TSA Groper Files Suit Against Blogger 699
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."
Cyber stalked too (Score:3, Interesting)
Is this suit actually filed? (Score:5, Interesting)
If I ever take my family overseas (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
"checkpoint smurf?" (Score:5, Interesting)
Publicity Stunt? (Score:0, Interesting)
The person stating they were violated is trying to sell a book, possible publicity stunt to get viewers to her blog for more revenue?
Re:Rough Decisions (Score:5, Interesting)
Although mental acuity may be a forbidding factor, a mortician may be a better career for prospective TSA employees.
My dad was a mortician (his license plates read "EMBALM" - seriously). He took great pride in his job of helping survivors through a difficult time and in making the deceased look peaceful and natural. He was a true craftsman when it came to sculpting prosthetic parts such as when a gunshot wound ruined a jaw, or cancer ate a nose. In his day, he was called in to send statesmen and business leaders to their rest.
Hmmm. That ended up a lot more serious than I intended, and he would've teased me for getting so somber about it. The guy with the "EMBALM" plates liked to laugh a lot. Still, morticians tend to be extremely professional and respectful.
Re:Gee no bias here. (Score:4, Interesting)
In fairness, one could stop reading after the first word of the headline, "TSA" to know what the article & comments will contain.
Red meat for the masses means more clicks, more pageviews, more ad impressions!
I went to Ms. Alkon's wikipedia page to find out more about her; I'm forced to roll my eyes and conclude "she's got a chip on her shoulder from moment one of any interaction."
From wikipedia:
I do not doubt that this particular TSA agent may have overstepped boundaries in this particular case. But I'm also pretty sure, reading about this self-professed behavior on Ms. Alkon's part, that she's also a drama queen just looking for some new controversy to embroil herself in, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if she was also deliberately provocative and confrontational, making the situation more tense than it needed to be, and blowing events out of proportion with histrionics.
I know the white knights here who already despise the TSA will crucify me for saying it, but millions of people fly every fucking day. Yet this shit mostly seems to happen to self-important bloggers who have a history of engaging in nasty, vicious, spiteful little "campaigns," who are so broken up by the experience that they rush home and pound out 2000 words on their blog to generate some pageviews, extra bonus when they just happen to have a videocamera handy to record all the harrassment and abuse they're subjected to.
Re:Rape requires intention (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:This Article is Borderline Defamation (Score:3, Interesting)
Just after 2001, I flew quite a bit for work, but the last time was in 2004, as the travel requirement on that job ended. After seeing/hearing all of the horror stories about TSA and their peversions, I absolutely refuse to fly anymore. To put it in context, I was out of work, I applied for a position which on the job description said nothing about any travel involved. During the interview it became clear that this position involved about 50% travel. I told the interviewer "thanks but no thanks". He in turn told me as I was leaving that they were having an extremely hard time filling this position due to exactly my reasons. He said they'd interviewed some 20 otherwise qualified applicants who balked at the air travel requirement. Actually, I LOVE to fly/travel, and were it not for the TSA's antics, I probably would have continued the interview. I wished them good luck in finding someone willing to commit to that much airtravel with today's TSA-infestation. I really hated to end the interview, as it was going well, and it looked as though they might offer me the position. In any event, I found a much better position about a week later that was strictly local, even with significantly better pay.. Back to the topic at hand: Hats off to people like Ms Alkon.. THIS is part of what it is going to take to begin to kill that abortion called the TSA.