Woman Equates TSA Patdown With 'Rape'

To say that advice columnist and blogger Amy Alkon was not happy about the patdown search she received while clearing security at KLAX on March 31st would be an understatement. In a posting following the experience, she equated the search to being "raped" by the agent who performed the pat down.

Fair warning ... her description of the search is fairly graphic, and she wrote that she left the security area "sobbing." She took the TSOs name, and, on finding out that filing sexual assault charges against her would probably go nowhere, wrote about the incident, including the TSOs name, on her blog.

According to the blog Techdirt, the TSO, Thelda Magee, hired a lawyer and has threatened to sue Alkon in the amount of $500,000 for "defamation," and asked for the removal of the blog post.

Alkon has responded through her own lawyer, who said in a letter that any juror would agree with the description of the search as "rape." He also states the post is protected by the First Amendment, and cites case law in which the word "rape" is protected speech as "rhetorical hyperbole." Alkon's lawyer says in his letter that "even if your cleint's actions were not "rape," Ms. Alkon had every right to characterize them as such."

Forbes reports that there have been recent attempts to have overly-aggressive pat-downs characterized as misdemeanor crimes punishable by arrest and fines, but they have been unsuccessful. For now, we'll just have to watch and see how this one plays out in the courts.

FMI: Alkon's Blog Post, Techdirt, www.tsa.gov