From an article in The New American:
Phyllis Dintenfass is an unassuming, 62-year-old retired teacher from Appleton, Wisconsin. She has never committed a crime against persons or property, but faces a year in prison and $100,000 in fines as a result of her collision with a federal official.
Last September, Mrs. Dintenfass and her husband were passing through security prior to a flight at Appleton’s Outagamie County Regional Airport. Since something she wore repeatedly triggered metal detectors, Mrs. Dintenfass was taken to a “secondary screening area” by a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) supervisor named Anita Gostisha. The would-be passenger complied as Gostisha used an electronic “wand” to scan for metal objects.
Gostisha then used the back of her hands to check the area beneath Dintenfass’s breasts, provoking her to “lash out.” According to Dintenfass, her reaction was to reciprocate the unwanted and uninvited physical contact while saying, “How would you like it if I did that to you?” Gostisha claims that the middle-aged woman – uniformly described as mild-mannered and inoffensive – also “slammed her against the wall,” which would certainly be a proportionate response to what reasonable people would consider a sexual assault.
Dintenfass flatly denies shoving the TSA official. In any case, she was arrested and charged with “assaulting” a federal official. A federal jury found her guilty of that supposed crime on July 26. Sentencing will occur on November 1.
Dintenfass “punished Anita Gostisha for doing her job,” complained federal Prosecutor Tim Funnell. U.S. Attorney Steven Bispukic added that TSA officers, who perform a “vital function” are “entitled to protection from assault.”
Perhaps the only positive aspect of this case is that we now have an official acknowledgment from federal attorneys that the invasive, degrading physical contact regularly inflicted on air travelers by TSA drones is a form of “punishment” and “assault.” But this implicit admission is bundled with the assumption that federal officials, who belong to a specially privileged and protected class, are entitled to assault common citizens – in the name of “homeland security,” naturally.