Report: TSA apologizes for forcing boy heading to Disney to remove leg braces

Report: TSA apologizes for forcing boy heading to Disney to remove leg braces

Orlandosentinel.com< br />

The Transportation Security Administration says a developmentally delayed boy heading to Orlando for a fourth-birthday celebration at Walt Disney World should not have been forced to remove his leg braces during an airport-security screening in Philadelphia in March, a Web site is reporting.

The boy's father, Bob Thomas, is a law-enforcement officer with Camden police, according to a column on Philly.com.

(visit the link for the full news article)






[edit on 16/2/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

Wow! Welcome to the new Amerika where a 4 year old crippled boy travelling with his parents, one of which just happens to be a Police Officer are forced to remove the child’s leg braces, and the child is forced to walk on to the plane and board it without them on clearly and visibly malformed ankles.

A 4 year old boy on his way to Disney World the reputed happiest place on earth forced to endure embarrassment, humiliation and pain by the draconian security forces of what is rapidly turning into the unhappiest nation on earth.

I have to admit most people on ATS know me to be even keeled, good natured, and to take things in stride that would normally anger or upset most people, but this really angers and upsets me.

It boggles and defies the imagination that a 4 year old citizen of the United States, who is crippled and travelling with his Father who is a credentialed Camden New Jersey Police Officer, was treated in this manner.

I thought last year’s event of the TSA taking away a Congressional Medal of Honor from a retired World War II Army Air Services General who was wearing the medal on his way to a speaking engagement took the cake for egregious acts of stupidity by TSA Airport Security but this, this makes that look tame in comparison.

Is this really what we have become? A nation of people so fearful and cowardly we fear 4 year old crippled little boys and credentialed local police officers as being potential terrorists?

Anyone who really doesn’t understand that the War on Terror is being directed at the American people by the American Government really needs to wake up and get a clue; there is not one shred of humor or any justifiable excuse in government security actions like this.


www.orlandosentinel.com]Or landosentinel.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 16/2/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

Those at the TSA should be ashamed of themselves. They are acting like Nazi's now that they have the power to humiliate people. Your more likely to get struck by lightning then end up a victim of terrorism. Your more likely to see a ufo at a airport then see a terrorist.

After an alarm went off, a TSA screener said the braces had to come off and the boy had to walk on his own, the column says.

The family complied, but they remain upset. The father contacted columnist Daniel Rubin last week about the incident.

Rubin has been reporting on alleged mistreatment of travelers during TSA screenings.

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis told Rubin that said the boy should not have been told to remove his braces.

The boy should have been directed to a private screening area, where he could have been swabbed for traces of explosive materials, Rubin is reporting.

Just unbelievable, the TSA actually says that the correct thing to do was to remove the boy to a private screening area where his braces could have been swapped to detect explosive materials and tested.

A 4 year old boy, herded by a bunch of strangers, made to feel as he is a threat because he is a cripple, and the leg braces he wears every day that no doubt other children point at and make fun of in the way that children do, swapped for explosives and treated with suspicion and fear along with him?

Have we completely lost our humanity and common sense?

This I have to tell you is not America; this is not the home of the free and the brave.

I honestly don’t think George Orwell could have imagined something this perverse, intrusive and ludicrous.

This is just plain cruelty and insult to a little boy, a little crippled boy.

This is beyond shameful, and beyond wrong. This is truly beyond the pale.

Originally posted by ViperFoxBat
Those at the TSA should be ashamed of themselves. They are acting like Nazi's now that they have the power to humiliate people. Your more likely to get struck by lightning then end up a victim of terrorism. Your more likely to see a ufo at a airport then see a terrorist.

Statistically that is true. It sure makes you wonder what kind of human beings get their kicks out of taking the leg braces of a 4 year old crippled little boy away. That’s a level of sadism hard to imagine. It’s preposterous to think that the child was really viewed as a legitimate threat; his father traveling with him is a Camden City New Jersey Police Officer.

Though the article makes no mention of it chances are the Dad and the TSA got into a pissing contest over credentials and the TSA agents probably chose to humiliate him and his family out of jealousy and spite, but even still is that the kind of petty and abusive mindset Americans should have to endure on the impossible chance that a 4 year old American boy is a suicide bomber?

It’s about the most disgusting abuse of power this side of Nazi Germany I have ever read about.

Thanks for posting.

Item already noted it this threadwww.abovetopsecret.com...

Obviously there is no room for "officer discretion" when your an airport security person. I believe that this is exactly the type of personell that are hired for these positions (as well as most cops). They dont want thinking people. They want people who will follow rules and regs to the letter, with no exceptions. Black and white. It sounds like a terrible thing, poor American crippled boy, son of a New Jersey police officer. To me the guard did his or her job. If the passengers didnt like it they should have found alternate transpo. There are choices.

I don't accept their apology.

I hope the airlines are listening.

I will never fly again. Not because of this incident, but the entire sordid state of affairs of air travel.

No more for me. If I need to fly I will hire a pilot and rent a plane, charter a plane, or fly myself.

Screw you airline industry, I hope every last airline goes bankrupt.

reply to post by psyko45


Well personally I am not too thrilled about the fact that such a job exists.

Considering that there are less expensive and less intrusive ways to protect airplanes than treating people like criminals in their own nation for a service that they pay for.

Honestly things like this story make me want to resign my U.S. Citizenship.

As far as choices go, a person has a choice not to do a unconstitutional or amoral task.

You might want to ask the German Generals who swung from the noose until dead at Nurremburg about blindly following orders friend.

Probably the only reason that we are hearing about this is because the little boys father is a cop. The TSA screeners should have enough common sense to do their job without running over the people that pays their salaries or either get into another line of work.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


I sincerely wish I had a solution, but I dont. Most are to concerned with thier wallets and pocketbooks to actually stand for what is just. These days it seems to stand for true justice and freedom means to be broke and homeless. We have sacrificed our freedom for Wal-Marts and SUVs. Its truly sad. Your post is a great example of what would have been unheard of just a short time ago.

Originally posted by psyko45
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

I sincerely wish I had a solution, but I dont. Most are to concerned with thier wallets and pocketbooks to actually stand for what is just. These days it seems to stand for true justice and freedom means to be broke and homeless. We have sacrificed our freedom for Wal-Marts and SUVs. Its truly sad. Your post is a great example of what would have been unheard of just a short time ago.

Here is the reality my friend. There are no guarantees in life and if history has proven anything it’s that any one no matter how important or secured can be killed, and that anything can happen at any time. Ask the people of Haiti or a relative of JFK if you don’t believe me.

It would be far cheaper and far more effective just to put an Air Marshall on each flight and to maintain a workable and updated no fly security list than making people wait in line for hours, scanning them and prodding them, stripping them and dehumanizing them, detaining them and humiliating them.

The truth is our borders are so porous that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and thousands of tons of illegal narcotics flow unabated across them every day. Any potential foreign terrorist could get in the country so easy by land or boat and easily bring enough weapons or explosives to kill a lot more people in a shopping mall, or a sports stadium, or church than by blowing up an airplane.

The TSA has simply been turned into a cottage industry and the airports targeted as the primary place of enforcement because it’s the place that is most visible to every American to create the illusion that the War on Terror is really battling some legitimate numerical threat.

The truth is there is no legitimate numerical threat as terrorists would be streaming across our porous borders by land and blowing up schools, shopping malls, and other public places every single day.

Its just another way for the Military Industrialist Complex to make money by expanding the Security Industrial Complex and just another area and way for the government to exert control, expand it’s influence and budget, and grow itself while eliminating people’s rights and freedoms.

The truth is we don’t need that kind of incompetent protection because the reality is they aren’t protecting us at all from most of the ways a terrorist threat could be carried out, and the reality is there are no terrorists trying to carry them out.

What few arrests have been made domestically in the war on terror have been largely manufactured ones where the FBI informants recruited and grew the terrorists cells and provided them a mission to later arrest them for after supplying them with the weapons and equipment and paying them to boot!

The few people who have gotten on airplanes like the shoe and underwear bomber are clearly mentally disturbed and incompetent individuals and or patsies at best who didn’t get close to causing an incident not because the government stopped them but their own incompetence and the alertness of citizens.

I don’t know what the airplanes looked like inside that flew on 9-11 but I have to tell you every commercial airplane I have ever been on, my seat back cushion doubled as a safety and flotation device with 6 inches of foam insulation that it is a heck of a lot thicker than the blade on a pair of box cutters is long.

The War on Terror is an absolute fraud for money, control, and oil, and I am tired of seeing the American people and the rest of the world victimized by it, for pity sakes man, a 4 year old crippled boy?

Have we truly become that pathetic and derelict in our personal responsibilities and morals that we are truly prepared to live in perpetuity under such a system and state?

The reality is you don’t need a solution when there is no real problem to begin with, and the fact of the matter there is no real problem that warrants this kind of non-solution solution.




[edit on 16/2/10 by ProtoplasmicTraveler]

Originally posted by psyko45
To me the guard did his or her job. If the passengers didnt like it they should have found alternate transpo. There are choices.

Yes, there are "choices". And one is to choose to say "no" to America becoming a place where common nonsense is made to sound like serious business.

Originally posted by psyko45
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

To me the guard did his or her job. If the passengers didnt like it they should have found alternate transpo. There are choices.

I sincerely wish I had a solution, but I dont. Most are to concerned with thier wallets and pocketbooks to actually stand for what is just. These days it seems to stand for true justice and freedom means to be broke and homeless. We have sacrificed our freedom for Wal-Marts and SUVs. Its truly sad. Your post is a great example of what would have been unheard of just a short time ago.

Did I miss something Amigo ? Your first post seemed a bit antagonistic.
The second post ........... well I found it exceedingly difficult to follow your
train of thought. Wallets, true justice , freedom is broke and homeless.
surrendered our freedom for Wall Marts and SUVs ?? Care to clarify ?

My solution is dismantle DHS /TSA and allow Airlines to perform their own security
checks. Some airlines would be inclined to be more traveler friendly .
Personally I would fly the Airline that chose to assume I am not a suspect.
It is estimated that TSA costs 6 billion yearly to harass the traveling public.
Eventually this breaks down to risk, cost, benefit . Federal Air Marshal Service est. $180 Million per one life saved.
Of course they do not consider what our time may be worth. Arrive two hrs early per flight. In one case, round trip one day 4 Hrs x $160 = $640. And no, there is no other viable option. Air travel is frequently required and not a luxury.
Interesting read on the cost of all this screening nonsense.

ogma.newcastle.edu.au:8080...:2068

OOPS Try this link. hdl.handle.net...

What did they think he was a terrorist from the taliban!?! This is just unexcusable - he's a four year old with leg braces!! Those people should be fired for this. Look what everything has become- you can't even bring baby food because the government thinks it's a bomb! -they think everythings a bomb!! - things have changed so much after 9/11. Thanks alot bush!

Originally posted by MBF
Probably the only reason that we are hearing about this is because the little boys father is a cop.

Cops, just happen to file reports everyday in their jobs, so they know which hoops to jump through to get things done in regards to procedure. So he informed the TSA supervisor he'd be filing a report, documented to incident and then called the airport manager. Most people don't follow through with their complaints.

Daniel Rubin Another case of TSA overkill

Ryan was taking his first flight, to Walt Disney World, for his fourth birthday.

The boy is developmentally delayed, one of the effects of being born 16 weeks prematurely. His ankles are malformed and his legs have low muscle tone. In March he was just starting to walk.

The screener told them to take off the boy's braces.

The Thomases were dumbfounded. "I told them he can't walk without them on his own," Bob Thomas said.

"He said, 'He'll need to take them off.' "

Ryan's mother offered to walk him through the detector after they removed the braces, which are custom-made of metal and hardened plastic.

No, the screener replied. The boy had to walk on his own.

Leona Thomas said she was calm. Bob Thomas said he was starting to burn.

They complied, and Leona went first, followed by Ryan, followed by Bob, so the boy wouldn't be hurt if he fell. Ryan made it through.

By then, Bob Thomas was furious. He demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor asked what was wrong. "I told him, 'This is overkill. He's 4 years old. I don't think he's a terrorist.' "

The supervisor replied, "You know why we're doing this," Thomas said. Thomas said he told the supervisor he was going to file a report, and at that point the man turned and walked away.

Clearly more disgusting treatment from the TSA here.

As if a disabled 4 year old fits the "Terrorist" profile.

The only Terrorist here are the TSA.

[edit on 17-2-2010 by verylowfrequency]

Originally posted by NightFlyer96
What did they think he was a terrorist from the taliban!?! This is just unexcusable - he's a four year old with leg braces!! Those people should be fired for this. Look what everything has become- you can't even bring baby food because the government thinks it's a bomb! -they think everythings a bomb!! - things have changed so much after 9/11. Thanks alot bush!

The system is out of control and as much as Bush and Cheyney and company are responsibile for its origins we have to accept that it can't fly at all without we the people supporting it.

At this point it does start to fall on us for tolerating it, making excuses for it, and participating in it, as we can clearly see its harmful, dishonest and destructive nature, and the true power in this nation is supposed to emmenate from the people and not the government.

We need to change this system!

I travel a lot: from what I've observed,it's the TSA itself that is "crippled."

They keep changing the rules, the uniforms,the internal structure,and the entire "system" on a regular basis in order to supposedly "keep us on our toes/the terrorists at bay..."
What is really happening is that they are becoming more disorganized, more intimidating,and basically thugs IMO.

They keep doing the TSA Shuffle because honestly? They just don't have it right yet! The employees are NOT all the "creme de la creme" and they are disgruntled and dissatisfied as well.
I actually heard a shouting match between 3 TSA employees at LAX recently...

They aren't "there" to insure that the passengers are comfortable and safe because they aren't paid by the airlines and as we know,"our" government doesn't give a chit about any of us for the most part.

They are abrasive,intrusive,and rude and I don't understand why this is allowed. People can and should be able to 'do their job"in a civil and logical way without acting like we're all nothing but drugged- monkeys being herded back to a cage for more testing.

I am sorry for this boy and this family and sincerely hope that someone will be held accountable.

reply to post by irishchic


It sounds like a very accurate description of the TSA system, thanks for sharing your observations IrishChic.

The truth is the TSA's mission is to vague and the administration to lax, and the training for it as well as the qualifications to join the TSA are too ill thought out and poor.

In reality that the government would put such a poorly thought out and poorly controled system in place is highly suggestive that the system itself serves no real specific purpose beyond its mere existence.

I believe we have one heck of a White Elephant on our hands as a result.