I hate the TSA. HATE. My disdain for the tax-payer funded, blue-gloved, theater players has been well documented throughout the years.
This though… this is a new low.
Last summer, 19-year old Hannah was headed home from her last brain tumor treatment when she set off a metal detector at a TSA security checkpoint in Memphis. What should have been a celebration resulted in a night in jail.
Her parents have filed suit.
WREG reports:
It’s a trip they’ve made for 17 years.This time, an unarmed Hannah, set off the metal detector at a security checkpoint“They wanted to do further scanning, she was reluctant, she didn’t understand what they were about to do,” said her mother Shirley Cohen.Cohen told us she tried to tell TSA agents her daughter is partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed, and easily confused, but said she was kept at a distance by police.“She’s trying to get away from them but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere,” said Cohen.Hannah was arrested, booked and on the night she should have been celebrating the end of her treatment, she was locked up in Jail East.“Here we were with nowhere to go, not even a toothbrush, our bags had gone to Chattanooga,” said Cohen.Authorities later threw out the charges but the family filed a lawsuit against the Memphis Airport, Airport Police, and the Transportation Security Administration.None of them would comment citing the suit, but Sari Koshetz of TSA released a statement that said, “Passengers can call ahead of time to learn more about the screening process for their particular needs or medical situation.”Cohen said after all the help here, she can’t believe it ended like this.
The TSA was a post-9/11 reaction, one its creator has since worked to undo. Their job is to stop or mitigate threats of terrorism — something they’ve not done. But they’ve gotten pretty good at harassing law abiding citizens in the name of security.
And we pay for this.
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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