There are things that I can understand, and then there are things that are beyond justification. This story falls in the latter category.
A young boy was going through TSA security in Salt Lake City. He processed through the metal detector without setting it off and was selected for a random screening anyway. For what reason? That’s what I would like to know. What procedure do they use when selecting who gets a random patdown? Do they just check numbers off a sheet and every fifth person gets it, regardless? I can’t imagine they leave something like that up to officer discretion. There has to be a procedure that drives it.
Here’s how it went down, according to the videographer:
The boy was shy so the TSA couldn’t complete the full pat on the young boy. The father tried several times to just hold the boys arms out for the TSA agent but i guess it didn’t end up being enough for the guy. I was about 30 ft away so i couldn’t hear their conversation if there was any. The enraged father pulled his son shirt off and gave it to the TSA agent to search, thats when this video begins.
The story doesn’t end there. Of course the TSA wasn’t cool with someone getting video of this craziness, so they tried to talk the videographer into deleting the video.
After I finished videotaping the incident I went through the check point myself. I collected my things and went over to talk to the father and son. Before I could get to them a man in a black suit who had been talking with the other TSA officials approached me. He asked to speak to me and I obliged, wondering what was to come. He then proceeded to interrogate me about why I was videotaping the “procedures of the TSA”. I told him that I had never seen such practices before on a young child and decided to record it. The man being frustrated at this point demanded to know my plans with the video, of which I didn’t respond. Repeatedly he asked me to delete the video, hoping his mere presence could intimidate me to obey, but I refused. By this point it became obvious that he felt TSA had done something wrong and that I caught it on tape.
After the interview, I left for my gate. I called my brother who told me I should put the tape on YouTube because this had been a recent hot topic in the news.
My gate was a long way off, but about 15 minutes after arriving 2 TSA agents came and sat 15 feet or so away from me. I stood up and moved so that they were in front of me and then took a picture. A 3rd and then a 4th agent came and sat down with the others. They would occasionally glance at me and talk on their walkie-talkies. I don’t know why they were there or if it was a huge coincidence but they stayed for 30-45 minutes and left just before I boarded the plan. Interesting to say the least, intimidating? Maybe a little…
As Byron York noted last week (hat tip to Cubachi), airports can opt out of TSA security, and one airport already has,.
Giving the TSA the boot is the right move. The fact they focus on young boys as terrorist targets proves it.
America is in rebellion against the police state that they inadvertently put in place with their votes for the Obama administration. This, entire situation is, after all, in place and and overseen by the order of the Obama administration. It is reactionary and misguided because the left refuses to consider the proactive method of profiling. It comes back to the old question, “why are we strip searching granny while Muhammed Ackmed Hussein Abdallah gets a free pass?” In the mind of liberal statists, the answer is simple: We don’t want Mr. Abdallah to feel discriminated against. Elections have consequences,folks. This is one of them. Choose more carefully next time.
Everybody is concentrating on the bully pushing the kid around – and the subsequent attempt by TSA to intimidate the vidographer – but nobody seems to notice the “Bully with a Badge” with her massive arms folded and the contemptuous stance – typical of TSA agents. THIS is the attitude on the part of TSA that make my blood boil.
Check it out – we tend to focus on the kid – a distraction of what is REALLY going on. Slow it down if you need to – watch the BODY LANGUAGE of ALL the TSA agents in the shot! Especially those that walk away as if they didn’t want to be associated with this action. Bully’s all!