Air travelers tweet: TSA pat-downs and scans evoke humor, tears

Some wrote of their discomfort with the process.

• The last thing I wanted to hear after passing thru TSA naked scanner: "Ma'am, we need you to go through again." #surehopeitwasntworking

And some highlighted deeper issues.

• I just opted out of the backscatter, and then had my breasts and genitals groped by a TSA Agent. It was very violating. When I complained to the agent she told me (QUOTE) ‘You will be thankful about these security measures when you see those people praying on their rugs.’ I am infuriated.

In a phone interview, Eliz Roser of Portland, Ore. – the woman who reported the incident above via Twitter and Facebook – told the Monitor that the reaction of the TSA employee made a bad situation much worse.

Roser had asked to speak to the supervisor after her “enhanced" pat-down left her in tears. She had chosen to opt out and face the pat-down rather than expose herself naked to the TSA agent looking at the scans. “That’s two bad choices, there,” she says.

But “that feeling of sadness and violation turned into so much anger when that woman made that comment to us," said Ms. Roser. "That felt so much worse, that she’d talk about those people praying in the terminal – that we should assume they’re all terrorists.”

Roser has filed complaints with Covenant Aviation Security, the private security contractor at San Francisco International Airport (SFO); the TSA, under whose auspices they work; and the ACLU. Despite promises on the CAS website that all complaints will be addressed within one business day, Roser has received no response.

“I have to fly again in two weeks. I’m going to opt out of the scanner again, because I want my voice to be heard,” says Roser. “I want the agent to know I’m uncomfortable. I want the supervisor to know. If I get to the airport early enough, I have plenty of time to make my voice heard.”

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