Elena Reichman does not appear to be a threat to the traveling pocket, but according to police she warrants a felony battery charge over a confrontation over a secondary search at the Palm Beach International Airport. The 74-year-old grandmother and Holocaust survivor spent the night in jail over an incident that appears to have been the result of a combination bad judgment and bad manners.
The incident occurred when Reichman was traveling to New York for passover. When she set off the metal detector, she was told that she would have to go through a secondary search with a hand-held wand. She allegedly became nasty and refused. She was then moved to a separate area and allegedly pushed away. There is no allegation the she struck the officer or slashed at her with a broke bottle. A single shove was charged as felony battery — a now all too common practice of charging shoves or bumps that were once dismissed as rude behavior.
None of this excuses Reichman’s behavior. If these allegations are true, she acted rudely and recklessly. However, it is not clear why this could not have been handled without a felony charge.
Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Sari Koshetz still seems to believe that the belligerent grandmother collar was a key blow to terror.
“The public needs to realize that anyone can pose a threat,” Koshetz said. Hmmm. I can understand the general point but a threat of what?
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Mespo wrote:
Maybe this rude behavior from law enforcement reminded her of something she had seen before and thought she would never see again. Silly me I thought the law enforcement worked for us.
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Mespo, I think law enforcement believes just the opposite. And since no one in government circles has done anything to curb what are often the abuses and excesses of law enforcement, it will probably get worse before it gets better. After all, if a President can get away with breaking the law right and left, why can’t police officers do the same?
Jill writes: “There are muslims in my area who no longer even try to visit Canada. Border officials separate the family and hold the adults for 2-4 hours of questioning every time they go through. That sends quite a message also-one heard loud and clear.”
GOOD! Until MODERATE Muslims stand up against the radical form of their religion that is now terrorizing the world many of us, the majority in fact, have NO PROBLEM with them being “inconvenienced” time & again.
Maybe they will SPEAK OUT as so many of them claim to be moderates, yet we hear the deafiness sound of SILENCE from them regarding those in their religion intent on forming a new world order.
Hello Mespo,
Good point. As to Ms. Koshetz’s point: sure, anyone can be a threat, but that’s not what’s happening here. They searched Ms. Reichman and determined she was not a threat. I can only conclude that TSA is sending another kind of message to the public by charging her with a felony at this point.
The uparming and upcharging of/by civilian authorities is out of control.
There are muslims in my area who no longer even try to visit Canada. Border officials separate the family and hold the adults for 2-4 hours of questioning every time they go through. That sends quite a message also-one heard loud and clear.
I want to be clear that many of the border agents know these people from past crossings. They do not want to engage in the questioning but must do so as part of their jobs.
From the article:
“Bareli described her mother as a strong woman who spent four years with her parents, six siblings and about 500 other people in a forced-labor camp in a Romanian castle during World War II.”
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Maybe this rude behavior from law enforcement reminded her of something she had seen before and thought she would never see again. Silly me I thought the law enforcement worked for us.