TSA TSA

Wake up America, and anyone considering traveling here.

Security is a beautiful thing, everyone from infants to the elderly like to feel safe and secure. It’s wonderful, it’s cozy.

Until, government get involved, and there is nothing secure about our government.

Two recent headlines from the TSA, and there have previously been a few more horror stories:

Elderly and cancer patient woman asked to remove adult diaper during TSA search

Jean Weber of Destin filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security after her 95-year-old mother was detained and extensively searched last Saturday while trying to board a plane to fly to Michigan to be with family members during the final stages of her battle with leukemia.

Her mother, who was in a wheelchair, was asked to remove an adult diaper in order to complete a pat-down search.

“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said Friday. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”

Sari Koshetz, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration in Miami, said she could not comment on specific cases to protect the privacy of those involved.

“The TSA works with passengers to resolve any security alarms in a respectful and sensitive manner,” she said.

Weber’s mother entered the airport’s security checkpoint in a wheelchair because she was not stable enough to walk through, Weber said.

Wheelchairs trigger certain protocols, including pat-downs and possible swabbing for explosives, Koshetz said.

“During any part of the process, if there is an alarm, then we have to resolve that alarm,” she said.

Weber said she did not know whether her mother had triggered an alarm during the 45 minutes they were detained.

She said her mother was first pulled aside into a glass-partitioned area and patted down. Then she was taken to another room to protect her privacy during a more extensive search, Weber said.

Weber said she sat outside the room during the search.

She said security personnel then came out and told her they would need for her mother to remove her Depends diaper because it was soiled and was impeding their search.

Weber wheeled her mother into a bathroom, removed her diaper and returned. Her mother did not have another clean diaper with her, Weber said.

Weber said she wished there were less invasive search methods for an elderly person who is unable to walk through security gates.

If you think that is correct procedure at 95 years of age, and very sick to boot, may it happen to you when it’s your turn. The words humiliation and disrespect come to mind.

The next headline:

Plea Deal In TSA Airport Screener Assault Case

The Transportation Security Administration employee charged with assaulting a coworker who taunted him about the size of his penis after his genitalia was exposed by a full-body scanner has agreed to attend anger management classes and write a letter of apology as part of a settlement of his criminal case, records show.TSA screener Rolando Negrin, 46, will also perform 50 hours of community service and make a $100 charitable donation, according to terms of a pre-trial diversion program that, if successfully completed, will result in dismissal of the felony battery case lodged against Negrin in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.

The court deal was approved by prosecutors and Hugo Osorno, the TSA coworker whom Negrin struck with a police baton while demanding an apology in a parking lot at Miami International Airport. Negrin, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, told cops that Osorno was his chief tormentor and subjected him to “psychological torture” in front of fellow employees.

During a May 2010 training session for TSA workers at the Miami airport, Negrin walked through a high-tech “whole body image” scanner. “The X-ray revealed that [Negrin] has a small penis and co-workers made fun of him on a daily basis,” cops reported.

Following his arrest, Negrin told police that he “could not take the jokes anymore and lost his mind” and assaulted Osorno, who had repeatedly asked him, “Roly, what size are you?” Negrin added that coworkers laughed off his pleas for compassion, and even abused him in front of travelers.

The disclosure that the prosecution of Negrin had been deferred came yesterday in a Circuit Court filing by state prosecutors.

These are not professionals, in fact, this is common behavior where it doesn’t belong. Travelers and citizens beware.