The Freedom Bulletin

If you haven’t already, check out this viral video of a TSA agent patting down and swabbing a 3-year-old boy with a broken leg in a wheelchair. It was taken a couple of years ago but was just posted this weekend.

The boy’s father, Matt Dubiel, said to CNN:

“There is another human being putting their hands on my child. That is not acceptable. If he was putting his hands on my child at McDonald’s or anyplace else, we would immediately have him arrested and call the police…

I think the whole exercise was intrusive and disrespectful to a human being, and a 3-year-old human being.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

Most of the world, I’m sure, has already heard of Senator Rand Paul’s act of courage yesterday, but I must pay tribute to him anyway. At a Nashville, TN, airport, Senator Paul, after already being forced to go through a full-body scanner, was ordered to submit to a pat-down. He refused and was subsequently escorted from the airport by police.

According to Yahoo News:

In a telephone interview with the Associated Press, Paul said that the incident occurred after an alarm went off when he passed through a scanner at Nashville Airport Monday. Paul said the alarm had apparently been triggered by his knee, though “the senator said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint,” the AP said.

TSA agents refused his request to walk through the scanner again to reconcile the anomaly, and he refused their demand for a pat-down, Paul said.

The Kentucky Senator said that “he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security,” the AP reported. Paul “said he was ‘detained’ at a small cubicle and couldn’t make his flight to Washington for a Senate vote scheduled later in the day.”

Some may argue that refusing a pat-down isn’t enough to make someone a hero. In my opinion, Rand definitely qualifies for that title because of everything he has done to defend liberty in his life so far. Although what he did yesterday was a small, everyday act, it is things like this that little by little advance the cause of freedom and make the world a better place.

Last week, sadly, Jesse Ventura’s case against the TSA was dismissed. The former Minnesota governor had filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, (correctly) calling the use of airport full-body scanners and pat-downs without probable cause unconstitutional, demeaning, and degrading. He gave quite a press conference afterward, saying that he would never fly again, that he would apply for dual citizenship with Mexico, that he would call our country the Fascist States of America, and that he might even run for president:

“I will not be treated like a criminal. In our airports today, we citizens are treated like criminals. We’re guilty until we’re proven innocent…I will never stand for a national anthem again. I will turn my back and raise a fist the same way Tommy Smith and John Carlos did in the ’68 Olympics, Jesse Ventura will do that today.”

Good for him. If I filed a lawsuit to stand up for my constitutional rights and it was thrown out, I would be mad too!

Watch his speech above, or read and listen at Minnesota Public Radio.

As you may have heard, the TSA subjected Lori Dorn – a breast cancer survivor – to a full-body scan and pat-down by agents who ignored her medical information card. She blogged about her experience, and the TSA actually apologized for its treatment of her. She wrote:

“Yesterday I went through the imaging scanner at JFK Terminal 4 for my Virgin America flight to San Francisco. Evidently they found something, because after the scan, I was asked to step aside to have my breast area examined. I explained to the agent that I was a breast cancer patient and had a bilateral mastectomy in April and had tissue expanders put in to make way for reconstruction at a later date.”

“I told her that I was not comfortable with having my breasts touched and that I had a card in my wallet that explains the type of expanders, serial numbers and my doctor’s information (pictured) and asked to retrieve it. This request was denied. Instead, she called over a female supervisor who told me the exam had to take place. I was again told that I could not retrieve the card and needed to submit to a physical exam in order to be cleared. She then said, ‘And if we don’t clear you, you don’t fly’ loud enough for other passengers to hear. And they did. And they stared at the bald woman being yelled at by a TSA Supervisor.”

“We do our best to treat passengers with the dignity and respect they deserve, but in Lori Dorn’s case, it looks like we missed our mark,” the TSA wrote on their official blog. “We sincerely regret and apologize for the experience Mrs. Dorn had at JFK.”

Thank you Lori for standing up to the TSA and actually getting them to admit they were wrong. Visit her blog, her husband’s blog, or follow her on Twitter @HRLori.

Yukari Miyamae, who is facing charges for allegedly groping a TSA agent, gave an interview to the Boulder, Colorado, community radio station where she volunteers as a DJ. She explained her beliefs about airport security, how she felt during the “sexual assault” of the TSA agent, and her past which includes being kidnapped at the age of 7:

“I started this job in May and I’ve been subject to aggressive pat downs a few times…(where they are) grabbing my breast, grabbing all my sore sensitive area, from my side to the front of my body, to the inside of my thigh. I just suffer so much from being subject to a pat down…

“Hearing that I had no choice triggered my panic…I cannot remember all the details. I was in this space of desperation. My peripheral vision was shrinking. I see all these people surrounding me, including police officers with guns. All these people look taller than me…

“I felt the fear, I felt fear of being molested by these people…I cannot tolerate a stranger touching me.”

I would highly recommend reading the rest at TheDenverChannel.com.

Here’s the latest on alleged TSA agent groper Yukari Mihamae (or Miyamae, I’m not sure which spelling she prefers). She will not face felony sexual abuse charges, which she was initially charged with, but she isn’t completely off the hook. The district attorney turned the case over to city prosecutors, who may prosecute her for a misdemeanor.

Her lawyer gave the following statement:

“Ms. Miyamae says she told TSA agents she wanted to be screened by the metal detector gate.

She did so out of concern for excessive radiation exposure from the full-body scanners, as she is a frequent business traveler.

Her request was denied. She was soon surrounded by TSA agents. One TSA agent, a tall woman, approached Ms. Miyamae, who is only five feet tall.

Ms. Miyamae felt panicked and experienced a volatile aversion to the TSA personnel violating her personal physical space.

She felt endangered and threatened based upon prior traumatizing security pat-downs, repugnance at the prospect of being touched again in such a violent and undignified manner, and instinctively pushed the female TSA agent away.”

In response to the public support her client has garnered, Mihamae’s lawyer says: ”"She sincerely appreciates the support…She was violated by all this and has been traumatized…She’s surprised by all this, but she is a strong woman. She feels the way the TSA treated her and others is not dignified.”

Support her on Facebook!

Sources: Daily Mail, USA Today, Fox News, Maricopa County Attorney press release

Blogs and opinions: David Shapiro at the Honolulu Star Advertiser, Justin Tenuto at Rocket Lawyer, and Rich Abdill at the Miami New Times.

A 61-year-old Colorado woman was arrested and charged with felony sexual abuse for doing to a TSA agent, well, what TSA agents do to travelers every day:

“Officials said Yukari Mihamae was flying from Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport to Colorado when she put her hands on a TSA agent Barbara O’Toole’s breast and squeezed and twisted with both hands.

She was immediately taken into custody, Fox31 Denver reported – and ‘pulled away from the arresting officer when placed under arrest.’”

Why aren’t there any arrests when the roles are reversed?

Read the rest at the New York Daily News.

ETA: The New York Post says that, unsurprisingly, Mihamae expressed dislike of the TSA’s security measures. ”I go through this every week, and every week there is some problem,” she said. A brave freedom fighter, in a weird way??

And you can read more details of her arrest from ABC.