Take a look at 4 year old Isabella Brademeyer. That could very well be my own daughter, who is 3. Cute as a button, and according to the TSA, a terrorist.
That’s right, a terrorist. This young lady nearly made the TSA shut down the Wichita airport.
From RT:
Brademeyer was passing through security checks with her mother and her small daughter, Isabella. When the older lady triggered the metal detector, and was told to go for a pat-down, Isabella ran over to and briefly hugged her grandmother.
The TSA immediately said Isabella would now also have to undergo a pat-down, in case the grandmother passed contraband to her during the hug.
When the child shouted “I don’t want to,” the TSA declared Isabella a “high security threat,” and said that they would close down the airport if she moved.
Afterwards, the by-now-hysterical four-year-old was taken to a separate room, and told to stop crying. When she could not, the officers called for backup – saying “the suspect is not cooperating.”
Once the girl calmed down enough to be patted down, Brademeyer claims the transport police repeatedly stated that the girl might be carrying a weapon, as they had previously “seen a gun in a teddy bear.”
Neither the grandmother, nor the child had anything illegal on their person.
Eventually, Isabella and the rest of her family were allowed to board the flight.
The TSA has not questioned Brademeyer’s version of events, but refuses to apologize.
The TSA maintains that proper screening procedures were followed. But this event only highlights the failure of the TSA to differentiate between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.
I played front row witness to the incompetence of the TSA a few years back, when travelling with a few family members. The eldest, who was wheelchair bound, was shuffled aside, forced to stand on her own while TSA goons patted her down, and ran their hands through her waistline and other areas. You know, just in case granny wanted to “go out with a bang.”
A few years before that, while travelling home on leave from Afghanistan, I was passing through the Dallas airport. I was “flagged” by the counter agent for extra screening. When informed of this by the TSA, I could do nothing else but roll my eyes. I was travelling in uniform, and passed through a thorough customs inspection before leaving Kuwait. I had just spent around 20 hours locked inside a plane that was 100% full. Yet, I was to be viewed with suspicion. Luckily for me, the TSA agent I was speaking with agreed that extra screening was unnecessary, and allowed me through with the normal gamut of checks.
This must stop folks. The TSA is “security theater,” giving the illusion of security with no actual results. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that their fancy new scanners were shown to be worthless.
Says Ron Paul on the TSA:
“It totally voids the concept of the Fourth Amendment, searches and prodding and poking, you know, with no permission,” Paul told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union” today.
Paul said the searches are not voluntary, as the government argues, because Americans are not permitted to take commercial air flights without doing exactly what the government demands.
“They trap us into it,” Paul told Crowley. “There’s no way you can travel if you don’t do it. So I’ve said, you know, when you look at some of these pictures of probing groin areas and breast areas and all this, and old women having to take their clothes off, if we as a people are so complacent that we can look at that and say, oh, that’s OK, they’re making us safe.
“It doesn’t make us safe. It undermines our liberties and there’s a much better way of giving us security at the airports than accepting the bureaucrats and the politicians in Washington. That is totally unacceptable from my viewpoint.”
He’s right folks. The TSA is a bureaucratic nightmare that has grown wildly beyond its initial conception. It needs to die a quick and painless death.
Meanwhile, we have a family that is devastated, and a poor 4 year old who had no understanding of what was going on, and was being treated as a common criminal.
When will we finally say “Enough is enough?”
Further reading: Hot Air, Newsmax, Dailymail.
Aaron Graves
Aaron Graves is a veteran and a staunch libertarian, consistently breaking ranks with his Conservative friends on social issues, and with his Liberal friends on economic issues. He is also the guy that wrote the crap that you just read. Sic Semper Tyrannis
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The concept that this is a violation of rights, is laughable at best in my opinion. I have taken many cruise ships outside US waters and have never seen such screening being done, so the idea of “you have to subject yourself to this in order to travel” is absolutely untrue.
Since there are other means of travel, that means using the airport is not a specific requirement that someone must do and thus not a violation of rights.
In my opinion to call this a violation of rights, means that all metal detectors used in school for safety reasons, no matter what the statistics show about reduced crime, are also a violation. So are the searches to enter a vast majority of US court houses. In fact I would say entering a courthouse is a much bigger requirement for most people than that of taking a flight. Plenty of people find they must enter courthouses to get custody forms, to get divorce forms, and all sorts of other legal documents. Based on this that should mean all searches are illegal.
Also I want to say I agree TSA has gone over the top with security, however don’t for a second think its wrong just because “it’s a child”. The child, even at 4, should receive the same level of treatment as everyone else. Whether anyone likes it or not we live in an age where parents try to hide drugs and weapons in diapers, diaper bags, baby food, on children, and the likes – so its not so unreasonable to believe a child could be a terrorist threat.
In fact, if we were to exclude all children as terrorists just because of their age or “cuteness” factor, we would find every terrorist organization in the world would use that to their advantage. Its a disgusting thought, but think about times of war and how many countries in times past have strapped children with bombs to go meet the enemy.
Again I stress I agree TSA needs to be fixed, however until it is, I expect everyone to be treated equally – not children get a little better treatment than everyone else because they are kids.
First off, thank you for commenting and sharing your opinion.
There are other means of travel outside of airlines, however, for many there is no other option. Further, there is a mountain of evidence showing that the TSA has stopped exactly 0 “terrorist plots.” I call it security theater because it’s reactive, rather than proactive. By staying reactive, you remain in an “arms race,” always being one step behind. Eventually, you may get caught with your pants down.
Personally, I don’t see metal detectors as a “search” per se, though I do see a fine line being in there somewhere. But even metal detectors are not a 100% stop gap, as they will not stop one who is absolutely determined.
I have seen first hand what “terrorists” will do with children. While in Afghanistan a child was intercepted with a suicide vest. He said that some men had gave it to him, and told him to go up to the provincial governor and press the button. They told him flowers would come out and it would be a great honor for the governor.
The US can not stop the import of drugs and illegals into the country. These airport measures do not improve security it is simply an illusion. The child should have been better watched and the entire incident could have been avoided. US is becoming an open air prison like the reserves they have for the natives. Sad really.
Agreed Tom. In fact, the TSA was just caught participating in drug running.
It’s nothing more than security theater. And yes, I agree that we’re becoming an open air prison. (Proof, Proof)
USA has never been a security theater before. I wonder why it is becoming this now. Bread and Circuses seems to work allot better than prisons and yet here we are. Perhaps the US authorities should skip a step and make poverty illegal, it would simplify things for them.