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Video: Miss USA Claims TSA Repeatedly Violated Her During Patdown
By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 29, 2011
Modified Apr 26, 2012
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By
John Del Signore
Published Apr 29, 2011
Modified Apr 26, 2012
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What kind of nation have we become when royalty like Miss USA 2003 Susie Castillo has to submit to the obscene vulgarities of airport screening? Is no one's junk exempt from degrading scenes like this? (Ask John Boehner.) In this tearful video (presumably shot by her chaperone), Castillo explains how her vagina was touched four times during a TSA patdown:
On her blog, she elaborates that she refuses to go through the body imaging scanners because of the radiation, and as a result she has to submit to the dreaded pat-down, which she says went too far at Dallas Airport. "To say that I felt invaded is an understatement," writes Castillo. "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 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!"
As Castillo was standing around crying, she says "a sweet older woman who is an airport volunteer came over to comfort me and said, 'Well, you know honey, I'd rather do a pat-down or go through the scanner than be blown up.' " Then Castillow asked the question that's been known to keep some of us up at night: "Drug smugglers, sometimes, I've heard, they put drugs up their rectum. So what happens when a bomber or somebody, a terrorist, puts something up their rectum? Are we going to get rectal exams? What's next?" (For the record, the TSA has promised that's not going to happen, which makes us feel very secure, very warm inside.)
After finally regaining her composure, Castillo reported her grievance to the TSA supervisor on duty, who gave her a "customer comment card" to fill out. [Buzzfeed Via Gawker]
Tagged
airport security
miss usa
pat down
security theater
susie castillo
tsa
tsa follies
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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