KS - Terrified four year old deemed "High Security Threat" by TSA.

[Anti Federalist]

Lesson learned, little one, about what kind of country you are going to grow up in and inherit.

I pray to God you do a better job with it than we have...

(Shameless re-post for traffic. Hat tip to shane77 for the story.)



Weeping four-year-old girl accused of carrying a gun by TSA officers after she hugged her grandmother while passing through security

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz1sxYNW9Jc

Picture of the dirty, filthy, terrorist:



Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.

And a recent incident in Wichita, Kansas has reinforced that argument, as a four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line.

The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a 'high security threat', while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down.

When asked about the overbearing treatment the girl received, a TSA spokesman did not apologise and insisted that correct procedures had been followed.

Four-year-old Isabella's horrific experience in Wichita earlier this month was recounted on Facebook by her furious mother Michelle Brademeyer.

The family was in Kansas for a wedding, and was travelling home to Montana with Ms Brademeyer's mother.

Ms Brademeyer and her two children had passed through security when the grandmother was detained after triggering an alarm on the scanners.

Isabella then, according to her mother, 'excitedly ran over to give her a hug, as children often do. They made very brief contact, no longer than a few seconds.'

The young girl was immediately detained by security agents, who apparently shouted at her that she would have to be frisked too, and refused to let her mother explain what has happening.

Ms Brademeyer wrote: 'It was implied, several times, that my mother, in their brief two-second embrace, had passed a handgun to my daughter.'

In her terror, Isabella tried to run away rather than face a full body pat-down, which unsurprisingly enraged the TSA officers further.

One officer even told the girl's mother that the airport would have to be shut down and every flight cancelled if the four-year-old did not co-operate.

They also apparently described the little girl as a 'high security threat'.

As Isabella was taken into a side room for a pat-down, accompanied by her mother, she could not stop crying and refused to let the agents touch her.

An officer repeatedly said she had 'seen a gun in a teddy bear' in the past, in an apparent attempt to justify the situation.

Ms Brademeyer continued: 'The TSO loomed over my daughter, with an angry grimace on her face, and ordered her to stop crying.

'When my scared child could not do so, two TSOs called for backup saying, "The suspect is not cooperating." The suspect, of course, being a frightened child. They treated my daughter no better than if she had been a terrorist.'

Isabella continued to cry, and officers said the family would have to leave the airport as the TSA was unable to frisk the four-year-old.

When a manager was called, he decided that the distraught Isabella could be checked alongside her mother, and let the family pass through security at last.

But their nightmare was not yet over, as on a connecting flight in Denver, an airport employee demanded to know which of the family was Isabella - and 'looked really confused' when the girl was pointed out to her.

Ms Brademeyer concluded her Facebook post by drawing attention to TSA rules against separating children from their parents, and added: 'I feel compelled to share this story in the hope that no other child will have to share in this experience.'

When The Consumerist approached the TSA for comment on the bizarre incident, a spokesman said: 'TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper current screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child.'

Last month the agency came in for criticism when a video of a three-year-old boy in wheelchair having a full pat-down and being swabbed for explosives circulated on the internet.

[newbitech]

i'm sorry, but i lol'ed at

Ms Brademeyer continued: 'The TSO loomed over my daughter, with an angry grimace on her face, and ordered her to stop crying.

'When my scared child could not do so, two TSOs called for backup saying, "The suspect is not cooperating."

Really?

[ShaneEnochs]

How do people become like this?

[Nirvikalpa]

Unbelievable. There's nothing scarier to a small child than having adults, all strangers larger than you, hovering over you and commanding you. TSA agents are not taught the proper ways to interact with children (getting down to their level by sitting on the floor or kneeling, using words they can understand, etc) based of of the experiences I have both seen and heard about.

It's incredibly sad that this little girl and other children have been subjected, and will be subject to this treatment. Have we lost all sense of shame? A little girl for God's sake, giving her grandmother a hug... harboring a gun in her teddy bear? My God.

[pcosmar]

How do people become like this?

[ShaneEnochs]

It's obvious the terrorists have won.

[Demigod]

If I could see what the TSA officer saw I would probably looking at a little green goblin running toward the gate while I scream to my long blond haired coworker to shoot her.

[jkr]

"The suspect is not cooperating."

beat them into compliance

[coastie]

Glad I haven't flown in 8 years, because I'd be dead or in jail right now for decimating some fat TSA agents for treating my daughter like that.....


Related, after I got out of boot camp in early 2002, my wife, son and I were walking through the airport, and I got "randomly selected" for a more intrusive search. I wasn't wearing any type of uniform to signify I was in the military, however, the crew cut, big build and giant military duffel bag was a dead giveaway I was to the throngs of passengers who were in an uproar that I was being treated like that right out of boot camp.

I was pretty shocked back then but made no big deal about it, the wife and I were already at each others throats by that point and my 3 yr old was also over the trip at that point so I said nothing just to get through the line faster. Now I wish I would've been more of an $#@! to them.

[Mani]

And there are still some comments blaming parents. This country is $#@!ed.

[Pericles]

And there are still some comments blaming parents. This country is $#@!ed.

For several years, the countries of Free America and Socialist America have been inhabiting the same geography. It can not continue much longer.

[Steve-in-NY]

I dont know, seems pretty simple to me...

One officer even told the girl's mother that the airport would have to be shut down and every flight cancelled if the four-year-old did not co-operate.

Answer: Ok. Do that.

[jmdrake]

Parents touching children = pedophiles, physical abuser or terrorist passing guns.

Officers of the state touching children = protecting society.

[JohnM]

When asked about the overbearing treatment the girl received, a TSA spokesman did not apologise and insisted that correct procedures had been followed.
. . . .
When The Consumerist approached the TSA for comment on the bizarre incident, a spokesman said: 'TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper current screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child.'

Ah yes, correct procedures.




The important things, of course, are that Michelle Brademeyer is aware that

1) responsibility for these procedures does not ultimately lie with the TSA employees who dealt with her daughter, or even with TSA management, but with the politicians who made the laws that were being enforced by the TSA, and that

2) there are politicians who have opposed these laws.