[nfb-talk] TSA discrimination in Orlando

Sun Jul 10 23:27:30 UTC 2011

Understood. I'm just saying I wouldn't have worried about it overly-much. To
each his/her own. At least you weren't made to sit on a blanket like sue
Ammeter was (apparently on the theory that finding the lavatory was
exceeding difficult for the blind when flying).

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 4:00 PM
To: NFB Talk Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] TSA discrimination in Orlando

Mike,

They insisted that I needed to travel sighted guide, hanging on like 
a child.  Nothing else was permitted, and any resistance got me the 
full punitive screening.

Joseph

On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 12:31:36PM -0700, Mike Freeman wrote:
>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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