A very belated follow-up on Andrea Abbott

My previous post had me searching my own archives to recall what bad publicity occurred before the TSA changed their policies for children. I stumbled across the story of the brave truth-teller, Andrea Abbott. In 2012, she was in fact convicted of disorderly conduct and sentenced to probation. Here's an excerpt from the foxnews.com coverage at the time [emphasis mine]:

Abbott and her daughter went through a metal detector and TSA Officer Karen King was sent to conduct a pat-down. King testified that before the pat-down, Abbott yelled in her face that she didn't want anyone "touching her daughter's crotch."

...[The prosecutor] said the officers reminded Abbott several times that she could file a complaint if she had a problem with the security check proceedings.

"You can speak your mind, but you can't do it in an illegal manner," she said. "What the defendant did was a crime."

The case briefly drew national attention as hundreds offered Abbott support and donations amid debate over whether new, intrusive screening methods should be allowed at airports.

"Since 9/11, we're losing a lot of freedom, and we have to draw the line somewhere," Horst [Abbott's pro-bono attorney] said in closing arguments.

The "illegal manner" that Abbott used was apparently using curse words while otherwise remaining amazingly calm in the face of the legalized molestation of her child and attempted sexual assault of her own person. Nullification, people!

Airport video of Andrea Abbott's arrest

I was unable to get this video to play when it first came out and I thought it was just a newscast covering Andrea Abbott's arrest last month. It is amazing to watch in retrospect after seeing commenters across the blogosphere say how this woman deserved it for losing her cool. But, she looks very calm during the entire video and it is unclear why she was even arrested after it was all over.

Update on Andrea Abbott

The mother who protected her daughter from the TSA, only to be rewarded with arrest, has issued a statement through her attorney. (I guess this means that charges haven't been dropped.) When I originally blogged about this at LRC, I wrote:

...the details get fuzzy because, all of a sudden, Abbott did an about-face and "allowed" the pat-down of her daughter. It seems much more likely that she was threatened and bullied to the point where she was worn down.

Am I a genius or what? (What: clearly the TSA's bullying behavior is predictable by anyone with half a brain). Here's what Abbott says happened:

“The officer was rude and bullied me. He had no intention of resolving the problem and assisting in the situation, but his solution was to put me in jail and threaten to put my daughter in foster care,” [Andrea Abbott] stated.

Nice, TSA. Real classy.

Furthermore, we also learn about Abbott's daughter's age. She's 14. That is, she is old enough to get the "adult" pat-down - including 4 vaginal karate chops and full breast massage - and not the slightly-more-tame pat-down reserved for under-13's. Frankly, Abbott could have done a lot more than yelled and cursed at the agent, and I'd still be behind her 100%. This is child molestation, plain and simple.

As for not wanting her daughter to get a scan:

1. Child pornography. Period.
2. See my recent coverage on the "safety" of scanners. Basically, we know nothing. And, certainly, we don't know how children will be affected as compared to adults.

Good for you, Andrea, for doing what every good parent should do: protecting your daughter from unnecessary harm and molestation!