Welcome to Shiny Badge, the blog that tracks TSA abuses.
There are many other blogs that follow airport security, the Department of Homeland Security and the nude-o-scopes, but none that specifically focus on crimes the TSA commits against the public.
And by crimes, we don’t mean theoretical offenses. We mean actual criminal charges for TSA workers and officers.
By our counts, there have been over 1 criminal charge per week for crimes committed against the public since the TSA started. They are, by far, the most corrupt government organization
The TSA checkpoint shouldn’t be the most dangerous part of a journey.
Hi and welcome to the struggle!
I’ve been tracking TSA abuse for the past few years. I’ve compiled a comprehensive document — which now stands at 75 pages — that I update regularly. A colleague has also done a list. Both are posted publicly at Travel Underground. Here’s the link:
http://www.travelunderground.org/index.php?threads/master-lists-of-tsa-abuses-crimes.317/
Welcome, Lisa. In fact we already have a link to this master list on our “blog roll.” Thanks for your encouragement.
Freedom to Travel USA is working on delivering a briefing on The Hill, hopefully in May. We are data-driven, and our presentation will focus on facts and statistics. It would be great if you would work with us to develop (and possibly deliver) statistics on TSA crime. I took a stab at it once, comparing the known crimes committed within that community (of about 60,000) to statistics generated by the FBI, normalizing for population. Hopefully you can see my email above…
I don’t know if my story is newsworthy, but I hoped to share it here, in order to add to the public voice of outrage against the TSA (an agency that appears to categorically operate without constitutional restraint or regard for personal liberty or human decency).
I recently flew through the ABQ Sunport on my way home to visit my frail grandmother. I wore a fitted knit blouse with plastic buttons down the front. TSA repeatedly told me to remove my shirt before going through the scanner, which I very politely but firmly declined to do, explaining that I wasn’t wearing a shirt underneath. I did however remove all jewelry, clear my pockets, etc, per protocol. The scanner then showed a row of small round dots down the front of my chest (quite obviously the plastic buttons on the front of the blouse- I truly can’t be the first person through the scanner wearing a buttoned shirt!). TSA again told me to remove my shirt in public, which I again refused to do, again explaining why I could not.
The TSA agent(s) then escorted me to the side of the line and forced me to undergo a pat-down by a female agent with a female supervisor. They were rather nasty about it, saying angrily (sic), “you could have just removed your shirt… you don’t have a choice about this now,” and so forth. They cursorily offered to search me in a private stall, but by then I was too scared to be alone with them and opted to remain in view of the public, where I felt marginally safer. They then VERY ROUGHLY GROPED ME ALL OVER for a PROLONGED PERIOD of time, all the while continuing to VERBALLY BERATE ME. Long before they were done, I was sobbing and shaking all over, but they did not apologize, or ask if I was alright, or offer any kindness, or quit grabbing me in private areas. I was incredibly embarrassed and felt powerless, scared, and sexually violated. I felt as if these TSA agents were on a power-trip, as the search seemed gratuitously long and aggressive (this is not my first airport pat-down, but by far my worst such experience). I had no such problems going through security during the rest of my journey, and the plastic buttons on my blouse were just fine in the Seattle scanner.
In the past, my spouse and I have both felt bullied by TSA, but this most recent occurrence was over the top and requires redress. To add context to this situation, I am a clean-cut and conservative appearing medical doctor working primarily at the VA, and my husband is US special forces (highly decorated combat veteran with multiple deployments and top level security clearance who presents his military ID when traveling). We have both passed many stringent background screenings by the US government as well as various private facilities, with blemish-free records and substantial access to information that allows us to serve our country in life-or-death situations, at great personal cost. We are not terrorists, not even a little bit.
Shame on you, TSA, for reminding us what terrorism can look like!
Most of the subcontractors construction who work in southwest airlines in LAX uses drugs. And they never get a drug screen! Starting with the supervisors. “Uct. South coast mechanical. Qd. Southland construction.