Thursday, January 16, 2014

Denver Police Investigate TSA for Sexual Assault After 'Intrusive' Pat-Down

 CBS News Denver reports:
Denver police have initiated a sexual assault investigation focused on Transportation Security Administration officers at a checkpoint at Denver International Airport. It comes after a Colorado woman filed a complaint saying the frisking she received amounted to a sexual assault.
“It’s an open and active investigation,” Denver police spokesperson Sonny Jackson said. “We take all complaints seriously and we are on this case as well. We have launched an investigation into it.” 
The criminal probe stems from a complaint filed by Jamelyn Steenhoek, 39, who was patted down by TSA agents on Dec. 26 as she was escorting her 13-year-old daughter to a flight bound for Philadelphia. Steenhoek was not flying, just getting her daughter to the gate.
“I feel like someone who works for a powerful agency that we are afraid of used their power to violate me sexually — to put me in my place,” said Steenhoek, a working mother for a county social services department. Steenhoke is also a full time college student.
Although she had proper credentials to accompany her daughter to the airline gate, an alarm at the checkpoint sounded when she went through. Steenhoek believes the machine picked up the jewels that were sewn into the rear pockets of her jeans. She was asked to submit to having her hands swabbed, which she did.
“Then they told me I tested positive for explosives,” Steenhoek said during an interview with CBS4.
She explained to the agents that the positive hit from her hand swab was probably the result of her pumping gas into her car earlier in the day.
“She said, ‘We’ll have to do a search.’ So I thought, ‘Okay.’ “ 
Steenhoek said she was just focused on completing the search and getting to the gate with her daughter with enough time to get her teenager something to eat. She said she was ushered into a small private room at the TSA checkpoint with her daughter watching from a few feet away. 
“They told me to spread my arms and spread my feet.” 
She said the female TSA agent seemed to get agitated when Steenhoek tried to hurry the process along so she could get her daughter to her plane.
“At that point she did a pretty invasive search. They are just areas of the body I’m not comfortable being touched in. On the outside of my pants she cupped my crotch. I was uncomfortable with that.”
Steenhoek said the agent repeatedly dug her fingers into Steenhoek’s armpits.
“The part of the search that bothered most was the breast search. You could tell it shouldn’t take that much groping. To me it was as extensive as an exam from my physician — full touching and grabbing in the front. I felt uncomfortable, I felt violated.”
She said when the search turned up nothing, the agent repeated it a second time.
“So it didn’t make any sense. The whole search was done over and more touching and grabbing than the first time.”
Eventually TSA officers released her without finding anything and she managed to get her daughter to her flight on time. Steenhoek complained to the TSA about her treatment but felt that would not yield any results.
Three days later she went to Denver police and filed a police complaint against the unnamed female TSA agent who searched her. In the report Steenhoek complained of an “intrusive search,” characterizing what happened to her as being “sexually assaulted.”
“I was looking for consequences, for TSA to be accountable for what they do to people,” Steenhoek told CBS4.
“You want one or more of them to be charged with sexual assault?” she was asked.
“I do,” she responded.
Jackson says the sex assault complaint is being handled like any other.
“We’ll present it to the district attorney and see if there’s enough to charge,” Jackson said.

(via Drudge)

5 comments:

  1. Cops can kill buck-naked, obviously unarmed citizens, with no punishment other than a couple weeks off with pay during the "investigation". Says so in their union rules.
    The president has committed numerous crimes with no punishment of any kind.
    Goobermint maggots are above the law - the agent will receive no punishment of any kind.
    We the people, are peasants ruled by goobermint maggots who answer to noone. See the movie "Braveheart" or "The Patriot" for examples of EXACTLY where "we the people" stand today.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have undergone a pat-down, having refused to go through the scanners. It is- by nature- a degrading and dehumanizing experience.

    I think the charge of 'sexual assault' will fail for two reasons:

    First, the thugs are wearing costumes with shiny badges on them. In the world of today (and as pointed out by Anonymous), this means the acts committed by the TSA are not punishable by law anymore than the nefarious acts which police officers and other government employees engage in every day! The government costume and/or title allows one to act with almost complete and total impunity, and countless examples are piling up every day. These acts of aggression are what can be expected when the government is the sole judge of itself.

    Second, when one submits to a pat-down, one is implicitly consenting to the pat-down. Indeed, at this point, entering the airport is tantamount to submitting to a pat-down. In all airports, cameras manned by TSA are monitoring activity, as well as TSA agents who are walking around profiling unwitting customers. Thus, a persons mere presence in an airport is cause for suspicion to the TSA.

    This is the de-facto "public" environment in which the airlines operate their business these days. Thus, a person has lost the ability to engage or disengage in commerce in an airport at their will, and on their own terms. It is a shining example of what the government can do to an otherwise delightful service.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nothing will happen. If the DA even toyed with the idea of filing charges, the feds would swoop in and grant immunity to the TSA screeners, lest this case have a "chilling effect" on the ability of the gate rapists to do their jobs.

    We have no rights at this point — only the illusion of a few remaining rights. Such illusion is permitted because it does not harm the police state to have people think this is still a free country. It's not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kudos to Ms. Steenhoek for using their own system against them. By continuously calling attention to the laws don't apply to certain "exempt" individuals, only to the underclass, people will begin to realize their own position in the game. If "sexual assault" has multiple definitions and thresholds based on societal position then what? "The enemy has only images and illusions behind which he hides his true motives. Destroy the image and you will break the enemy." Keep breaking the illusions!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Only thing this will do is put her name on some TSA shit list.

    ReplyDelete