Monday, February 21, 2011

Alaska politician refuses highly intrusive TSA patdown. Takes ferry home instead.

From Huffington Post:

An Alaska state lawmaker is making her way back to the state Capitol after refusing a pat-down search at a Seattle airport, a spokeswoman said.

Rep. Sharon Cissna underwent a body scan as she was preparing to leave Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Sunday and was then required to undergo the pat-down by Transportation Safety Administration officials, said Michelle Scannell, her chief of staff.

Scannell said the TSA called for the pat-down because the scan showed Cissna had had a mastectomy.

The TSA, on its website, says security officers "will need to see and touch your prosthetic device, cast or support brace as part of the screening process."

Scannell, in her statement, said Cissna was ordered to submit to a "very intrusive pat-down or leave the airport." She said Cissna, who had been in Seattle for medical treatment, was scheduled to return to Alaska via ferry.

All I have to say is good for her!  I think it is way past time we started to stand up for ourselves and to stop letting fear dictate that we all be treated as if we are common criminals.. 

We ALL want to feel safe when we fly the increasing unfriendly skies, but we should also be able to retain our dignity as well, and having a cancer survivor felt up like a drunken 18 year old at a frat party in front of her fellow passengers is humiliating and unnecessary.

It may take Rep. Cissna a little longer to get back to Alaska than she had planned, but at least she comes back knowing that she stood up for herself, and the thousands of others who have been too timid to say "No, means no!"

50 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:57 PM

    I was wondering if this particular issue would come up as I am flying soon and also wear a prosthetic in my bra. I HAVE to fly, no getting around it. But the thought of someone feeling me up and having me remove it is making me quite angry. I also had a very disfiguring reconstructive breast surgery, so they're probably going to wonder "what the heck?" when they see my scan. I can go w/o the prosthetic but I'll sure get some looks! LOL!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Paisley3:00 PM

    Three cheers for standing up for basic human rights! I applaud her actions.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous3:13 PM

    I hope this is not the regular operating procedure for all women who have suffered this. Let's hope they had a justifiable reason, besides this. IF NOT then I hope this makes the MSM like wild fire!!!
    Disgusting behavior on the part of TSA.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good for her.

    I'm not sure I would have done the same.

    If I was angry enough, I might have stripped down to nothing in full public view, in front of God and everyone, then screamed as loudly as possible, "Are you satisfied now?"

    Time to stop the fascist take over of America. She did the invasive full body we can see you naked scan. That should have been quite enough. No need to humiliate us further.

    America is starting to rebel. Wisconsin is just the start. It won't take much to instigate protests in other areas of the country. The United States is a powderkeg and the Republicans are pushing too far. If they're not careful, Murdoch, Koch, Rush and Faux Noise won't be able to spin the backlash against the Republicans and any blue dogs that support them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous3:38 PM

    Thanks, Rep. Cissna. What is it going to take? For all the passengers on a flight to refuse to get on when they do this to one of their fellow travelers?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous3:40 PM

    This is outrageous. When is it going to end? What is the next thing coming down the pike we will have to endure to travel?

    Who is behind all this, trying to wreck the economy further and causing people to avoid airline travel?

    Soon we won't have any rights at all, just cattle being herded from one place to another, which includes going to our places of employment among other things. We will have no option to voice our concerns, as we have seen happening in WI. Off topic there, but think about it.

    This is just the beginning of the downfall of our country I'm afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous3:41 PM

    Can we be sure it wasn't Todd Palin pretending to be a TSA official trying to pat down women at the airport? Todd lost his job with SarahPac and does not have money to pay for his fetishes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous3:44 PM

    i had the full pat-down instead of the body scan --- opted out before all the brouhaha....

    the full pat-down is just shy of rape. seriously.

    the poor gal that had to do it stated she would use the back of her hand ??? how does that make a difference to me?

    i have no answer on how to keep our airports and airplanes safe - but the pat-downs and the full body scans are too intrusive.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous3:45 PM

    I applaud her. She has cajones!!!

    I refuse to fly since the airlines treat everyone like terrorists, even babies. Why should I give them any $$? If I can't get by driving, I don't go. Airlines suck - they lose luggage on purpose so they can sell it for profit. (it's not really lost).

    Constant delays, unprofessional staff and a source for germ contamination - that's all flying is anymore.

    I remember when the skies were friendly, back in the days when the USA was a free country.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous3:48 PM

    If she wants to fly the friendly skies, she needs to comply with the laws that make them friendly.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chenagrrl3:50 PM

    I travel frequently, and find that the TSA in the West, especially in Anchorage on flights to Fairbanks, can be real pricks about stuff like this.

    When the scans were being tested at JFK, I went through to see what the scan would think of my prosthesis. I was kept in the booth a little longer than other people, but then waved through.

    I was carrying a bag with the compression bandages I use to wrap my left arm so it doesn't swell in flight (lyphedema.) In NY, I was waved through. In Anchorage, I had to show each roll. I think it has to do with the level of training and the exposure to a variety of people.

    I am sad for Cissna. Nothing like being humiliated by a bunch of boneheads.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous3:58 PM

    I don't blame her. I'm seriously thinking about wearing a skin tight body stocking next time I fly - that'll show 'em.
    M from MD

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous4:02 PM

    There is no way a cancer survivor should submit to the radiation poisoning pornographic naked body scanners. The patdown is better, but I can empathize with the legislator. This seems to be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She should sue, just like our ex-Governor Jesse Ventura.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Blogger mlaiuppa said...

    Good for her.

    I'm not sure I would have done the same.

    If I was angry enough, I might have stripped down to nothing in full public view, in front of God and everyone, then screamed as loudly as possible, "Are you satisfied now?"

    Time to stop the fascist take over of America. She did the invasive full body we can see you naked scan. That should have been quite enough. No need to humiliate us further.

    America is starting to rebel. Wisconsin is just the start. It won't take much to instigate protests in other areas of the country. The United States is a powderkeg and the Republicans are pushing too far. If they're not careful, Murdoch, Koch, Rush and Faux Noise won't be able to spin the backlash against the Republicans and any blue dogs that support them.

    3:35 PM

    You go! I hope it is just the beginning. We need real people protesting not faux tea baggers

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous4:22 PM

    This is even worse if she was returning home from just having had the mastectomy and/or breast reconstruction surgery and was still tender or in pain, let alone reeling from the emotional trauma. I also applaud her for her actions. She has been cost an extreme amount of privacy in numerous areas of her life, embarrassment and the additional costs of the unused air fare and the cost of alternative travel. Most women won't have the ability to exercise those options.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I know a woman who was on "the list" like I was under the GWB administration so she always got a very nasty search and pat down. One day she brought a carry-on filled with nothing but sex toys. Wish I could have seen that. There are also women who are showing up to fly in swimming suits or underwear so they don't get groped as much.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous4:25 PM

    I don't wish to sound mean but more elected officials should have this same experience. They are used to special treatment and often cannot relate to what the rest of us have to put up with.

    I am sorry for her humiliation and applaud her refusal to submit to another violation of her body. Now, let's hope she brings this same passion and determination to fixing this problem.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous4:31 PM

    So she figured out in the airport at the checkpoint that she was just another litte citizen subject to pat downs.

    Wow.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous4:36 PM

    Wish you could have seen the TSA guy whining that my 82-year-old father was putting his shoes back on fast enough.

    TSA==gestapo

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous4:41 PM

    Keep your paws off my device!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous4:43 PM

    Good for her. Enough is enough.
    I know the feeling.Women, can we all stand up and say "NO" to the nosense going on.

    This makes me so angry.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tyroanee4:49 PM

    Now let's just say a man with with one enlarge testicle were to board....or well endowed, good god what have we come to when the men hiding in caves are giggling at this ridiculous display of over governing. Personally I don't feel any safer...9-11 is over, learn, and move on. And damnit I want my toenail clippers back!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Tyroanee4:50 PM

    Now let's just say a man with with one enlarge prostrate were to board....or well endowed, good god what have we come to when the men hiding in caves are giggling at this ridiculous display of over governing. Personally I don't feel any safer...9-11 is over, learn, and move on. And damnit I want my toenail clippers back!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous4:51 PM

    Rep Cissna was treated differently from others. If you are selected for secondary screening, TSA usually won't release you until you are screened, even if it's to leave the airport and not fly. Checking women's prosthetic breasts is despicable harassment.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous4:52 PM

    "I hope this is not the regular operating procedure for all women who have suffered this."

    It's standard TSA procedure. Show your prosthetic or you no fly.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous5:23 PM

    O/T

    Holy TAKEDOWN!!!

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/
    41709939#41709939

    Tonight's "The Last Word" from Lawrence McDonnell

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous5:56 PM

    I refused the x-ray scan in late November and got patted down by a very professional female TSA agent. I had been patted down before when I had been scheduled to fly to the Middle East on a plane that ultimately was hijacked and passengers murdered. I was fortunate enough to have changed my flight to the following day. Needless to say, airport security in Cairo was a little on edge the day after the hijacking!

    Being patted down was no big deal. However, the whole idea is distasteful enough that if I lived anywhere else but Alaska, I'd take a train, bus, or boat instead. If I'd had a mastectomy I would find it extremely invasive for someone to inspect my prosthesis.

    Personally, I hope that this leads to people only flying when necessary. Jets are terribly bad for the environment, and it's an incredible waste of our planet's resources for business travelers to fly on a weekly or daily basis.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous6:10 PM

    news flash: a "very intrusive pat-down" is EXACTLY what every airline passenger gets. There are no "only a little tiny bit intrusive" pat-downs.

    ReplyDelete
  29. People are not in control of our country, fear is.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous6:23 PM

    I am very sorry that Sharon had such a bad experience at airport security.

    However, I am sure that Sharon would agree that the real issue is not patdowns, but the push to use Michael Chertoff's full body scanners. Get real people, this is not about security, it is about the money. THe people after the money only know one way to get there - control through fear and intimindation.

    A solution to part of the issue is not rocket science: why shouldn't any cancer survivor with a prosthesis be given a card stating such so that they are not forced this sort of humiliation?

    Is it real that hard? F--k no.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous6:44 PM

    My sympathies to Sharon for her ordeal. I applaud her decison to take alternative travel.

    But I am confident that Sharon would agree that the issue is not airport security, but they manner in which it is being administered.

    The goal is not security, but power...and of course the MOSt important thing .. $$$$.

    Private enterprise would "do a much better job with security ... espcialy all of these offensive body pat downs ... because they represent FREE ENTERPRISE".

    BS ...

    Giving airport security to private enterprise would raise the cost ( check the cost by outsourcing government operatons) increase the risk of sexual assualt (lack of background screning) and lack of security (no screening of employees.)

    Simple solution: People with prosthesis limbs or body parts should be issued special ID for airport security.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous7:17 PM

    Blame Bush and Cheney. Should have protested then. No help doing it now. We in the US really DO have enemies. More so under the regime of the two mentioned above. We have enemies because we did so many underhanded things to other countries. I am not saying I agree, but it is necessary. This is NOT the America of 1990. We ARE in a state where we need to be cautious of attacks.
    This is the price we pay for the stupidity we elect to this country.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I've known Sharon since she was 15. I worked for her big brother, Bob. She's our best legislator on health care issues, and works really hard.

    The only reason we have to put up with these machines is because the owners - including ex-Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff - are big Obama contributors. Chertoff makes millions and millions off these x-ray machines and other phony war on terror crap.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous7:46 PM

    I agree, right on.
    i know their is no way i could let them grope me.
    i gave up flying yrs ago; have had one flight out of neccessity prior to the grope downs.

    it was hard enough knowing i had to nearly disrobe at DIA
    while being treated like cattle 3mins late to checkin couldnt board, then spending 14hrs waiting for the next flight.

    flying in the US sucks major.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous8:09 PM

    I support the actions taken by Rep. Sharon Cissna. This is an outrageous policy of the TSA.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hooray for her. I hope she had a nice relaxing time coming home on the ferry. She probably got more paperwork done than if she had taken the plane.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Anonymous8:46 PM

    If cockpits weren't accessible from the cabin, there would be no need for this nonsense. I've given up flying too. I could care less if every airline went bankrupt. They didn't have the balls to stick up for their passengers.

    This is just another way to milk the public. It's no way to fight a war on terror.

    Rick

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous8:54 PM

    So chalk up one more person that hates the TSA patdown policy. It's a pretty darn big club already.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous9:12 PM

    I can't stand up enough to do a full body scan. In any case, I also have a hip replacement. Those circumstances would require the grope/"patdown". I am also the survivor of long term child sex abuse promoted by my parents. Flying for me would feel like being violated all over again and in spades, now by the government.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Pursang9:23 PM

    All of this because the corrupt and inept Bush administration didn't do a damn thing after being warned of the possible attacks by bin Laden.

    Not to mention people like Chertoff who own a significant amount of the company that makes these scanners and you can clearly see what a scam all of this is.

    We're no safer than we were on 9/11and you could argue we're actually less safe because what's been put in place aren't worth a damn, it's all smoke and mirrors.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Anonymous11:05 PM

    I had two VERY invasive patdowns shortly after 9/11. Profiled? Ya betcha. Dark-haired female traveling alone - got the full dehumanizing treatment in Seattle and Anchorage - these a**holes even took my money out of my wallet and counted it right before I got on the airplane. One of the TSA thugs followed me all the way to the boarding area - and even waited for me outside the restroom. Unbelievable but true.

    The airlines feel they have no choice but comply with the TSA (Gestapo). But if they start losing mega $$$ because of it, believe me, they WILL start speaking up.

    Rep. Cissna's story should be on ALL the major TV networks. But the media is just another arm of the government itself. So, in the meantime, I will only fly in an emergency which is unfortunate because when you live in Alaska, commercial aviation is like taking the bus for public transportation.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Anonymous11:27 PM

    Hooray for Cissna.

    Thanks, 5:23, for the Last Word link. I needed that!

    ReplyDelete
  43. FloridaDem2:29 AM

    A regular passenger would have been arrested. You don't have a option to leave. So she got special treatment.

    It's one thing to have a regular pat-down. But how did we go from a pat-down as we've all seen on TV by cops on the street, and pat-downs other countries use, to sexual assault? Really, how? And why is this not unconstitutional as unreasonable search and seizure?

    When you're arrested and go to jail, you give up your right to privacy. You get an intrusive exam, you take off your clothes. We are not being arrested. We are flying on a plane. We have forfeited none of our rights. So why are they able to feel between your legs, feel your breasts, and make you disrobe? I still don't understand this even today.

    The law is not even applied equally. Why is it applied only to commercial airliners, which only the general public use? Why not all aircraft? Why isn't the TSA standing between Sarah Palin or Rush Limbaugh and their private planes? It's just as damaging to slam a private jet into the whitehouse as it is a commercial airliner, isn't it? In fact, it would be worse, because they could load a private plane up with explosives, they don't have to sneak anything on.

    When Bank of America executives, lawmakers, judges, attorneys, AND their children, start receiving this treatment, it will stop.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Jim In Texas4:51 AM

    Great outpouring of rage, folks. Now how about offering some rational suggestions for fixing the issues raised. You - correctly - complain about S. Snooki constantly attacking without ever offering solutions. I - correctly - call you out for the same reason on this entire post and comments. The only thing I see here so far is: "don't fly". Not practical for most of us.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Anonymous5:00 AM

    To avoid this insult to injury, woman across the world shoudldemand some medical letter that states they have a prosthetic breast. We need to lobby for that. Do men with prosthetic testes get the same treatment??? As soon as one does you can rest assured this shit will stop.
    Seattle airport confiscated by 83 year old mother in law's jar of homemade jam. WTF?? Was she gonna put the pilot in a sugar coma? Make a bomb with it? It is fing ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Anonymous5:39 AM

    You know, I wear a prosthetic breat. don't travel much however, if some in TSA was bound to do a personal pat down,think I'd just take the breast out and hand it to him. Right there in front of everyone. Wonder just who, would feel insulted then.
    Did that at a family gathering,where I knew the men were wondering,handed it to one and he still gets red in the face when that monment is mentioned. end of sly comments, I can tell you.

    ReplyDelete
  47. Anonymous6:18 AM

    Seattle is the worst airport in the country as it pertains to TSA. They are a$$wipes. I call them fascists. They are on a powertrip of immense proportions. You should see the long lines and checks and re-checks. I am a frequent flier (that refuses to get the fast-track TSA pass you can get if you apply for it and are willing to give out who-knows-what-kind-of-private-info+biometric data), and Seattle simply takes the cake. I HATE it!
    Also, when you come back and happen to have checked baggage - count for another hour or so to get it finally back!

    ReplyDelete
  48. Lynne8:21 AM

    When all this began, I decided car, bus, train, and very definitely the ferry, would be my only methods of transportation from here on. Reading about this disgusting invasion of privacy merely reaffirms my decision. I can't remember when I was last on a plane, and I intend to keep it that way.

    And, Rep. Cissna, that's the way a "real" strong Alaska woman stands up for what's right! You make me proud.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Anonymous9:16 AM

    I still can't believe Cissna thought she was special. What kind of mind lives in that sort of fantasy.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Anonymous9:29 AM

    Now I realize Cissna is "special". Does the TSA ever tell me WHY I got selected for patdown? Absolutely NEVER does TSA offer any explanation about their choices. TSA just tells me my choices - take the patdown or leave the security area UNDER escort and do NOT attempt to get on that flight again.

    Cissna got more than the general public does. Wonder why.

    ReplyDelete

Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.