20 minute could change your view of what they do.

Shortly after 911 I had to fly with my young son out to California so he could spend time with his mother.
I did this every year for 6 years. Sometimes twice, first to drop off and again to pick up.
4 times out of 6 years me and or my son were chosen randomly to undergo extra inspections. Even though praying Muslims or burka covered middle Easterners were in line just ahead of or just behind us.
Once I watched an 80 year old white woman get pulled out of line and taken behind security doors into another room for a body search. 80 Years old with a walker.

San Fransisco and Oakland airports are the pits.

I must also say though that I witnessed a cop get taken down by TSA agents when the cop blurted out while in the security line that he forgot to take his gun out of his bag. At that point 6 TSA agents hit him like a pack of rabid dogs and took him down. The whole time he was yelling ‘but I’m a police officer!!! AHHH!!!”.
I looked at the guy next to me and said “Well thats one guy who will be missing his flight today.”
The security line never slowed down or missed a beat.

Cleveland Airport rocks.

Bureaucracies are designed to be used by people without any brains. The intention being that the rules make the standard operating procedures, thus their treatment, identical for all people. No one would possibly think (except for someone with some brains) that a fragile, disabled youngster might be confused and frightened by being manhandled by strangers after being separated from her comforting, calming, and familiar parent, guardian, or support person.

However, this one-treatment-fits-all assumption runs afoul of the differences and idiosyncrasies between the victims — er — customers of the bureaucracy. For instance, a zero tolerance policy can all too easily be (mis)interpreted as no Pop Tarts eaten into the shape of a gun or no fingers forming the shape of a gun.The zero tolerance was intended to be for the actual gun, but the brainless bureaucrat did not have the brains to realize this. Who knew?

With the TSA, and its bureaucratic public service, we all are assumed guilty — and treated that way — until we are proved innocent. This poor victim in Memphis was assumed guilty and treated as such, right down to being arrested and charged.

I stand corrected. pzatchok pointed out that some certain, privileged-class people get through TSA checkpoints without the same level of scrutiny and assumption of guilt. Only a racist would ever ponder the possibility that someone of the religion of jihad could possibly have any but peaceful intentions.

Anyone want to bet that young Hannah is now on the No-Fly List?

Using the ADA against the TSA is brilliantly ironic. In any sort of “normal” Universe, the TSA will be coughing up some money for Hannah.

(Huge portions of the ADA rules/regs are fairly logical & most of us would agree with them, while other aspects are absolutely onerous & business-killers. For what reason these people aren’t trained properly, I am totally convinced, is a combo of Cronyism & Nanny-Statism gone mad.)
I can guarantee it–if I physically manhandled this young lady in Michigan & I wasn’t TSA; Adult Protective Services, Recipient Rights, and the local DA would be investigating my butt to death, while I was suspended without pay.
(In my current position, I just read, review, edit, & counter-sign reports and no longer directly interact with people, but I still have to spend 40 hours a year being trained & retrained, and I’m held to a slighter higher standard of behavior than everyone else.)

pzatchok: What I’m hearing you say…. we should possibly switch over to the Israeli Model of airport security. Where they actually target & profile potential threats, and do an excellent job of it.

You don’t actually think the TSA agents want to find a live bomb do you?
Hell no!
They will, and you can watch, let the more likely suspects pass by unhindered and go for the low hanging fruit.

They don’t want to be accused of profiling a Muslim looking or middle eastern looking person. That would be racist.

So go for the non threatening white people. A handy capped person or the elderly are the best.

Her lawyer is alleging violations of the ADA (American’s with disabilities act) which is an excellent route to go, he’s using one part of the Administrative State, against another part.

–essentially, the allegation is TSA “failed to make reasonable accommodation’s,” which is the “killer-app” in the ADA.

As Mr Z notes—“anyone with any brains would have likely realized instantly that the girl was not a threat to anyone.”

Spent a good portion of my life working with folks like Hannah, and while I don’t know-for-a-fact what exactly happened, I will make an educated guess;
– TSA needlessly freaked this girl out, went all Authoritarian on her, then physically intervened causing injury. Hope this family sues TSA to death & makes it stick.