TSA Pats Down 3-Year-Old in Wheelchair

[TBoneTX 43,419]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2116881/TSA-subject-child-wheelchair-invasive-airport-security-tests-Chicago.html

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Father's outrage as TSA subjects his wheelchair-bound three-year-old son to humiliating search... on his way to Disney

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 00:54 EST, 19 March 2012 | UPDATED: 10:19 EST, 19 March 2012

A vacation in the Magic Kingdom should be enough to make a child giddy with excitement, but one young boy was left trembling with fear after he was subjected to an invasive TSA pat-down.

The three-year-old, confined to a wheelchair due to a recently broken leg, was with his family at O'Hare Airport in Chicago, on their way to board a flight to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Despite constant assurances from his father that 'everything is OK', he physically trembles with fear and asks his parents to hold his hand.

While the boy's father grew increasingly incensed by the treatment his son was getting, he tried to remain calm, for the boy's sake. He filmed the entire process and later posted it on YouTube.

Despite such strict security for this toddler, the TSA is offering background-checked travellers the chance to use special lines and keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and avoid a full-body scan - for a price.

The TSA's new fast track 'Precheck' screening, now at two airlines and nine airports, is similar to security checks before 9/11, reports the Wall Street Journal.

To qualify, frequent fliers must be invited by airlines and meet an undisclosed TSA criteria.

A $100 fee for a background check is required as well as a brief interview with a Customs officer. However, approved travelers who are in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's 'Global Entry' program can transfer into Precheck, according to the Journal.

'It's a completely different experience than what you're used to,' Matt Stegmeir, a platinum-level Delta Air Lines frequent flier who was invited into Precheck, told the Journal.

'It's really a jarring contrast. It reminds you just how much of a hassle the security procedures in place really are.'

The program can improve screening of unknown passengers if it can move low-risk people out of the main queues.

'We can reduce the size of the haystack when we are looking for that one-in-a-billion terrorist,' TSA Administrator John Pistole told the Journal.

Mr Pistole added that by studying frequent-flier histories as well as conducting background checks, he's confident the U.S. now has the technology and the intelligence information to make less-rigorous, faster screening work.

TSA is working with only two airlines, American and Delta, on program which is still in the pilot phase.

Precheck lanes are already in place only at nine airports including Dallas-Fort Worth, New York Kennedy, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Detroit , Salt Lake City, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

By the end of the year Precheck will be in place at 35 airports and six airlines, covering most major U.S. airports and airlines, reports the Journal.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Heil United Nazi States of America!

[Stu4Lee 66]

Typical Daily Mail story.

I guess they call talking quietly/under your breath being outraged these days ?

[natty bumppo 289]

Typical Daily Mail story.

I guess they call talking quietly/under your breath being outraged these days ?

not everyone needs to SCREAM when showing outrage.

some people actually maintain a level voice while inwardly seething and plotting their move to show the outrage in a more constructive manner ...

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

not everyone needs to SCREAM when showing outrage.

some people actually maintain a level voice while inwardly seething and plotting their move to show the outrage in a more constructive manner ...

[Stu4Lee 66]

not everyone needs to SCREAM when showing outrage.

some people actually maintain a level voice while inwardly seething and plotting their move to show the outrage in a more constructive manner ...

...then they go home and do absolutely nothing

[natty bumppo 289]

...then they go home and do absolutely nothing

some may very well do that ... others will quietly plot their next move then "let slip the dogs of war" ...

[james&olya 1,121]

It does seem outrageous but put yourself in the frame of mind of the people who have to develop the security protocols. Terrorists world-wide have actually used children to carry bombs. And it is not enough to only screen middle-eastern or african appearing people! Timothy Mcveigh was about as 'american' appearing as they come! Still, the emphasis on passenger screening overall is probably excessive considering that there are much easier ways for terrorists to kill large numbers of americans than by blowing up airplanes! The biggest thing they needed to do was make cockpit doors secure. They did that. I guess they are convinced that the terrorists remain fixated on airplanes so they must keep their fixation there as well.

I can't see you-tube videos here but I wonder if that dad might have been able to help his son more if he had not himself been 'increasingly incensed'.

[sara..... 371]

I watched the video....i think the dad did a great job of keeping his child calm and trying to make it seem like it was a natural thing that he had to go thru.........

our country used to be the greatest country in the world with all the freedoms that our forefathers had in mind for us.....i know that there are bad people out there but i have to wonder if we have become our own worst enemy's by allowing this kind of treatment to continue.

Im still pretty young compared to most of the population here on vj but i can still remember being allowed to see off your friends or family at the gate instead of at the point of security.....it seems to me that we have become a country that is afraid of our own shadow........i miss the good old days that i knew and it was not that long ago........

I am Muslim and im just as guilty as everyone else about what we go thru because i expect it and go thru it each and every time we fly..........but this was a child with out looking anything like a Muslim....i don't believe this was something that is necessary

just my own opinion

sara

[james&olya 1,121]

with out looking anything like a Muslim....

sara

How do you 'look like a muslim'? It's a religion, not a race, I thought. Maybe you meant 'look like an Arab'?

[sara..... 371]

How do you 'look like a muslim'? It's a religion, not a race, I thought. Maybe you meant 'look like an Arab'?

Your right but what i meant was this child did not have any Islamic clothing on....I wear hijab and i am not Arab

sara

[slim 1,514]

Don't fly.

Boycott the airlines even for one day - and this will go away.

[DaveE 178]

Lets see, a two year old video and finally the dad is offended. I heard an interview with the dad this morning while driving to work and he said he had watched the video over and over again for the last TWO years and he finally put it on line.

Edited March 20, 2012 by DaveE

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Don't fly.

Boycott the airlines even for one day - and this will go away.

Not necessarily true in this scenario.

Public airport security is a matter of the Federal Government, not the private airlines.

The only way the airlines themselves could bypass this is by not being "public" anymore... which of course would cause them to lose more money than they already are.