Shoshana Hebshi Strip-Searched After Sitting Next to Suspicious Men on Plane

Shoshana Hebshi

Shoshana Hebshi, a half-Jewish and half-Arabic woman, was strip-searched after sitting next to two Indian men who were accused of acting suspicious on a Frontier Airlines flight from Denver to Detroit on September 11, 2011. The flight crew reported the two men for spending too much time in the bathroom.

Upon landing at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, the plane was isolated and stormed by heavily armed police. The police handcuffed Hebshi and the two suspicious men and removed them from the plane. Hebshi was patted down and placed in the back of a police car. She was then taken to a holding cell and forced to remove her clothes for a strip-search.

Guess what they found on Hebshi. They found nothing. Shoshana Hebshi is not a terrorist. She is a mom who just happened to look a little too Middle-Eastern and just happened to sit next to some Indian men who went to the bathroom too often for some people to accept. By the way, the Indian men did not even know each other, and they were never in the bathroom together. One of the men was sick, and the other man probably had some other good reason to visit the bathroom. They were not terrorists either. There were no weapons. There were no bombs. There was no plot. There was nothing. All three people were innocent.

What happened here is three perfectly innocent people were bullied and harassed for looking a little too ethnic. It is ridiculous that Indian people are not allowed to visit the bathroom more than an average number of times without setting off some national security emergency. It is even more ridiculous a woman was singled out just because she was sitting in the wrong seat near such Indian men.

Shoshana Hebshi was robbed of her dignity for absolutely no good reason, and she--along with the Indian men--need to sue Frontier Airlines, the Detroit Metropolitan Airport Police, the FBI, and ever other bungling institution that was involved in this incredibly humiliating overreaction.

You can read the whole story on Shoshana Hebshi's blog.

TSA Confiscates Pregnant Diabetic Woman's Insulin

The Transportation Security Administration should be protecting innocent people from the most dangerous people; however, the TSA seems to be preying on the weakest among us. The latest event in a never-ending series of abuses against people with handicaps and special medical needs, is the TSA's confiscation of a pregnant diabetic woman's insulin. The TSA at the Denver International Airport in Colorado, felt the woman's insulin was a threat to public safety, so they took it.

Fortunately for the woman, the TSA did their usual inadequate job, and they did not properly search her lunchbox. In their typical carelessness, the TSA searched only the top of the woman's lunchbox and missed half of a vial of insulin at the bottom of the lunchbox.

The woman, who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation, claims she had a note from her doctor and the insulin bottles were labeled correctly. She does not understand why the TSA decided to take some of her medicine.