Congressman Details Gropey TSA Encounter — and How the Agent Wanted to Press Charges After He Complained
- Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:24am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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Republican Rep. Francisco Canseco (AP)
Rep. Francisco Canseco (R-Texas) on Thursday detailed his recent experiences with the Transportation Security Administration after he said an agent got way too aggressive during a pat-down — and then wanted to press charges against him after Canseco complained.
Speaking with Joe “Pags” Pagliarulo — a nationally syndicated radio host based in San Antonio and frequent fill-in for Glenn Beck — Canseco said the first experience happened earlier this month when he was on his way to Washington from San Antonio.
“I went through the full-body scanner, they stopped me and they said ‘we’re going to have to pat you down,’” Canseco, a freshman representative, said. “I said OK; I lifted up my arms, they start patting my leg very, very aggressively. The guy goes up close to my groin and when you get pat there it hurts! And there’s a very human reaction when it hurts there — you move the offensive thing out of the way and you step back.”
He continued, “In doing so, I would expect the TSA agent to say hey, I’m sorry, which would have been OK. Instead he raises his hand, he says ,’I need a manager here, I’ve been assaulted!’”
What followed, Canseco said, was a huddle with “managers, supervisors, police, the whole bit” as the screener wanted to press charges against him and have him arrested.
The congressman — who said he didn’t tell agents who he was — was not allowed to move from the screening area, even to retrieve his shoes, belt or luggage. He said he had his boarding pass and driver‘s license confiscated until about 25 minutes later when a police officer responding to the situation told him he wasn’t going to get involved and let him leave.
Canseco said what he found most outrageous was the fact that he’d already been through the full-body scanner, so “they know I’ve got nothing on there.”
“OK fine, they want to pat you down, but accept the fact that you touched something that you shouldn‘t and you caused some hurt and there’s a natural human reaction to it, but don’t overreact to it,” Canseco said.
His TSA run-in wasn’t finished yet though, when he was back at the same airport a week later and said he got singled out again for another pat-down. He protested, saying he had just been patted down the week before and that it got “very offensive” and was not going to happen again.
“They held me up for a while, they told me I was not under arrest but I was being detained and I could not leave, I could not do anything, and if I decided not to take the flight again, I still needed to get patted down,” Canseco said.
According to the Houston Chronicle, a TSA spokesman in Dallas confirmed the incidents involving Canseco occurred, but said Canseco was “randomly selected for the additional screening during the first encounter.”
Canseco said his experience was inexcusable and is illustrative of the problems with the TSA as a whole.
“This calls to my attention what an egregious invasion of our privacy and our dignity is happening with TSA,” he said. “The American people expect and deserve safe and secure travel from threats of terrorism when they board a commercial aircraft. But here we have an agency that is getting very aggressive and whether by accident or not it’s going to their head.”
Listen to the full interview below:
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Comments (63)
goofyfoot2001
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:13pmI know one of these TSA agents and he’s damn near a ******. I’m afraid to fly. I haven’t been back in the air since 2005 (well except when I was flyin the airplane). If Romney don’t do anything about this crap and much of the other BS going around, the republicans can kis my vote in 2016.
Report Post »goofyfoot2001
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:16pmThe COMMENT SORTING IS STILL RETARDED
Report Post »goofyfoot2001
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:18pmThe stars spell Re-Tard
Report Post »babylonvi
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 2:13pmThe Republican Controlled House should stop this NOW by allowing ZERO funding for TSA, and YES shut the government down if Barry‘s people won’t let the budget go through without it. The Republicans have been only voting for AND supporting this shredding of the Constitution and stripping up or our rights. This will be their last chance. The public IS ready for a third party if the GOP continues to be controlled by /the Globalist Tyrants.
Report Post »marcus_arealius
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 2:22pmGlenn has a problem with a few words. I respect that. He even made a brief statement on some of this on his TV show or his GBTV (I don’t remember exactly).. There are other words which can get the point across. I do think a preview function would be helpful when we write our comments.
Report Post »Wilma
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:52pmI bet the agents new exactly who the congressman was. Remember, they belong to the union now.
Report Post »Czynik
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 2:47pmYou got it right – there is no such thing as a random choice as long as a human looks at people and makes the pick. I don‘t know how many muz zies fly but I would bet they don’t get screened if they are in full traditional garb.
Report Post »Mutiny
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:42pmMaybe, just maybe we could elect a president that is for our freedom and has been fighting against the TSA more than anyone.
Ron Paul 2012!!! ABO group needs to join the only candidate that will end this TSA crap, with a chance against Obama.
Report Post »SoCalWalt
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:39pmRon Paul is a good man with lots of great ideas, but let’s face it: he couldn’t even win within his own party. He’d get totally creamed by Obama in a general election.
Report Post »SadButTrue
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:10pmNew Business Adventure: Private chartered planes. You could do an ad that states: Tired of having to trade rape for security? Call us!
Report Post »donmyrick
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:35amMistreatment, intimidation, and bribery of the American people are the hallmarks of the Obama Gang. They relish these as both a political tool and a delicious game. The actions and statements of cabinet members and federal regulators in numerous instances reveal eagerness to abuse power in order to intimidate the people. It permeates the Obama administration from the top down to the lowest TSA agent and federal regulator.
Can we throw these people out, or are enough people bribed to keep them in office?
Report Post »HorseCrazy
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:56amaren’t they unionized now care of obama? they will never get rid of them now. I won’t fly commercial. Our freedoms are gone, this is not the country we remember anymore.
Report Post »Livia
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:20pmI don‘t fly anymore and won’t ever again. I have a bit of metal in my leg where it was broken some years back and had to be mended with the metal. In any case, I have come to the conclusion that if I DID fly and was having to endure the pat down thing, I would try my best to muster up a huge smelly phart for them. Might even consider shucking all my clothes off like the fellow did the other week. Anything to make them remember me.
Report Post »KenInIL
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:25pmSince there are a lot more car bombers than plane bombers, I think we ought to station TSA inspectors at strategic points in DC and NYC to check cars and their passengers. Also we ought to have them go through “Occupy” camps to make sure everyone is safe — twice a day. Lets stop bombers.
Report Post »Bill Rowland
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:36pmWhen you take a high school drop out (or one who was advanced with bad grades) out from behind the counter at McDonalds and put him in a position where he has power over others things happen.
The sudden rush of power makes him push the envelope. The second pat down was obviously the result of the congressmans reaction and release the first time.
These storm troopers will be part of Sweet Old Baracks front line. Next they will be given sidearms and authority to arrest. We have quit flying since we retired. We almost missed a flight (we were there 2 hrs early) because of the buckles on my suspenders. I ev en pulled up my shirt and showed them the buckles and finally got a suervisor who cleared me after almost 30 mins of BS.
PMG 2012
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:32amHey AssClown, welcome to our world……….
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:20pmhate and stupidity define you …you mothr was right.
Report Post »bharris0
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:29amIf we have a civil war, I wonder how many of them would survive it…….
Report Post »jungle J
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:21pmyou sound just like a progressive plant…an operative you know….
Report Post »Freedomluver
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:28amSeems a lot of comments are missing the fact that both parties have brought this insanity upon us. Romney will continue such policies and is even on record backing the NDAA that allows OBAMA to have you arrested with no formal charges, witnesses, and no release date.
Wake up folk, and don’t be fooled by 2 sides of the same coin.
It matters not if it’s their left boot or their right boot upon your neck.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:45amI absolutely agree.
Report Post »Wilma
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 12:49pmI agree.
Report Post »godflesh
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:25amI don’t fly. I won’t fly. I am driving 1100 miles one way in July for vacation because I absolutely will not put my wife and kids through a gestapo grope fest. Even if the TSA is disbanded and all those involved with that criminal agency are tried and convicted of sexual assault as they should be, I will never again fly. Ever.
Report Post »Gootch
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 1:34pmLook at the big picture. It is the intent of the gubmt to stop us from traveling at all. That’s why I believe they are starting to clamp down on bus travelers, have ordered b u llet proof checkpoint stations, ordered 450 million rounds of hollow point am mo. have already started stopping vehicles for random searches, have set up highway cams, etc. We have a million dollar system where I live, in a rural valley, with sensors to “monitor deer crossings” and cameras to video cars when the alarm is activated (so they purport). Funny, it is on the main road into and out of the valley and isn’t a place where there is heavy deer crossing. Nudge by nudge, we are becoming accustomed to sheeple thinking. We are already into the fourth r e i c h.
Report Post »Elena2010
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 2:21pmDoubt it since their own constituents travel by bus.
Report Post »PatrickJ
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:22amThis another of many examples of how WE have lost control of OUR government, THEY now control USa. Vote in November and take it back.
Report Post »Freedomluver
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:40amEeerrrr… since both parties gave us this madness, who will you turn to?
Report Post »qzak491
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 7:08pmIf this summer goes bad, elections may be a thing of the past.
Report Post »momrules
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:19amThis makes me angry but Conseco is a grown man and a Congressman to boot
.
The stories that send me into a rage are the ones where children are raped ( yes, I call it rape) before the eyes of their parents, while they are screaming in fear and NO ONE lifts a finger to stop these rapes.
Those are the cases that tell me that Americans are whipped, beaten, it’s over.
Report Post »Silversmith
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:15amIt’s a pity that we have to WAIT for a lawmaker to actually experience this before something MIGHT be done.
DC enema now.
Silversmith
Report Post »Deda1
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:10amListen a lot of the TSA agents are Democrats who happen to be perverts and can obtain a job nowhere else due to their sexual addictions, so the Demorats have to put them somewhere.
Report Post »recoveringneocon
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:29amRemember………….Bush hired them.
Report Post »WashingtonIsMyHero
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:05amHow much more arrogant and aggressive the TSA “agents” have become after they were allowed to unionize. Unions insulate these losers from being responsible for the use of aggression and arrogance in the performance of their duty. Then this ***** agent wanted to sue? The TSA must go! Get the Muslim Brotherhood out of our government. The Brotherhood must get a big charge out of old ladies and handicapped people being treated like animals.
Report Post »Woodiedg
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:04amLooks like the TSA hires a lot of thieves and homosexuals. The theives steal from luggage and the homos get free feels. TSA has to go in 2013 along with a slue of other govenmental agencies that are
Report Post »denying out constitutional rights.
RJJinGadsden
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:04amFrom reading remarks here and on so many other stories at The Blaze we often, and I saw WE as a total of opinions from all sides use the term Nazi in a lot of descriptions. It just dawned on me that the Nazis did not even use the tactics of the TSA. Yes, they were harsher in many other ways, but they did not even do to travellers what is happening today.
Report Post »I’ll say this again, this needs to happen to just enough people in congress to get them off their dead @$$es and actually do something about this. This also goes back to another one of these alphabet agencies that writes it’s own rules and regulations and attempts to slap around the public at will. Yeah, these agents are some of the same who have found to be running drugs through these airports, not to mention stealing valuables from baggage and essentially fencing the items through Craig’s List, and eBay. And, these are the few that have actually been caught. Before anybody tries to correct me, I am well aware that the TSA was born under the Bush Administration. But, Janet Napalitano has been so hands off with oversight that it has become the monster it is. There has to be a better way to do this….especially if the Nazis did not do this.
NeoKong
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:57amYou see that. The TSA officer wanted to punish the man who dared not to tremble in fear of his great power. That was brutal naked intimidation.
Report Post »recoveringneocon
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:55amThis Guy voted and supports the funding that give the TSA the ability to do this to the Citizens of this Country. And now he complains about it? Couldn’t have happen to a better person. Just another enemy of the People, Constitution, and the Republic. Probably has lunch with Allen West 2 times a week.
Report Post »mdeputy7
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:06amShow your proof. Don’t just make claims.
Report Post »recoveringneocon
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:36am@mdeputy7
Report Post »http://votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/50146/
While your there look up “The Great Patriot West”
Hope I don’t have to tell and explain which bills and laws to you too.
Freedomluver
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:51am@recoveringneocon
Report Post »Don’t confuse the sheeple with the facts. Both sides have done this to us. Seems like there are many who prefer the right boot over the left boot, as it’s placed on their throat.
cookcountypatriot
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:47ami dont fly….i refuse to walk the perv line to get to my plane…
Report Post »AmazingGrace8
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:04amI hear ya. Agree! Just a note, when the video shows a victim & the hand is sweeping through the curves of the woman’s breast, I have to turn my head and refuse to watch..porn film! Unbelievable!
Report Post »Ty Coon
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:39amAirports need to do away with this infringement on our Rights ! Mohammadden psychopaths are easy to spot and have been since Sirhan Sirhan, blew Bobby Kennedy’s, brains out in 1968 !
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:36amDefinition of irony. TSA agent grabbing a Congressman’s groin and then claiming HE was assaulted when the Congressman bats his hand away from his junk.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:01am“If you touch my junk, I’m going to have you arrested.”
– John Tyner
“If you touch my junk, I’m going to have you tried for treason.”
– Rep. Francisco Canseco
For the hard-of-thinking, no, he did not actually say this quote.
Report Post »The_Jerk
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:33amWe are prisoners in our own land.
Report Post »floridaborn
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:45amThis story made me shiver. You are so right – hostages – not citizens.
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:32amThis was done to try and harass the Congressman; and to see if they could provoke a hostile reaction to have him arrested, a set up by the TSA pure and simple at the core. I hope that he has charges put against the agent for groping and anything else that is applicable.
This is just one more reason to end the TSA terror and intimidation group.
Report Post »recoveringneocon
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 11:02am@snowleopard
Report Post »No this Congressman should be arrested for supporting and voting for bills and laws that make this possible. He just thinks he above it all. This treatment is only for the commoners. Name one in Congress that is speaking of ending the TSA. Just another so called Conservative.
Restore the Republic
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:32amThis TSA NAZl Thug should be put before a Firing squad like all NAZls deserve.
Report Post »biohazard23
Posted on April 26, 2012 at 10:31am“This calls to my attention what an egregious invasion of our privacy and our dignity is happening with TSA,” he said. “The American people expect and deserve safe and secure travel from threats of terrorism when they board a commercial aircraft. But here we have an agency that is getting very aggressive and whether by accident or not it’s going to their head.”
THEN BAN THE TSA!!!!
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