A friend of mine just got roughly patted down by TSA

[KamaAina]

ironically, she was on her way to a disabilities conference in DC! For good measure, they apparently attempted to disassemble her manual chair -- with her in it! :grr: :banghead:

As it happens, she is an attorney, so they will soon wish they had never been born, with or without our help -- but please do share any TSA horror stories and/or advice you may have.

edit: Here, for your reading pleasure, is TSA's gobbledygook for passengers with disabilities:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/index.shtm

and one from the highlight reel:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/editorial_1370.shtm#1

Ask the Security Officer for assistance (arm, hand, shoulder to lean on) until you are reunited with your device.

You're supposed to rely on one of them to help you walk?! What happens if you fall? Who's liable? :wtf:

[Xipe Totec]

1. My son had to remove a lapel button before boarding a flight

in Harlingen Texas.

The TSA claimed that the slogan on the button was too provocative.

The button read: Stop The Violence.

[ThomCat]

2. OMG, Because stopping violence is such a bad thing.

x(

I hate it when I hear about them getting authoritarian about cosmetic stuff like this. What business should it be to them what people wear?

:wtf:

[KamaAina]

3. That is an outstanding example of the nascent police state

but I am particularly interested in how it impacts Americans with disabilities.

[ThomCat]

4. I hope she can do something to change their behavior.

They have too much latitude to be as rude and invasive as they choose to be for no reason at all. And if they decide to be total assholes they can decide not to let you travel for any whim that strikes them whether it makes sense or not, so you have no choice but to jump through hoops and appease them.

We shouldn't have to appease anyone's whims and ego in order to travel. x(

[stray cat]

5. roughly?

[KamaAina]

6. That's what she said

I wasn't there. It happened 4500 miles away. That is why I feel so helpless that I must post this. :argh:

[sallylou666]

7. Hearing loss

I worry about my hearing loss with security personnel and police. I fear that they will conclude that I don't respond properly and taser me (or worse). It's especially worrisome because it's a invisible impairment. I have a hard enough time with people in public who think that I'm rude or disrespectful for not responding appropriately. I can't freaking hear them.

[KamaAina]

10. Aloha and E Komo Mai (welcome) to DU!

:hi:

Here's the TSA boilerplate for hearing disabilities:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/specialneeds/editorial_1380.shtm

[Hepburn]

11. Boy, do I identify with this.

I am hearing impaired and I usually shop and run errands with a friend who hears very well. I cannot tell you the number of times that she has turned me around and told me what a clerk has said and said the to the clerk that I did not hear what was said to me. Even then, I still get looks like there is something very odd about me or that I am stupid and not simply very hard of hearing.

Yeah, what a pain in the butt ~~ even with very good digital hearing aids.

[KamaAina]

12. So we have something in common besides just tallness!

I have a different disability:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=387&topic_id=2&mesg_id=2

but I work in the larger cross-disability movement, and I hope you will, too!

Wouldn't you know, I'm going to CA tomorrow -- but to Sac, not LA. :( Otherwise I could even teach you a little ASL (my boss, who is finally coming back from disability next week! is Deaf).

[donco6]

8. TSA = Nazis

They can do whatever they want. And you can't do/say a thing.

[MADem]

9. I was bullied, threatened, given the "stink eye" and harrassed for several years.

Not randomly. EVERY time I flew. I got good at doing a couple of things to make it easier on myself:

--Get there WAY early. I always had to "go to the counter" and could never use the kiosks to get tickets.

--Carry very little. Mail stuff ahead if need be.

--Use military ID, not license, as my identification. Ask, LOUDLY, if military ID is acceptable, knowing full well it is.

--Wait for them to start giving me shit. Turn to fellow travellers and tell them how I get this treatment all the time, every time. Smile and say "Hope it's not my voter registration that is causing this, ho, ho!"

--Watch/listen to fellow travellers gripe on my behalf along the lines of "Is this really necessary?" and "Why are they bothering military people?"

The best time of all is when I was shooting the shit with a kid just back from the 'Stan, who, lo and behold, was also on the frigging list. And get this--he was in UNIFORM. We had a good time getting "the treatment" one after the next.

I never missed an opportunity to make it a "teachable moment." It did piss me off though. I did feel like a 2nd Class Citizen. I didn't like it.

Then, miraculously, it stopped. Right before Bush left, after I raised some hell with my congressional delegation (for the third time--nothing gets done right away, I guess).

Haven't flown lately--not sure if I'm off the list for good, or they just cooled it with me for awhile.

[sallylou666]

13. Hearing aids are not a cure all

I have great digital hearing aids. They don't work if someone fails to get my attention and look directly at me when they speak, though. If someone speaks from behind me, then I'm clueless. I also can't tell from which direction a noise is coming. Hearing those speakers in stores and airports are impossible for me.

[pdxmom]

14. My husband is a below knee amputee, and, in general, our air travel

has been event-free, despite wearing a prosthesis on one leg and having an artificial knee on the other. The TSA has always been very polite and for the most part, helpful. We fully expected that he would, at least, be expected to remove his leg for inspection, but they have never required that. It adds about an extra 5 minutes to our time getting through security. We've had one incident that wasn't exactly pleasant, but it wasn't a horror story. We've always been pleasantly surprised.

[Wednesdays]

15. K&R

:kick:

[Odin2005]

16. That is fucked up!

I'm sure if I ever have an autistic sensory meltdown at the airport I'll be tasered. :eyes:

[KamaAina]

17. The odd thing is, I got jacked up at my airport the very next day

not by TSA, but by garden-variety rent-a-cops: "We saw him... he was just standing around..." What he was doing, geniuses, was waiting for the line to clear in front of the desk that they stupidly put right in front of the entrance to the waiting area, so I would have had to push right past people to get back in after taking a pee. Criminetly.

Postscript: My friend has apparently decided that living well is indeed the best revenge. She made it to her destination, and dined that night at one of the city's finest hotels. I'm the one who was ready to bust heads on her behalf, almost as though it had happened to my "little sister" (I am an only)!

edit: spelling