(Wichita, Kansas) Weeping four-year-old girl accused of carrying a GUN by TSA officers...

[KansDem]

...after she hugged her grandmother while passing through security

Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.

And a recent incident in Wichita, Kansas has reinforced that argument, as a four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line.

The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a 'high security threat', while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down.

When asked about the overbearing treatment the girl received, a TSA spokesman did not apologise and insisted that correct procedures had been followed.

--more--



http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134280/Weeping-year-old-girl-accused-carrying-GUN-TSA-officers-hugged-grandmother-passing-security.html?ICO=most_read_module

[snooper2]

1. Here is where I would be getting in trouble..

Because if I was in that situation and my daughter was the one being berated by these people who A- didn't make the police force, B- couldn't make mall cop, so C- got a job with the TSA, I would be in deep shit.

[KansDem]

3. I know what you mean...

I'm not certain I could stand by and say or do nothing.

I just might become a story on the 6:00 news...

[leveymg]

2. The only gun I see there is an invisible magic wand with pixie dust to make mad adults nicer.

Alert the DEA about that pixie dust.

[snappyturtle]

4. The TSA is way over the top on this one...imho.

Frankly, when I flew last month, I felt more irritated by the
TSA than safe.

[CTyankee]

5. Oh, that sweet little lamb! She must have been terrified!

Of course, she wanted to hug her grandma!

What's the matter with people?

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. +1000

[malaise]

21. How dare a four year old be afraid of the TSA

Little terrorist!!

[Buns_of_Fire]

7. "Correct procedures had been followed."

The last refuge for assholes who have no other explanation for their assholery.

I'd probably be on the 6:00 news, on my way to the slammer, along with y'all.

[emulatorloo]

8. Are we sure this actually happened?

As far as I can tell the dailymail article is based soley on "the mother's Facebook report"

Am I missing something?

[KansDem]

11. Here are two more sources...

"Toddler Terrorist: TSA threatens lockdown over 4-year-old girl"
http://rt.com/usa/news/tsa-us-girl-gun-869/

"TSA nabs 4-year-old terrorism suspect in act of hugging crime-partner grandma"
http://www.examiner.com/article/tsa-nabs-4-year-old-terrorism-suspect-act-of-hugging-her-grandma

Now, it could be these two news sources were duped by the Facebook comments, so let's see what CorpMedia reports...

[emulatorloo]

18. The Examiner has 0 credibility. See this thread from yesterday

Jebus they're still at it
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=600989

Thread details an article in The Examiner which claims Obama's lawyers have admitted his long form birth certificate is a forgery.

It is basically a conspiracy theory kook site.

------

Please note that the article at the Examiner you linked to is based on

- the mother's Facebook account
- a quote from an article at The Consumerist website about an "0fficial TSA Statement"

Besides the mother's Facebook account, the DailyMail article also refers to The Consumerist article as the source of "Official TSA Statement"

RT article seems almost plagiarized from the Consumerist article - very similar language. I don't know much about RT.

At any rate, it seems like we have three articles all based off of the same source - The Consumerist article which is here:

http://consumerist.com/2012/04/4-year-old-gets-tsa-pat-down-following-hug-from-grandma.html

We've seen this kind of thing before. Typically in rightwing land. One blog reports something. Another blog reports what the other blog has reported. And so on and so. Until you end up with 50 hits on google. Your right wing friend says "See! This story is all over the internet! It must be true!". But then you figure out all of the stories are based on the same source.

Hopefully some DU'ers in Wichita Kansas will come around at tell us if they heard anything about it locally.

[KansDem]

19. Fair enough. Here are some more...

http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=104668&article=10073614

http://www.dailypaul.com/228595/weeping-four-year-old-girl-accused-of-carrying-a-gun-by-tsa-officers-after-she-hugged-her-grandma-while-passing-through-s

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/tsa-allegedly-accuses-weeping-4-year-old-girl-of-carrying-a-gun-after-she-ran-through-security-to-hug-her-grandmother/

http://www.infowars.com/4-year-old-girl-accused-by-tsa-of-having-gun-subjected-to-full-body-pat-down/

Here's MSNBC reporting on it:
http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/24/11371144-tsa-pats-down-4-year-old-after-she-hugs-grandmother?lite

I don't know...MSNBC is pretty "mainstream"

[emulatorloo]

23. 1 & 3 are the same exact article, based on Daily Mail. 2 & 4 are the Daily Mail article

So four more stories based on the Daily Mail article. Which in turn was based on The Consumerist article. Sounds very echo chamberish to me. (remember the right wing wants to bust the union and eventually "privatize" airport security)

MSNBC rehashes mother's Facebook account. But they do present something new which contradicts the article account:

"In a statement to msnbc.com, the TSA explained the decision to pat-down Isabel and disputed that officers suspected she had a gun.

"In this case the child had completed screening but had contact with another member of her family who had not completed the screening process," the statement read. "While it was explained to family members why additional security procedures were necessary in this instance, TSA officers did not suspect or suggest the child was carrying a firearm. TSA has reviewed the incident and determined that our officers followed proper current screening procedures in conducting a modified pat-down on the child."

I am not saying the incident didn't happened. I am just saying we are getting the repetition of the mother's Facebook account without any other account that supports her version. All of the article we have seen so far are based off of one article (The Daily Mail one, which I beleive is based on the Consumerist)

Only one that has done any actual reporting is MSNBC.

[KansDem]

26. I tend to believe the mother's account...

Isabel was brought into a side room, accompanied by Brademeyer, for a pat-down. One of the officers said that she had previously "seen a gun in a teddy bear," according to Brademeyer. "The TSO seemed utterly convinced my child was concealing a weapon, as if there was no question about it." When Isabel would not stop crying, the TSOs apparently called for backup. Eventually, Brademeyer says, they were asked to leave the airport.

Perhaps other "mainstream media" will corroborate this report...

[emulatorloo]

28. Yes, she deserves that. What I am trying to point out is that suspect websites appear to be

exploiting the mother's story for some reason. The Examiner, Ron Paul, InfoWars, a radio station that hosts Glenn Beck and the Limbaugh show and so on.

I don't trust their motives. For that reason something does not feel right to me about how hard they are attempting to push this story. There is some agenda.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. Because 4 year olds try to pass guns to their grandmothers

in airports every day in America.

[KansDem]

14. Only if they hug them.

Then four-year-olds can palm the gun, hiding it from TSA agents, then slip it into the pocket of grandma's coat!

[atreides1]

10. "...correct procedures had been followed."

The Nuremberg defense...along with "I was only following orders".

The TSA consists of small minded people, and that's just the suits in charge...the uniforms are about on the same level as a single cell life form!

[Lars39]

12. Whole airport shut down for a 4 yo not cooperating? DO IT.

This shit's gotten old.

[truebrit71]

13. Amen...

...

[Speck Tater]

15. "they make little distinction between plausible security threats..."

"Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong."

In other words, TSA does not do ENOUGH profiling.

[stevenleser]

16. Unfortunately, that is the choice the OP and many others seem to be missing.

Sure, if you want to profile everyone with swarthy olive skin, including me, that is one way out of things like this. The other is to treat everyone the same way. Which one is more consistent with progressive/liberal principles?

[Speck Tater]

17. Exactly. "Four year old white girls are no threat" is profiling. nt

[hughee99]

20. Perhaps the issue here, though, isn't the color of her skin

but the fact that she's 4. If a "swarthy olive skinned" 4 year old hugged her grandmother and got hassled by the TSA, I'd expect the reaction would be no different.

Is it a progressive/liberal principle to treat a 4 year old the same as an adult in the name of consistency?

[stevenleser]

25. It depends in what context you are talking about.

In terms of security threats, I can see a terrorist using a child to hold their weapons in their shirt or pants or luggage.

In terms of consent, no, I dont think they are the same.

[shadowrider]

22. This is why I refuse to fly, period.

[kenny blankenship]

24. In other Homelander Abteilung news,

95 year old veteran and 85-year-old friend humiliated, searched and robbed at San Diego TSA checkpoint
http://boingboing.net/2012/04/23/95-year-old-veteran-and-85-yea.html
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120418/OPINION03/204180345

Omer Petti is a 95-year-old USAF veteran with artificial knees and a heart condition. Madge Woodward, his partner, has an artificial hip. They recently flew home to Detroit from San Diego, and were humiliated and robbed at the San Diego airport TSA checkpoint. The metal in their bodies set off the TSA magnetometer, and Petti was instructed to put his $300 in cash in a bin. Then he was further detained when a swab detected the nitroglycerin residue from his heart pills. He and Woodward were subjected to humiliating patdowns, and then discovered that their $300 had gone missing. When Petti asked where his money had gone, the TSA agent required he and Woodward to remove their shoes again and empty out their pockets, and asked if they were "refusing his request" when they objected. The TSA manager checked the security footage, but reported that it was "too blurry" to see what had happened to the money. The two elderly people were loaded into their wheelchairs and taken to their plane at full tilt, barely making it. They never got their money back.

"Can you imagine an 85-year-old lady and 95-year-old retired Air Force Major in wheelchairs being treated like terrorists?" Petti asked recently sitting in the kitchen of the Bloomfield Township home he shares with Woodward.

After both set off alarms, they were patted down. Then, a security officer did a litmus test on Petti's clothing, which tested positive for nitrates. Petti explained that he carries nitroglycerin pills for his heart. Nonetheless, Petti was taken to a private room for yet another pat-down by a different officer while the same security officer emptied their carry-on bags and rifled through every item.

Finally, they were released and told to retrieve their belongings. But only four bins were handed over to them. When Petti inquired about his $300, a senior security official was called over. Petti says this officer insinuated that they were mistaken about the missing cash, instructing the two to take off their shoes again, check their pockets again. "When I told him we were going to miss our flight he asked me if I was objecting or refusing his request." Petti says. "I said: 'No, I'd do anything I was asked, I would just like to know where my $300 went.' "

[KansDem]

27. Not only are they louts, they're crooks as well!

And we have to be subjected to them!

[chrisa]

29. Yes, because a 4 year old would be carrying a gun.

That's exactly who I would expect to be carrying a gun. A 4 year old hugging her grandparents.