Please visit Susie Castillo’s Blog to read the enter story: http://www.susiecastillo.net/blog/2011/4/25/my-tsa-pat-down-experience.html
Dear Friends,
To be quite honest, I almost didn’t post this video and blog because I kept asking myself, “Am I just being a baby?” I’m also not one to stir up controversy. In fact, I do my best to live a very positive and healthy life. However, in the situation I’m about to describe, I felt truly violated and believe I should let my voice be heard. Ultimately, I hope others will do the same. Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” So, that’s what I’m doing by sharing this experience:
On my overnight, 11-hour flight back to Los Angeles last week after hosting the red carpet premiere for “Fast Five” in Rio De Janeiro, I connected in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) where I had the misfortune of being selected to go through one of those full body scanners that emits radiation. Now, if you don’t fly very often, you might not worry about it. But I’m a frequent flyer and don’t wish to be irradiated more than I already am on flights (we get a pretty large dose of radiation while flying due to our proximity to the sun; the longer your flight, the more your radiation exposure) and in life in general (we’re exposed to radiation all day every day; it’s called “background radiation”). So I will always “opt out” of going through these body scanners, especially since the long-term effects of radiation are quite well documented: it mutates our cells, often in irreversible ways, and causes cancer. I’m all set with that!
Anyway, after “opting out,” I proceeded to follow a very nice older female TSA employee to the “pat down” area. It was an inconvenience, but I thought, “No biggie. I just went through this at LAX for the first time and it wasn’t too bad, so let’s just get it over with.”
Well, this pat down was completely different. It was MUCH MORE invasive than my first one at LAX, just a week before. To say that I felt invaded is an understatement. What bothered me most was when she ran the back of her hands down my behind, felt around my breasts, and even came in contact with my vagina! Honestly, I was in shock, especially since the woman at LAX never actually touched me there. The TSA employee at DFW touched my private area 4 times, going up both legs from behind and from the front, each time touching me there. Was I at my gynecologist’s office? No! This was crazy!
I felt completely helpless and violated during the entire process (in fact, I still do), so I became extremely upset. If I wanted to get back to Los Angeles, I had no choice but to be violated, whether by radiation or a stranger. I just kept thinking, “What have I done to deserve this treatment as an upstanding, law-abiding American citizen?” Am I a threat to US security? I was Miss USA, for Pete’s sake!
Besides, is this procedure really protecting us? I remember hearing about an Al Qaeda terrorist successfully evading security detection by placing a bomb in his rectum. All in an attempt to assassinate Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Nayef. So what if that happened in the US? Would we then be subjected to random rectal exams in addition to x-rays and being groped by strangers? How far is this going to go? More specifically, how far will WE let this go? As they say, if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. I think it’s time to stand up for our personal liberty.
As a frequent flyer, I knew getting a “pat down” was inevitable, but I never expected it to make me so upset. When it was over, I grabbed my things, walked over to my husband who was waiting for me, and was completely overcome with emotion.
I have never felt more violated in my life than I did that morning at DFW, and I’ve heard of others feeling the same way after these “pat downs.” Just a couple weeks ago, a video of a six-year-old girl being patted down by TSA made headlines. Talk about unjust and unacceptable. So I decided to speak to a TSA supervisor about how I felt, and make a video about what happened to post on my blog.
This “pat down” is a total violation of our rights (we shouldn’t be searched this way without probable cause or a search warrant), therefore I will be filing a complaint via phone, online and also in writing with the TSA to complain each and every time for as long as the TSA is violating my rights. I’m 100% against it, and if you care about your freedom, you should be too. This is precisely the kind of unjust search and seizure our Constitution was created to protect us from.
In my conversation with the TSA supervisor, I expressed to her how physically violated I felt. She was kind and understanding, but was nonetheless in charge of a department that was violating the rights of countless Americans every day. At one point during our conversation, I told her, “the fact is, if someone wanted to harm us, they simply would.”
Guess what. She agreed! She even went so far as to say, “We’re not allowed to touch children like we do adults. If someone really wanted to hide something, they could use a child. I know. There’re definitely loop holes with this.” So apparently, not even TSA employees believe this unconstitutional invasion of privacy works!
Here’s the video I made right after going through the invasive, unjust, unconstitutional and ineffective “pat down.” Honestly, I don’t like that I’m putting myself out there like this, but I wanted you to know what happened, what I was feeling, and that I hope you, too, will speak up if and when this happens to you. We shouldn’t be giving up our liberties as Americans because of our fears. The government can’t keep us safe. No matter how much they promise us they can, it’s a false promise.
#1 by John Jamison on April 28, 2011 - 12:17 am
Author : John Jamison (IP: 70.184.100.236 , wsip-70-184-100-236.ph.ph.cox.net)
Stop being a whiny bitch, You got your pussy rubbed on, big deal. YOU DID NOT GET MOLESTED. You could have had a bomb in your pussy. She probably saw the tampon string and thought it was the fuse.
Next time take a boat. That way when they throw your ass off the boat your fake titties will keep you afloat.
#2 by Jr on April 28, 2011 - 11:48 pm
John, how would you like it if some random person came up to you and grabbed or touched your private area? My guess is you would like it. To attack Susie because she was sexually assualted shows how much compassion and understanding you have; it’s zero by the way in case you were wondering. So why don’t you and all the other nut jobs who think this is keeping us safe, get felt up by the TSA on the way out and move to another country.
#3 by Heather on April 29, 2011 - 12:29 pm
How dare you claim sexual assault and thus minimize what true victims go through??? How about this..it is NOT a right to fly. It is a PRIVILEGE. Your rights end where mine and others begin. You chose to buy the tickets which airline websites state searches can occur. That is a contract. You knew the risks of being scanned vs searched and chose to be searched. If you did not want either, then find alternate transportation. Drug runners do not only use rectums to hide things. They are not only men. You have issue with the contract you signed, then contact a contract lawyer and show him the airlines website…let’s see how far you get. It’s sad to see that myself and others have fought for the rights of this country and people like you do not even know what those rights are.
#4 by Carlos on April 29, 2011 - 6:17 pm
TSA has listened to the fears and worries of the United States people and has put together the best possible scenario to keep another 9/11 from happening. If you feel like you were touched then file the form but don’t blame the system for trying to protect the people. Flying is a priviledge and if pat downs best protect this country so be it. How quickly the people of this country have forgotten the victims of 9/11. Measures like these may have saved many of them.
#5 by admin on April 29, 2011 - 7:06 pm
Carlos – Where do I begin?
1. The American people had no say in the formation of the TSA and certainly not the procedures. Just because an agency was formed does not mean the American people want it. Government is the only enterprise that can fuck something up and then get more money to enlarge the organizations that fucked up.
2. The screening process in the USA is like no other country in the world. These screening procedures are unnecessary and a violation of our constitutional rights.
3. The freedom of movement is ensured by the constitution. Just because people are forced to endure violations of their rights does not mean it is a privilege. I need to eat. If I was forced to go through a cavity search to eat… does that make it acceptable? Eating, by your mindset, is a privilege… not a right. I am buying a good/service when I purchase an airline ticket. The government, via the TSA, is interfering with the consummation of that transaction.
Let’s be real here and admit that the TSA merely provides an illusion of safety. An illusion that comes at the expense of the American people.
#6 by Dave Stewart on April 29, 2011 - 7:43 pm
Susie Castillo,
You are brave and are standing up for your rights. The idiot sexist Jamison and the “Heather” masquerade for a ‘female’ are clueless apologists for the imperial system and are enemies of us all.
Thank you for being brave and a role model for us all, Susie Castillo!
#7 by Phil on April 29, 2011 - 10:56 pm
Where do I begin, Susie is not the only one that TSA has violated, they are doing the same thing to children. If an adult outside the airport touched a child that way you would be having them arrested. Calling someone a whiny bitch because she wants to help others is stupid.
#8 by Vicki on May 3, 2011 - 2:13 am
I have been violated in the same way as Susie not once, but twice. Both times I had my breasts and the area between my legs probed. The kicker is that I only was wearing only a pair of Nike compression shorts and a bra top (which is what I wear through security precisely to avoid TSA’s sexual perversions). Tell me, what on earth could I have been hiding???? Three days later, as I awaited my fate in yet another TSA line, a woman IN FULL BURQUA was waved through without so much as a second look. Someone point out the logic in THAT for me! By the way, flight IS a right! US Code (read: law) 40103 guarantees American citizens public right of transit through navigable airspace. This right cannot be denied except through due process as guaranteed by the 5th amendment. They have to have cause to suspect you and a warrant to search you and they have to find you in violation of the law to keep you off the plane. Probably cause is no more implicit in the purchase of an airline ticket than driving a car implies you are a drug dealer just because the car has a trunk where something could be hidden! If we do not stand up for the preservation of our Constitutional freedoms, we are destined to lose them.
#9 by Mike on May 3, 2011 - 10:49 pm
I feel very bad for this girl who felt that she had been violated. A family member told me that when they worked for TSA they would take things out of people’s bags and keep them. One was eating a person’s chocolates in the break room that this person had been bringing home for their family….so why if they could steal from the American public wouldn’t they unscrupulously conduct a search that was more intimately done than what was really needed?
#10 by Mike on May 3, 2011 - 11:00 pm
Adding to the above post, John you are a rude ignorant person, I can tell just by reading your post on here. Even if you agree with the TSA search,it definitely could have been stated more eloquently and I hope they remove your stupid comments!