If, indeed, terrorists are threatening the safety and security of the United States, why do TSA agents at every airport in the country waste vast amounts of time and money harassing obviously harmless citizens?
When I travelled a few weeks ago, I passed through security in front of a group of radical-looking young men. But the TSA agent chose me, the middle-aged mom, to subject to the naked radiation scanner while she smiled at the radicals and waved them on.
Why is there absolutely no "intelligence" in our screening processes?
Why are billions and billions of dollars and hours spent in obviously wasteful, stupid, and often harmful harassment of the least likely of suspects?
How long will this unbelievable waste of time and taxpayer dollars be tolerated, especially when America is drowning in debt and the resources are needed for real national security efforts?
Here's just one example from this week of TSA agents following their absolutely absurd "proper procedures." It happened to an 85-year-old Long Island grandmother...
From New York Daily News: "Lenore Zimmerman, who lives in Long Beach, says she was on her way to a 1 p.m. flight to Fort Lauderdale when security whisked her to a private room and took off her clothes.
'I walk with a walker — I really look like a terrorist,' she said sarcastically. 'I’m tiny. I weigh 110 pounds, 107 without clothes, and I was strip-searched.'
TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a review of closed circuit TV footage from the airport shows 'proper procedures were followed.'
But Zimmerman, whose hunched back puts her at 4-foot-11, said her ordeal began after her son, Bruce, drove her to the JetBlue terminal for the Florida flight. She lives in warm Coconut Creek during the winter.
She checked her bags, waited for a wheelchair and parted ways with her doting son — her only immediate relative.
When Zimmerman reached a security checkpoint, she asked if she could forgo the advanced image technology screening equipment, fearing it might interfere with her defibrillator.
She said she normally gets patted down. But this time, she says that two female agents escorted her to a private room and began to remove her clothes.
'I was outraged,' said Zimmerman, a retired receptionist.
As she tried to lift a lightweight walker off her lap, she says, the metal bars banged against her leg and blood trickled from a gash.
'My sock was soaked with blood,' she said....
She says the TSA agents showed no sympathy, instead pulling down her pants and asking her to raise her arms.
“Why are you doing this?” she said she asked the agents, who did not respond.
The TSA claims the footage does not show any sign of the injury.
“Our screening procedures are conducted in a manner designed to treat all passengers with dignity, respect and courtesy,” Farbstein said.
Zimmerman says a medic arrived to treat her injury. The process took so long that she missed her 1 p.m. flight and had to catch a later one.
Her son said he was shocked when his mom called around 9 p.m. that night and described what happened.
'She was put through a hell of a day,' he said.
Zimmerman, who takes blood thinners, later had a tetanus shot for fear of infection from the walker wound.
Bruce Zimmerman, 53, said he can’t understand why the agents targeted his mom.
'She looks like a sweet, little old lady,” he said. “She’s not a disruptive person or uncooperative.'”
Read more: New York Daily News
Please "like" if you believe security screening procedures should use a much more intelligent, and a far less invasive approach.
