TSA officers terrified a three year-old wheelchair-bound boy by subjecting him to a thorough pat-down in search of explosives. The father who filmed the shocking event wasn’t even allowed to comfort his son during the ordeal.
The officer did not even allow the parent to come near his child or touch him.
“I was told I could not touch him or come near him during the process,” reports the farther, who says his son was “trembling with fear” and wanted him “to hold his hand and give him a hug”.
The family “had to pretend everything was “ok” so the boy wouldn’t panic.
It all started when a family of six fell under suspicion at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport (ORD). They were then forced into a sequestered area for inspection, where a TSA officer said he wanted to check the small child out.
The officer even proposed going to a private screening area to frisk the child if the father refused to lift up the boy’s shirt.
The officer search for explosives led him to swab the boy’s back, palms, and feet, as well as the wheelchair’s armrests.
Unlike his farther, who had to pretend nothing out of the ordinary was going on, the boy freely expressed his vivid disgust with the search.
The father of the understandably confused boy did his best to explain that the TSA officer needed to check them before they could get on the plane.
The farther shared that during the procedure, he was hoping “someone with a brain” and “in a position of authority” would come by and stop the insane formality of checking a toddler for explosives. “Apparently, there are a lot of children in wheelchairs being used to bring down planes,” he wrote.
The family that fell under suspicion at O’Hare consists of two children, two parents and two grand parents. The father said they were headed for a Disney vacation before the incident occurred.
The arbitrary actions of the Transportation Security Administration of the US have increasingly taken the spotlight in recent years. Apart from a wave of complaints from passengers who have fallen victim to its over the top security measures, the TSA is known for being notoriously ineffective.
In an annual report, an agency with an $8 billion budget admits they made a few arguably-alright finds in 2011.
Yeah, That is madness, if the kid was Arabic then it would be the rubber glove treatment.. At least we are not at risk from exploding 3 year old suicide bombers.
Bureauocracy gone mad, do you still think we live in a free society ?
No-one can justify this while 98% of ALL containers on ships entering & leaving hundreds of Ports worldwide go UNinspected, please tell me that makes sense.
This is nothing more than Govs acclimatising people to the near future where you will do whatever whenever you’re told, get used to it or rebel, there is NO inbetween.
This poor kid must have been bloody terrified, especially when isolated from his dad, I apologise to this family on behalf of these dickheads, there are subtle & different ways things can be achieved apart from a full on frontal response. This is another example of the calibre of person we find ourselves being stood over by.