The TSA is back in the news again — and not in a good way — after a recent incident involving a 95-year-old wheelchair bound cancer patient.
Jean Weber was taking her mother from Florida to Michigan last week to be with her family, during what is very likely her final days. Her mother had to go through the security checkpoint in a wheelchair because she was not stable enough to walk through on her own. Naturally, the wheelchair set off an alarm, which should have been expected since it’s largely made of metal. Because of the alarm, TSA officials took the mother off alone to a secure area for a physical pat down, where they realized the mother was wearing a Depends Adult Diaper, which was also wet. And that is when the real trouble ensued.
Because the “official” TSA rule is that nothing liquid is allowed through the security checkpoint, Weber was told her mother would have to remove the adult diaper and allow them to inspect it, or else she would not be allowed to travel. The mother was only wearing the adult diaper as an undergarment, and all of her other articles of clothing were inside her already checked baggage. Left with no other recourse, Weber was forced to remove her mother’s adult diaper, show the soiled incontinent pad to TSA officials, then send her mother through security without wearing any undergarment at all for an additional screening. Once through security, Weber then had to put the soiled diaper back on her mother, for the several hour flight.
The TSA has already been under fire, after a public outcry from their over the top pat-down methods of children and the elderly during the Christmas travel season. But this new embarrassing episode involving a terminally ill elderly woman is not at all helpful to their image problem. Surprisingly, the TSA has come out to defend their actions, saying the security agents followed “proper procedure.” But that did nothing to dampen the frustration of Weber and her family regarding the incident.
“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this…” She added: “I’m not one to make waves, but dadgummit, this is wrong. People need to know. Next time it could be you.”
So THIS is what passes for the TSA supposedly providing "security" for Us…frisking AND humiliating an elderly disabled woman in a wheel chair who also happens to be weraing a WET *Depends* and groping young…VERY YOUNG…children!?!These sham systems put in place by the Bush/Cheney administration to CON the American people into a FALSE sense of security after 9/11 will continue to haunt Us for decades to come…smh.When you think of ALL the damage done to this country by those 2 cretins, one wonders……..WHY aren't the both of them in prison already????