More TSA madness: Crippled boy, son of cop, harassed

rbell · Feb 16, 2010

Why am I not surprised?

SOURCE

Synopsis: Camden, NJ cop Bob Thomas has a 4 year-old son who can't walk on his own without leg braces. The following describes their encounter with a TSA genius at Philly's airport (which isn't exactly the epicenter of good customer service anyway, IMHO).

Here's the play-by-play:

Mid-morning on March 19, his parents wheeled his stroller to the TSA security point, a couple of hours before their Southwest Airlines flight was to depart. The boy's father broke down the stroller and put it on the conveyor belt as Leona Thomas walked Ryan through the metal detector.
The alarm went off.

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.
They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn't be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.
By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong.
"I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "
The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said.
Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.
Click to expand...

Several years ago, Tom Daschle, when pushing for this TSA train wreck, made the statement, "You don't professionalize until you federalize." So, we managed to get federal government employees (higher rates of incompetence), who are largely unionized (untouchable if things go wrong, and not exactly known for work ethic), to be in charge of our safety on airliners. Then, on top of all that, the customer has no rights when mistreatment occurs; in fact, complaining might get a black mark that the taxpayer/traveller (who supposedly has "rights" in this system) doesn't want or can't afford.

And people wonder why we still have security lapses...

For those of you (like me) who have a "real job" (one that actually depends on your performance), imagine if you were to mistreat someone as this TSA genius did to this child--I'd be out on my ear yesterday.

pinoybaptist · Feb 16, 2010

disgusting.
maybe some of the requirements to be a TSA agent is cold-heartedness, cruelty, sexual and emotional abuse as a child ?

Mexdeaf · Feb 16, 2010

People like that deserve to be forced to wear leg braces for the rest of their lives. GRRR!

More TSA madness: Crippled boy, son of cop, harassed

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