Woman arrested for getting belligerent with TSA over patdown

July 13, 2011

The TSA has been getting frequently and vocal criticism. Image: Joel Franusic/Flicker/CC BY-SA
The TSA has been getting frequent and vocal criticism. Image: Joel Franusic/Flicker/CC BY-SA

A Tennessee woman was arrested Saturday when she objected to a TSA patdown of her daughter. The woman allegedly became belligerent and was charged with disorderly conduct. This comes after the TSA changed its patdown policy for children last month.

Protective mom gets vocal

Andrea Fornella Abbott, 41, of Clarkesville, Tenn., was arrested Saturday at the Nashville International Airport. She and her daughter, whose age has not been released, were preparing to board a Southwest Airlines flight for Baltimore. Abbott became vocal when a Transportation Security Administration agent attempted to pat her daughter down.

‘With quite a bit of attitude’

Airport officer Sabrina Birge reported to police that Abbot told her “in a very stern voice with quite a bit of attitude” that she and her daughter were not going through the x-ray. Birge told her that it is not an x-ray, that “it is 10,000 times safer than your cell phone and uses the same type of radio waves as a sonogram.”

Reportedly, Abbott replied “I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.”

Arrested for disorderly conduct

According to police reports, Abbott yelled at the agents that she did not want her daughter to be “touched inappropriately or have her crotch grabbed.” Foul language was used and, when she would not relent, she was arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to jail.

Abbott attempted to take video of the incident with her cell phone, but she was arrested before she could record anything. Abbott was later released on bond.

Policy for children recently amended

The TSA changed its policy for dealing with children after video of a 6-year-old girl being patted down at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport surfaced in April. The current policy is to make several attempts at screening young children without resorting to patdowns, if at all possible.

Not the first objection this year

There have been several public reports this year of outrage at the TSA patdown procedure, which many find invasive. Last December Khloe Kardashian likened the procedure to rape. Susie Castillo, a former beauty queen, released a distraught video after a patdown at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. Last month an elderly cancer patient was made to remove her adult diaper for TSA authorities. And earlier this month a Seattle woman accused the TSA of racism for inspecting her curly hair.

Sources

UPI: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/13/Mother-arrested-over-patdown-of-daughter/UPI-39571310573252/?spt=hs&or=tn
Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014331/Mother-attitude-arrested-refusing-TSA-pat-daughter.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

AOL Travel: http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/07/13/mom-arrested-for-yelling-at-tsa-over-daughters-patdown/?icid=maing-grid7|maing9|dl9|sec1_lnk2|77630

 

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