Article

2011-12-05 Home Front: WoT

Another Elderly Woman Says She Was Exposed At Kennedy Airport

Lenore Zimmerman, 85, was angry and embarrassed after what she claims was a strip search at Kennedy Airport Tuesday. Now another woman in her 80s at the very same terminal says she was exposed one day before.

From her home in Sunrise, Florida, 88-year-old Ruth Sherman says she knows for a fact senior citizens are being violated at a screening checkpoint at JFK.

gI felt like I was invaded,h she told CBS 2s Dave Carlin.

Sherman says week-long Thanksgiving holiday with family in New York ended with an ordeal that started when the screeners wanted to check the bulge from Shermanfs colostomy bag.

gThis is private for me. Itfs bad enough that I have it,h she said. gI had to pull from my sweatpants and I had to pull my underwear, my underwear down.h

gYou donft do that anybody,h she added. gI felt like I was invaded.h

She says she initially complained to JetBlue and told her family, but is now going public after watching Zimmerman on television, recounting a frighteningly similar tale of what she says was her strip search, at the same JetBlue terminal at JFK, one day later.

gThey decide this 85-year-old lady needs to be strip searched,h Zimmerman said. gAfter they patted me down, they took me into a private room and they strip searched me. I said ewhy are you strip searching me? Do I like look a terroristf?h she said.

Zimmerman says she was allowed to keep her top on.

Zimmerman, who lives most of the year in Long Beach, Nassau County and spends the winters in South Florida, says she will sue the Transportation Security Agency. She said she wanted a patdown, that her defibrillator is why she cannot go through the machine, but that she never expected a strip search.

The TSA released a statement Sunday, apologizing to Zimmerman but disputing her story.

gTSA contacted the passenger to apologize that she feels she had an unpleasant screening experience; however, TSA does not include strip searches in its protocols and a strip search did not occur in this case,h the statement read.
It's a matter of semantics. If they hauled her into a back room, they strip-searched her, or close enough to it. I get what she means. I guess we're going to have to come up with a new class of pervert here to cover those who like to strip search frail grandmothers and nuns in wheelchairs and walkers against their will.
State Senator Michael Gianaris of Queens wonders how the TSA can be so sure. He says with no cameras in the private screening rooms, it is a screenerfs word against the passengerfs.

gItfs outrageous,h he said. gWhat they need to find out is exactly what happened and if someone crossed the line they need to be penalized.h

gI missed my flight and I had to wait two and a half hours for the next one,h Zimmerman said.

When she finally made it to her winter home in Coconut Creek, Florida, she called her son Bruce in Long Beach, Nassau County, who told CBS 2 the family plans to sue the TSA.

gI do want them to have some sort of consequence. I think the two agents that escorted or initiated the strip search should be terminated,h Bruce Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman will return to New York in early April, but admits that she is nervous after her experience.

Both Sherman and Zimmerman say many times seniors are too cooperative and afraid to speak up when humiliated. Sherman wants that to change.
Great. Now they'll probably make it standard operational procedure to tackle you and throw you in prison.
CBS 2 contacted a TSA spokesman about Ruth Shermanfs alleged strip search and were told only that the TSA will research this new case.
"Research" apparently means to figure out how to deny everything people don't have photographic proof of.

Unfortunately, the day many years ago that Palestinian (?) terrorist gave his unknowing, pregnant Irish girlfriend a suitcase bomb to carry onto an airplane, this kind of thing was guaranteed.

Posted by gorb 2011-12-05 12:04|| || Front Page|| [11139 views ] Top

#1 Bullshit on the Irish comment. It's just another half ass excuse to wipe their asses with the Bill of Rights. Security Theatre.

Israel doesnt strip search grannies, unless they are real threats. Nor do they put members of their own armed forces outbound for deployment through this bullshit either.

I know a guy who was on Bush's security detail after 9-11, not the guys who ride in AF1, but other guys, we'll leave it at that. No shit, he had a brief case with a freakin machine gun in it, which he was obviously authorized to have, and a diet coke from Macdonalds. As he went through security checkpoint to board a flight back to DC from Nebraska, TSA agent told him and i quote" Baby you caint take that drink through security, it's potentially dangerous. He says and this freggin machine gun I have here?, which she had already checked. TSA-"I dont know nothin about that baby, you just caint take that drink."
Security theatre....This justification is all complete bullshit and we all know it. Institute Israeli security procedures across the western world and we'll cut flight incidents down to zero or near it.

Posted by Ominous1 2011-12-05 14:04|| 2011-12-05 14:04|| Front Page Top

#2 Ominous1, I agree it's theater. And I do not doubt an awful lot is stopped that doesn't matter, and an awful lot isn't that does. A number of other knowledgeable people have pointed that out here at Rantburg, and I believe you all.

It seems to me, however, that the theater discourages Sudden Jihad Syndromers and other amateurs from attempting things, making the more serious attempts easier for the serious guards to see against the background. And -- and I think this is important, even if the people who really know what they're about may not -- it reminds the rest of us that there really are murderers out there, and that we civilians must also be a pack, not a herd. We've had a number of stories posted here over the years of groups of bright, young Muslims (or older ones, like that bunch of imams coming from a convention a few years ago) testing responses. Even pretty subtle behaviors are galvanizing a response these days; it was only a few weeks ago that student field trip from Oman or Dubai or wherever had to be apologized to after they were pulled from a flight and questioned.

I wish it were better handled. Mr. Wife still travels a lot for work, so he gets to enjoy the show regularly.

Posted by trailing wife 2011-12-05 16:05|| 2011-12-05 16:05|| Front Page Top

#3 Any candidate who announces:

1) We're shutting down the TSA.
2) We're handing out baseball bats to all boarding airline passengers

has my vote.

Posted by Cincinnatus Chili 2011-12-05 18:20|| 2011-12-05 18:20|| Front Page Top

#4 Evening News says she's going to sue, Won't help assholes, just scream as loud as you can WHILE being scanned.

If she puts an end to scanning Old Ladies, Watch for an Influx of terrorists disguised as old ladies, thanks for nothing Bitch.

Posted by Redneck Jim 2011-12-05 20:03|| 2011-12-05 20:03|| Front Page Top

#5 1) We're shutting down the TSA.
2) We're handing out baseball bats to all boarding airline passengers

LOL!

Posted by gorb 2011-12-05 20:41|| 2011-12-05 20:41|| Front Page Top

#6 The solution was applied on 9/11 - Let's roll. There have been a handful of incidents since then when some 'passenger' [who'd already cleared TSA] has acted out and the crew and other passengers solved the problem immediately.

Posted by Procopius2k 2011-12-05 21:47|| 2011-12-05 21:47|| Front Page Top

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