easy victim and to expose everyone else to a higher risk

a patdown is in a lot of ways the safest way to handle some search situations, what is the alternative? because the body scanner already, provably DON'T work

[LisaL]

23. Why does TSA need to pat down people in such a manner anyway?

It's been years since 911. TSA weren't doing it. Underwear bomber was a year ago, they didn't start doing their "enhanced" pat downs until recently. We do have a constitutional amendment that should protect us from unreasonable search. What exactly makes TSA pat downs "reasonable?"

[Odin2005]

24. This shit is evil, just evil.

How do those TSA monsters sleep at night?

[woo me with science]

26. It is not wrong because of sex assault victims.

It is wrong because it is a violation of liberty, privacy, and dignity, and it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

It is wrong for EVERYONE.