TSA Scores Another PR Win With Assault Of Nineteen Year Old Brain Tumor Patient On Her Way To Treatment

from the there-is-a-dumpster-fire-that-never-goes-out dept

The TSA -- still reeling from an investigation showing agents couldn't find explosives in a fireworks factory and mounting complaints about long screening lines stemming from its unofficial work slowdown, one that began shortly after the agency's inception -- has decided to generate more positive PR by brutalizing a disabled nineteen-year-old girl with a brain tumor.

If this sounds like broad satire of the often-thuggish agency rather than real life, read on and be amazed/dismayed. First, let's take a quick look at the threat to traveler safety TSA agents neutralized at the Memphis International Airport.

The unarmed nineteen-year-old somehow set off the metal detectors. TSA agents swiftly moved in to secure the threat, blowing right past Hannah Cohen's mother, who tried to inform them that sudden, violent motions were not going to be exactly helpful. (via Raw Story)

“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.

Hannah Cohen -- suffering from multiple physical ailments -- reacted badly. She tried to run. The TSA reacted the only way it knows how.

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.

Rather than chalk this up to a big, bloody misunderstanding, the TSA and local authorities worked together to lock Hannah up overnight while her and her family's baggage continued on to Chattanooga without them. Charges were dropped, but that's not going to be the end of it. Cohen has filed a lawsuit against the TSA and Memphis law enforcement agencies.

The TSA, meanwhile, took immediate steps to mitigate the damage by stating that Hannah's parents should have called ahead if it didn't want their child terrorized and tackled.

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.”

No apology. No admission that this might have been handled better. No recognition that the agents' failure to listen to Hannah Cohen's mother might have resulted in a brain tumor patient covered in less blood and fear. Just a bit of victim blaming where the TSA implies that agents may not have reacted so badly to a metal detector beep if only they'd been informed ahead of time that the alarm would go off and Hannah Cohen would react badly to swiftly escalating screening efforts.

The most ridiculous thing about the spokesperson's comment is that we're supposed to believe the TSA will listen to parents of disabled travelers if they call ahead -- when it's plainly apparent they won't listen to them when they're STANDING RIGHT NEXT TO THEM.

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Filed Under: security, tsa