Hug, Interrupted

Michelle Brademeyer says Transportation Security Administration officers at Wichita’s airport treated her 4-year-old daughter like a terrorist. The TSA says its officers followed proper procedures, and the agency denies part of Brademeyer’s version of what happened around noon April 15 (Central Daylight Time) at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. In an interview with The Eagle this week, Brademeyer said she is telling her story, which has drawn attention from overseas media after she wrote about it on Facebook because other kids shouldn’t be treated like this. I couldn't agree more.

The children had passed through the security screening, but their grandmother had set off the alarm. Officers asked the grandmother to sit to the side and wait for a pat-down. Isabella saw her grandmother and excitedly ran over to give her a hug, as children often do. Their contact lasted a few seconds, but a female officer started yelling at the child and demanded she, too, must sit down and await a full body pat-down. Her daughter responded by putting her hands over her face and crying. The mother was prevented from coming any closer, explaining the situation to her, or consoling her in any way. It was implied, several times, that the grandmother, in their brief two-second embrace, had passed the child a handgun. This is a complete overreaction. In fact, the TSA itself is a complete overreaction, having been established a week or so after 9/11.

In other news, the Perthshire village of Dull in Scotland has announced that it is to be twinned with the town of Boring in Oregon.