Thread: TSA agent pulls woman’s breast prosthesis out of her bra

TSA agent pulls woman’s breast prosthesis out of her bra

by Lisa Simeone on June 11, 2013

I get tired of writing these posts. These abuses are so common (no, they’re not “outliers”) and the reaction of so much of the public apathetic, it just becomes wearying.

Yet another woman who’d had a mastectomy and who wears a breast prosthesis was prodded and pawed by a clueless TSA clerk, just like Sharon Cissna, Cathy Bossi, and so many others.

Suzanne Steiner was flying from San Antonio to Orlando. And she went through the scanner:

In early May, after passing through the full body scanner at the airport, Steiner was pulled to the side by a female TSA agent.
“She started to search me, only my right breast,” Steiner said. “And I said, ‘Oh that’s all right, that’s my prosthesis, I’ve had a mastectomy.’
“So she starts searching more, and I thought, ‘what the heck is all that about?’”
Steiner said the agent never acknowledged her or told her what she was doing. Instead, according to Steiner, the agent proceeded to pull the prosthesis out of her bra, about an inch away from her body.


“I don’t cry easily, and I sat at the gate nearly in tears,” she said.

Steiner tried to complain to the TSA. And, of course, got the standard response — contempt:

Steiner said when she tried to file a complaint that day, TSA agents were insensitive. One agent told her, “you set off an alarm, you should expect to be checked.” Already embarrassed, Steiner said that made the situation even worse.

Of course, Ms. Steiner, don’t you know that it’s your fault that you’re so sensitive? Don’t you know that the pieces-of-crap scanners that your tax dollars paid for have a 54% false-positive rate, thus necessitating a grope on more than half the people who walk through them? Don’t you know that our crusaders in blue are always in the right, and have only your best interests at heart? Don’t you know that if you don’t let them paw you, then The Terrorists Win??

Again, as I’ve said before, I hope every insensitive twit and apathetic oaf out there who minimizes these abuses, who tut-tuts these stories, gets the grope of a lifetime. Just knowing that they or their family members might one day get their comeuppance (I’ve already seen it happen) is some small measure of satisfaction.

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