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TSA Groper Files Suit Against Blogger
An anonymous reader writes "TSA employee Theldala Magee has filed a lawsuit against a blogger demanding $500k in damages for alleging a particularly invasive search involving multiple incursions of a finger into the passenger's vagina. The passenger, who likened the feeling to being raped, is being sued for defamation for supposedly sullying the otherwise good name of a checkpoint smurf."
No more bullshit welfare-to-work program for her.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
It's hard tho, when you can't decide if you want to work for the TSA or for McDonalds. On the one hand you get to alienate people by doing whatever you want to them in the name of security and in the other you get to spit on their burgers. What to do? What to do?
Mean what you say...say what you mean.
If they knew what woman wrote in her blog, she was not only raped. She was stalked too.
"supposedly sullying the otherwise good name of a checkpoint smurf.""
Really? No wonder CmdTaco left.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I dunno... giving the TSA goons a name like "smurf" certainly doesn't give a hint as to their sinister side... Of course one is a little, invasive, annoyingly-voiced bastard that won't just go away, and the other is a smurf.
Perhaps we should call them "checkpoint trolls" or "checkpoint pervs"?
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Despite the Slashdot headline, from reading the article all I can tell is that nastygrams were sent by both parties and it hasn't entered the courts yet. I'd like to see a judge get involved, to be honest.
I'm going to be modded into hell for this, but oh well, my excellent karma can take it.
Wow, so this is it? This is the point where Slashdot isn't afraid to show its radical bias in blatant bold-faced type on the front page?
You pepper the TSA agent with derogatory remarks ("Checkpoint smurf", "Groper") based on allegations filed in a lawsuit? Do any of you ever look at a murder trial and immediately go "Oh, hey, look at that MURDERER on trial. They're on trial, so they must have killed someone." This crowd froths at the mouth when anyone in government is accused of doing something wrong, but they're the first to stand up and yell "innocent until proven guilty" when someone they can relate to is in the spotlight for something. You're all pathetic. Absolutely, 100%, without a doubt pathetic.
Now I understand why CmdrTaco left. I'd abandon my life's work, too, if this is what it turned in to.
So suing the TSA over this is a "non-starter" and even writing about it gets you sued by the molesting thugs... Why do the people in the USA put up with something like this? I thought you were scared witless by terrorists, not authorities, but I guess I was wrong.
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
I am driving to Canada and catching a flight from there. Within the country, I'm driving.
I have daughters, and I don't think I'll be able to sit by and watch while they're sexually assaulted. Daddy would be going to jail.
That's correct. Everyone gets a finger in an orifice (or two, if you're female) when you enter the country. What's worse is when you get here, we're all slovenly, obese, beer-soaked and lazy morons. Oh, and that's the well-educated and wealthy ones! Believe everything you hear... you're not missing anything and should stay home.
We're all in agreement that the TSA security measures are stupid, inefficient, unlikely to actually stop any actual threats, and invasive to our privacy. TSA policy resembles a large scale version of the Milgram experiments. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment/
This doesn't mean that TSA employees are not people to. They have lives, they have names. They have friends and families. Sure, TSA employees are often incompetent and stupid. The TSA could try to hire retired police and retired MPs but they seem to out of their way not to. But, the low level employees are not deciding policy. They have the same rights as everyone else not be defamed and libeled if they didn't actually do something. So when one of them exercises their legal rights mocking and insulting them is uncalled for. They are just doing their jobs. In the current economy there aren't many jobs out there and the TSA employees want to get paid and not starve like everyone else. You might be smart and well-educated and have a steady job. Good for you. Now meet everyone else.
And since someone is going to probably twist "they are just doing their jobs" into some ridiculous example of Godwin's Law, let's be clear: this is not the same thing as the Nuremberg defense. "I was just doing my job and following orders" has a very different meaning when one is being told to murder people than when someone is being told to do something to someone who knew what they were getting into and elected to go flying anyways.
Instead of insulting and labeling individual TSA people, try to fix the actual issues, a general culture of fear and a succession of US Presidents who have minimal respect for the Constitution.
Of course if the TSA person did do what the blogger claimed (which wouldn't be that surprising) then the TSA person should be fired and does deserve to have their name plastered everywhere. But let's not rush to judgment ok?
I hate the TSA, and body scanners, and taking my shoes off as much as the next guy. But if the blogger was lying, then that is some pretty serious defamation of character that took place.
The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
By filing suit Theldala Magee made exactly the right move, for me to poop on.
Theldala Magee meet Barbara Streisand.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
FTA:...stuck the side of her gloved hand INTO my vagina
In the trial, will TSA smurf have to try "it" on for size like OJ?
Sticking a finger inside a woman's vagina multiple times doesn't sound like simply an unpleasant search. It sounds like a sexual assault. If there was suspicion that she was carrying banned implements inside her vagina, then an appropriate cavity search should have been done.
Is it rape? No, I wouldn't say. But I would say it was a sexual assault and if the TSA officer did it, she should be fired. Nowhere have I heard that sticking fingers inside vaginas is permitted under security search rules, have you?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
After last year's Christmas party, I'm fairly certain my former employer would disagree with you!
Well, if you RTFA, you'll see that their reply argued that the TSA agent was most certainly acting with intent (as a retaliation for opting-out of the full body scan). They argue that the TSA agent's finger penetrated the traveller four times. Their defense is that this does fit the legal definition of rape and truth is an absolute defense against libel.
Additionally, they argue that even if it were not rape, the first amendment provides protection against hyperbole.
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
Anyone else see the horrible irony in that statement?
</sad>
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her private parts without explicit consent and complete freedom to decline without repraisal is sexual assault.
And that person will be physically injured by me unless he or she is lucky enough to have the cops get there first.
Most of us refuse the body scanner by not flying. And ultimately, most people don't have the money to pay the ridiculous fines for refusing.
Then there's the fact that they force people to get sexually assaulted if they decline the body scanners. It's been well documented that the TSA will threaten criminal charges and refuse to let you leave if you turn down the blatantly unconstitutional searches.
Indeed, our country is a hive of villainy. Steven Colbert is a fine example of one of our brightest minds, fighting off the chains of oppression and knowledge. We all eat nearly 1.5 kg of red meat a day and drive at least 75 km no matter where we're going. We urinate in our public places because we're not intelligent enough to use the toilets. Our nuclear missiles are secured with the key "1-1-1-1" because then we only have to remember one number. By law we must spend 20% of our income of shit we don't need and will never use. At least 30% of our food must come from inhumane sources. I'm frankly astonished that the benevolent European I hired to type this for me understands my speech, since I'm so illiterate and uneducated.
You should probably never come. You might never get out.
FanFictionRecs.net
It's posts like this that should show you that Europeans are just as enlightened or ignorant as Americans.
Do you really think that is the average person's experience at the airport? Do you really think Americans are nuts?
Seriously, you think the US is some crazy place?
I was born in Africa, have a very Muslim name, live in Canada now, and have been to the US dozens of times. Sometimes for work. Sometimes for play.
You know what US border/airport security is like? It's pretty routine... apart from the whole taking off my shoes thing. But the personnel are pretty normal. No different than I've experienced in the UK or Holland.
During my last trip for work in Florida, I left my shaving cream and toothpaste in my carry-on bag by accident. Normally I throw it all out. It got flagged in the scanners. The guy called his supervisor. They had me step aside, emptied the bag... found out it was shaving cream, cracked a joke... threw out my shaving cream, and I was on my way. Pretty regular behavior.
I'm sure some people have had bad experiences. But people have had bad experiences in the UK, Canada, France... too. The US just isn't that nutty.
Who has kids and who doesn't. Your creative turn of phrase definitely shows.
I had no idea I could ever be this protective. Touch my girl, you die. Simple, isn't it?
I'm going to need to learn to tone it down a bit before they start dating. Other parents may not like their sons threatened with a 12-gauge when they haven't even done anything.
threw out my shaving cream, and I was on my way
See, that's just pure evil. If they really believed that was an explosive, would they let you board the plane after YOU TRIED TO SNEAK AN EXPLOSIVE ON BOARD? No, they'd ship your ass to Guantanamo bay or another "enhanced interrogation" facility in a place where your rights don't apply. Since they let you board the plane, they knew perfectly well you were harmless, and yet they decided to steal your stuff because they're evil, fascist thugs.
Worse than that: they provide storage bins - aka "trash cans" - right at the checkpoint for the disposal of all of these "harmful agents". Sheer genius. "Is that a dirty bomb you have there? Throw it in this trash can, please..."
If it's not dangerous, why take it from us? If they're taking it from us, why stockpile it right there, next to passengers they're trying to protect?
You're absolutely right that people have bad experiences everywhere. But when I fly in Canada, if someone decides to grope my daughter, I have a much higher degree of confidence that actions would taken. (Sadly, I'm not certain of that because we're moving to the "Hide the evidence and deny everything" model of policing up here).
In the US, though, I have zero confidence that anything would happen, and severe concerns that if I did anything but smile and tell my daughter it's OK for the man to touch her in those places, that there would be further consequences for all of us, but none for them.
So, I choose not to take that sort of risks with my family.
While rape is probably too strong a word to use here from an objective standpoint
Easy test - go up to the next woman you see, and try to do what's alleged.
If it's assault on the street, it's assault in the checkpoint.
....and ignorant. Ever heard of Papal bulls? The Pope's letters on doctrine have the first words as the title. The use of the first few words of something as the title has, in fact, a very long history; far longer than email. You are just demonstrating your lack of education and narrow cultural prejudices
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Four times. Back right and left, and front right and left. In my vagina. Between my labia. I was shocked -- utterly unprepared for how she got the side of her hand up there. It was government-sanctioned sexual assault.
Right before that paragraph was this
Basically, I felt it important to make a spectacle of what they are doing to us, to make it uncomfortable for them to violate us and our rights, so I let the tears come. In fact, I sobbed my guts out. Loudly. Very loudly. The entire time the woman was searching me.
Sounds like a sensationalist blogger to me. I'm not saying she wasn't violated. But I don't give her much credibility for her over-dramatic scene
Its a shame that we had to figure out that you started your comment in the subject, because most of us move on if your post doesn't make sense right away. The first half of the sentence in the title does just that.
If you don't like the "Re:" feel free to change the subject of your post. If you want us to care what you are saying then don't place part of the comment there.
I'm guessing your the same type of person who doesn't follow naming conventions.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
That's no fun position to be in. Like any other thing, this is a case of a few bad apples. I'm not going to comment one way or another on the effectiveness of the measures, as that's really the responsibility of the people at the top. The people in the airports are just parts of the machine like the rest of us.
Now, that said, the bad apples do deserve a good 'beating' - but we should try to limit this to the true abusers.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Actually, in the US, under the Supreme Court's free speech jurisprudence which restricts the actions for defamation, in a suit by a public official, falsity is a necessary element of the prima facie case for defamation rather than truth being a defense. So if the suit doesn't explicitly allege that the claims were false, the defendant ought to seek to have the case thrown out for failure to state a valid cause of action.
I have a feeling they don't take kindly to killing TSA agents.
Plus they've probably legally defined TSA sexual assault as not sexual assault.
Eunuchs.