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TSA Agents Reportedly Strip-Searched An 85-Year-Old Woman

» 19 comments

Not a lot of people are fans of the TSA security procedures, and if you are one of those people, this story is probably not going to assuage your concerns. The agency is now actively denying claims being made by an elderly woman that she was brought aside by TSA agents and strip-searched as part of her screening process.

Lenore Zimmerman, a Long Island resident, was traveling to Fort Lauderdale and requested that she not be subjected to the invasive screening process out of concerns it would react negatively with her defibrillator. But instead of just a regular old pat-down, Zimmerman explained to the New York Daily News she was brought into a private room for something more invasive.

“They took me into a private screening room and pulled my pants down and then pulled down my underwear,” the 4-feet-11 Zimmerman said. “If that’s not strip-searching, I don’t know what else you’d call it.”

Zimmerman requested a pat-down and this is what she got. TSA officials are completely denying the incident took place, and insisted that “proper procedures were followed.” Their comments infuriated Zimmerman, who insists the incident did happen, and promised to file charges against them for what happened to her.

“They’re lying to protect their a– because they’re afraid of being sued — and they will be sued… Why would I make up this story? In my wildest dreams, I couldn’t think of such a thing happening.”

She becomes the latest person to be singled out by TSA agents in a year that’s seen a cancer patient, an African-American woman, and Donald Rumsfeld singled out for pat-down procedures.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JUT2TATEV3OHGQ7HZRYN472XVM Felix

    Well, grandma, why on Earth would they want to search you?

  • Jay

    The TSA molests 76-year-old men too.

    “Recently, [Congressman] Ron Paul had to go through his first invasive pat-down at the airport; his knee replacements bar him from the gulagoscan. This is one of the most well-mannered men I know, but after four very hard jabs to his genitals, he asked the blue-gloved TSA agent: ‘How can you live with yourself, feeling up strange men all day long?’

    “‘I love my job,’ sneered the goon.”

    Link:  http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/71025.html

  • Anonymous

    The persons who did this, need to join the ranks of the unemployed.

  • http://profiles.google.com/wingsofabird helen holmes

    If this can’t be stopped in an election year we have serious problems.

  • http://mediamatters.org/ Leedog

    Who here really thinks this woman should be suspected of being a terrorist?? The REAL terrorists have to be laughing at how far we have taken things!!

  • Douglas W. Rodrigues

    I don’t understand why Americans would be put through these searches when, because of political correctness, young Arab men are allowed to bypass such a search?!!  I’ve seen such a situation personally at San Jose Airport in California!!!  My wife and I are two old people.  My wife was taken aside for a secondary search.  She had to get down to her bra and panties.  She’s 5’2″ tall, silver white hair, looks old….what were they looking for?  Janet Napolitano is an idiot!  

  • Douglas W. Rodrigues

    I used to commute to the San Francisco Bay Area weekly so I got to see much of how TSA operates.  Over that period of six years I personally got to witness the outright stupidity and illogical functioning of the TSA.  I saw Americans be taken aside for a secondary search while young Arab looking men were allowed to bypass such a screening.  I saw a group of Arab looking men loudly speaking in their language bypass a secondary screening.  Then to top the stupidity off, my wife who is white, old (like me), white hair, 5’2″ tall, looking much like the woman in the article above, but without a walker, was taken aside for a secondary screening. My wife had to strip down to her bra and panties!  For what?  Political Correctness?  Janet Napolitano is an idiot!   

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Theresa-Darklady-Reed/581698361 Theresa ‘Darklady’ Reed

    So, every Arab needs to be strip searched, is that what you’re saying? 

    How they’re treating non-Arabs in situations like this is ridiculous… but I don’t think that yanking everyone who looks like they might be an Arab out of line and searching them isn’t a better solution. After all, those young Arab men you saw being “allowed to bypass such a search” didn’t bring any planes down, did they?

    BTW — “young Arab men” who “loudly speak in their own language” can be American citizens, too, ya know. Not everyone in the US speaks English as a primary language… and lots of us talk loudly.

  • Anonymous

    TSA people have let their power make them do ridiculous things because they can get away with it.
    If the above statements are correct, maybe we should all travel dressed like Muslims.

  • Douglas W. Rodrigues

    Your bleeding heart Politically Correct Liberalism is showing.

  • BooBoo Bear

    I personally liked the guy who was going to University in Cincinnati who had gone to his grandmothers funeral in Richmond, VA.  Before he left for the Airport he and perhaps a friend wrote the 4th amendment on his torso regarding Illegal Searches..When the TSA did a search on his he stripped down to his gym shorts under his jeans and took off his T-Shirt.. To him I say Bravo.

    Its time for the TSA to learn what not to do. Have grandparents of TSA agents be their test subjects. If you wouldn’t strip search your own grandmother then they shouldn’t strip search someone else’s.

  • Anonymous

    Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are the only candidates who are talking about getting rid of the odious, 4th Amendment violating TSA and restoring constitutional protections to the USA.  President Obama proved to be the 2d coming of George Bush as far as the so-called Patriot Act is concerned.  If you want your constitutional rights respected, vote for Paul or Johnson.

  • Charles Ulysses Feney

    A Big TSA Supporter

    To those men who are sick of the Nazi TSA
    I offer a solution to this affront of the day
    Report to the screening, with your boarding pass
    Covering your jewels, but baring your ass!

    Just take off your clothing, your shoes, and your socks
    And go thru security with a well framed buttocks.
    Yes, all of us fellows, who are fed up with this crap
    Should report for boarding, wearing a smile and a jock strap!

    Tightey whiteys or boxers aren’t the means to these ends
    And all of you old guy will need to lose the Depends!
    But don’t show up naked, or you’ll be under arrest
    So just wear a jockstrap to this airport protest

    Then refuse the scanner, and opt for the pat down
    Just ask for a cleanup on the seat where you sat down.
    If they want a good look at what little you’ve protected
    Just lift up your package, to get thoroughly inspected!

    The crowds will be astonished and totally impressed
    Because you’ve made the effort to be minimally dressed.
    If you happen to get interviewed by a TV reporter
    Be sure to proudly tell them, you’re a big T.S.A. supporter!

    Were supposed to be Americans, and not live in fear
    Instead of getting felt up from your front to your rear
    So show ‘em you’re not gonna stand for this farce
    Just put on your jockstrap, and show ‘em your arse!
    ________________________
    Charles Ulysses Feney

  • Anonymous

    DUMB  &  DUMBER at it’s best

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bee-Ruled/100001985815996 Bee Ruled

    The Jerry Sanduskys of the world have to work SOMEPLACE, right?

  • http://www.dregstudios.com Brandt Hardin

    Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the Patriot Act was
    adopted WITHOUT public approval or vote just weeks after the events of 9/11.  Such an unconstitutional set of laws should
    be abolished seeing as they violate human rights and due process.  A mere 3 criminal charges of terrorism a year
    attributed to this act, which is mainly used for no-knock raids leading to
    drug-related arrests without proper cause for search and seizure.  The laws are simply a means to spy on our own
    citizens and to detain and torture dissidents without trial or a right to
    council.  You can read much more about
    living in this Orwellian society of fear and see my visual response to these
    measures on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-society-of-fear-ten-years.html

  • Anonymous

     A
    third victim, Linda Kallish, 66, of Boynton Beach, came forward this afternoon,
    recounting the same experience at JFK. This is at least the seventh reported
    TSA strip search of a passenger this year including the strip search of
    Shoshana Hebshi in Detroit on September 11th. In that incident TSA acknowledged
    that the search was recorded.

     

    These
    reports raise some serious questions about the extent of the TSA abuses
    occurring in our airports. TSA has repeatedly denied these types of abuses
    occur and usually blame the victim. This is the sort of response that one would
    expect from a rapist, not a Federal agency.

     

    Pulling
    down a person’s pants and underwear would meet most definitions of a strip
    search despite TSA’s attempt to qualify the term. How many others have gone
    unreported? This agency has been flagrantly assaulting people for a year now
    and has only been emboldened by their ability to get away with even the most
    egregious violations of basic standards of decency. The screeners and
    supervisors in these incidents must be prosecuted for what is clearly a
    criminal offense.

     

     

    How
    extreme must these TSA assaults become before Congress demands that this be
    stopped? Will they be permitted to water-board passengers next? Perhaps a few
    random beatings or even a executions, all in the name of an “unpredictable
    screening policy” will be acceptable to Congress.

     

    There
    have been thousands of complaints of strip searches, groping, inappropriate
    comments and other abuses yet TSA contends that “proper procedure was
    followed” in each case. It’s peculiar how they are never wrong.

     

    This
    is the same agency that has had 62 screeners arrested for serious crimes,
    including one for murder and 10 charged with child sex crimes. This agency is
    obviously out of control and needs to be replaced, it is clearly too flawed to
    be reformed.

     

    Those
    who support this sort of abuse are disgusting and endanger the liberties of us
    all. Most are TSA paid trolls and don’t deserve any respect from anyone. They are
    obviously too fearful to function in the real world and are part of the
    problem.

     

    bit.ly/TravelUndergroundTSAabuses

     

     

  • Anonymous

    I was traveling alone through an Orlando airport in August of 2011 after four months of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation. I was “randomly” singled out among hundreds of passengers to go into an enclosed glass box for an extra search. I was frail and bald at the time. The TSA agents were rude and mean spirited. I am ashamed that our government has hired these bullies. I was in tears because of the cruel way I was treated and finally a lady TSA agent handed me a paper towel. 

  • Anonymous

     Moreover everyone in the U.S. should speak English. Age old battle, still not solved correctly.

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