[nfb-talk] TSA discrimination in Orlando

[Mike Freeman]

Joseph:

In my opinion, your outrage is misplaced. Courts all the way up to the
Supreme Court have ruled that civil rights are extensively modified in
airports and that, in effect, TSA can violate your personal space in ways
that would not be tolerated in other settings. I know some will disagree
with me here but if one can't walk three feet through a metal detector
without one's cane, one is pretty badly off! Abstract principles don't
matter in these cases: as I say, you won't win in court.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of T. Joseph Carter
Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2011 9:33 AM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: [nfb-talk] TSA discrimination in Orlando

I am copying Scott LaBarre on this message for his opinion, but have 
not done so openly to keep him from receiving every single reply to 
this message as well.

I had absolutely no trouble in my home state of Oregon getting 
through Transportation Security Administration security screening.  
The TSA officials at Portland International Airport know the blind 
quite well, and they know the laws.  They follow them.

In Florida, however, returning from convention, I was told that I was 
required by law to relinquish my cane and step through the scanner 
with a sighted guide.  I said that once scanned, I could step through 
with my cane.  It contains metal only on its tip.

The TSA official told me that was against the law.

I insisted that it was not, and offered to share the specific 
regulations in question.

The TSA officer did not want to see the regulations.  She told me 
that hundreds of blind people were coming through the airport, and 
not one single person before me had protested being required to 
travel without their cane.

I once again offered the copy of the regulations, which were not 
accepted.  Another officer offered to send a supervisor at this 
point, which the officer declined as well.

I was told at that point that I would be allowed to have my cane, but 
that the consequence of my unwillingness to comply with being 
stripped of my dignity would be a full security pat-down.  I was told 
this before I ever stepped through the metal detector.

I did not set off the metal detector upon stepping through, as you 
might predict using a rigid fiberglass NFB cane.  I was, however, 
still subjected to the humiliating additional screening as a punitive 
matter.

During this full security pat-down, I was forced, in full view of 
other passengers, to remove articles of clothing, had my groin and 
other personal areas felt by security personnel, and tested for 
explosive chemical residues among other things.  I was told that this 
was all being done because I had in fact set off the metal detector, 
though it had made no sound when I passed through it as it had when 
the officer before me had done so.

After another five minutes, most (but not all) of my belongings were 
returned to me.  The TSA officers refused to account for my things, 
and threatened arrest when I would not leave the testing area, 
without the return of all of my possessions.  To defuse this 
situation, an officer who had not been part of the preceding was came 
over and located my missing items and returned them to me.

I want to know why it is that the government is permitted to treat 
the blind in this shameful way?  And to whom do we register our 
formal, written complaint?  At the very least, the TSA of this 
particular airport need training in the law concerning passengers 
with disabilities.  More properly, a full investigation of the 
repeated lies and attempts by officers to cover up this incident 
through threats and intimidation is also warranted.

TSA records video of their checkpoints, and I think that video will 
show, for example, that I did not actually set off the metal detector 
upon passing through it, among other things.  They do not record 
audio, however, so we may not be able to prove the lies, the threats, 
and the intimidation unless others were denied their canes (which I 
already know they were) and any others stood up for their rights 
(which the TSA say none ever did.)

What I can prove is that we of the National Federation of the Blind 
do not request the same dignity that is afforded to the sighted 
public.  To do so would be to presume the possibility that we ought 
to be treated any differently.  No, we insist upon it!  If my own 
treatment is any indication, the Transportation Security 
Administration seems to believe that we are merely asking for equal 
treatment.  They seem to feel as if they are free to answer in the 
negative.  I think it is time that we ensure they learn that they are 
mistaken.  What do you think?

T. Joseph Carter
Just a blind guy trying to get home


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