This report applies to what happened at the Delta counters at Jacksonville Airport (JAX) on January 17. The plane was late, no one at the ticketing counter except baggage people telling me kiddingly that I had 'bought' another 'extra' security check with the e-ticket, no reasons given for the delay or estimated time to departure. I could have left while my parents were still there if I had known those things, the plane was too late to make my connection, but Delta just leaves the ticket counter to the baggage people and you self-check-in. You can't even plan, as they won't tell you anything.
On the way down to Jacksonville from Cleveland, I was security body/breast checked by a male at 6:30am but at least he was courteous. These body checks are supposed to be done by women ie the same sex, but the guys think that 'so-what.' The Delta gate checking/boarding desk was supervised by a blonde woman who never said a word to me, and I never got close enough to see her name tag; high-spike-heeled bleached blonde. She calls in false 'threats' if you question anything and she did that night; even if you are 5'2", look American naive, have a 2-way ticket (x2) and the best reasons for travel, and are an MD looking to get back to class the next day in Cleveland.
She called in a false threat on me that night, alleging drugs, that I dared to be upset about the baggage security dumping my little hand carry-on all over several bins seemingly to irk me on purpose. They didn't even put the stuff through the x-ray - just dumped and threw it all over and threatened if I touched it, they would... It becomes a 'science' of how to irk passengers and all one can think of is the WWII concentrations camps with the baggage checks.
As an epidemiologist in training, the gloves they use on passenger after passenger, bag after bag, are just 'fomites;' they can transmit skin bacteria, scabies, TB, etc. - one doesn't need a bioterrorist agent like anthrax to infect other passengers with something with all the swabbing & dumping, papers and money all over. They don't change the gloves in Baggage Security, or wash the bins, until soilage or a 'big' hole - the employees are protected but not the passengers.
I started to cry after I left the area, and was not feeling well GI-wise, had thrown up after the flight down, and still had tears in my eyes when I got to the Delta counter = my crime that night, I cried with the 'insanity' of it all - there's no way I could possibly be a terrorist, but I'm paying the price of the airlines not checking their monitors that 9/11 morning to even see that there was an 'alert' on the terrorists that boarded those planes with carry-on that wasn't even touched.
9/11 was the airlines fault, not mine, and no matter how many times you body search/baggage search/swab me, and if you don't like it you are not 'patriotic, ' it won't bring anything back or solve the terrorism problem - a problem of our government's actions, not mine. Harassing me, beating me up, falsely accusing me - none of those are solutions. I was the token 'extra' check on all the flights I took during that weekend; certain passengers, single, traveling alone, are targeted over and over while family groups 'breeze' through security.
This situation resulted in my being kept off the Delta return flight I had booked on Delta, missing my Atlanta connecting flight, being given a flight the next day that wasn't what I needed, or asked for, and being called a 'security threat' repeatedly all over the AIRPORT - all just for saying that I was just a bit upset about the roughness in the security baggage area and the constant double-checking/swabbing [of bags made in China & Vietnam? Probably in dumps with unexploded landmines or fertilizer nearby] with an e-ticket - was there some problem with me or my being on a 'no fly' list?
The blonde declared me a 'threat, ' that she didn't want to take 'twice' in front of all the other passengers, and then watched my reaction as she made me wait until the plane left before giving me a replacement ticket the following day - something I didn't ask for - I asked if she had an 'arrangement' with another carrier with a 'last flight-out' that night for partial refund/credit - and the airport security asked her this supposedly leading her to re-issue a ticket I didn't want.
Why declare someone a threat twice publicly, and then when everyone leaves reissue a 'peace-offering' of a ticket that I would OF COURSE be afraid to accept - was I going to be declared a 'threat' again tomorrow for more DELTA FUN AND GAMES? It was 'drama' at its best; I'll show this passenger type of behavior, something done for a public 'message.' There's no way I should have gotten back on Delta the next day to be declared a 'threat' in front of another group of people to solve Delta's problems or distract from them.
All the money on the ticket return flight was lost, and the ticket had been double-charged by the e-booking company (probably an errant click somewhere and you have no way of checking as Delta people don't check the monitors), the replacement ticket was lost in calling Security (~$900 total) [who knows where that ticket vanished to with Delta - money in the bank for nothing or the security cops cashed it in], having me harassed, repeatedly asked about 'drugs' [that I didn't have or ever use] and finally beaten up [wrists and face for being 'belligerent' and not telling them 'what drugs' I was on].
My parents were not allowed to come get me to pick me up, and I didn't know the Jacksonville Airport area and had only about $20 in small change strewn all over my small purse - which they all knew as it had been checked so many times and the bag was emptied again on the trunk roof of the cop car in the street - all the airport knew how much money I had that night. Getting a cab with $20 cash, and a pair of cops following you screaming about 'drugs, ' and that you 'don't deserve to fly, ' is a bit of a PROBLEM.
My poor mother was hung up on when she wouldn't tell them my 'drugs' - they used my cell phone to do this ie the woman security cop. Delta ticket/gate counter personnel gossip/play, and if they have to answer a question or check the monitor, ie do some work, about the baggage security 'being rough' or the perpetual lateness and laterness of their flights, they call a 'threat' to distract the people at the gate and 'cow' them into not complaining.
This was started by an 'airhead' blonde, not the one I asked the question of, at the ticket counter who just overheard my question and was bothered that I dared to question anything. She was 'in charge, ' and was in charge of the vacant arrival ticketing counter also. When they said that baggage security was something that they had nothing to do about, I said 'O.K.' and tried to go to Starbucks for a tea. This was apparently offense #2, dare to turn away.
This Delta employee, managing gate & ticket counter that night, works in collusion with a crude black security cop and his crude woman partner [both rather 'vacant' to answer this type of 'threat' call where the lies were evident to all but them]- he gropes you (goes for the chest 'check'), shows you dirty handcuffs, says you are 'frustrating him, ' and keeps talking about 'drugs' and that you 'don't deserve to fly, ' 'why didn't you take a bus?' He talks the 'black-talk' slang, that makes you feel on another planet or world. You make him work, so he will make you pay, and his partner thinks this is great fun to do to an obviously educated woman - this was just public fun to do this in a STARBUCKS. They looked the 'threat, ' not me.
They repeated this for over an hour that night, over and over... To get me to admit some drugs - what drugs I don't know... Maybe the ones the Delta lady was on; drugs were certainly the first thing on her simple mind. It was rumored that the Jacksonville male cops were all on androgens at that time, and the black airport security person's behavior is consistent with this - aggressive, unable to listen, screaming insults over and over, making me out as 'belligerent' or 'unstable' that I had cried at what has happened to our airports. Either that or this is the new wave 'psych' out for passengers. And I dared to return the re-issued ticket so that I could leave the airport without being shot - mistake #3 - I approached the ticket counter.
Delta just apparently tells Airport Security that you are 'on drugs, ' when it looks like they are all unfocused on Prozac, as they can't meet your eyes or answer the questions in a professional manner. The gate ladies gossip, laugh, seem superficial, and 'talking-heads.'
Then I lost everything that night (including my reputation), and get beaten up by a frustrated black Jacksonville security cop who feels that he's 'missing' something or just wants to make an issue out of a 'belligerent' white girl on Martin Luther King night - who didn't leave soon enough for him, or admit the 'drugs.' Payback for Rosa Parks.
I had just turned in the replacement ticket when the blonde called the black cop that I had 'thrown' it at her, and he needed to do something. There was NOTHING THROWN. I placed in on the counter to her right and said just that 'thank you, but I need to make other arrangements.' My wrists don't throw very well, but I drop things sometimes when my wrists are tired - she never spoke to or at me, just stared and lied. No refund was even requested, just to leave me alone to leave on my own ie going to the bathroom and ATM machine and talking to/getting a car service that went to my parents area. I don't climb in cabs with turbaned foreign drivers at airports; when alone I take car services where a record is kept.
I was ALONE and ISOLATED that night, an 'example' for Delta to other passengers if they question ANYTHING. I paid for a ticket and transportation home, not to be arrested or falsely declared a 'threat' or beaten up for sadistic amusement and airport entertainment. The bruises on my wrists, both broken before and badly cared for so very vulnerable to re-injury, took weeks to heal. I couldn't stay around the Jacksonville Airport for 18 hours more being harassed that night, I have a low bone density and have broken both wrists and an ankle, and couldn't take much more of the incessant 'don't deserve' to live stuff. I wasn't allowed to go the bathroom or get a drink of water for all those hours, so that I would admit 'drugs' apparently. Just like in the Gestapo books about their questioning; keep people from going to the bathroom and a lady will tell you anything.
This happened on January 17 and case has been dismissed, but the record not expunged. Delta was called that they started a 'false threat, ' but claimed that 'so what' they didn't ask for the Security Cops to go after me as they did - Jacksonville Security is to blame - if they are so 'stupid' to believe whatever then it is their fault. Delta employees can call as many 'threats' as they want.
There was no threat and no drug use, but I paid with bruises and a situation that a Judge had to finally stop. My parents had to stay in the Airport until I left on a Northwest flight the second day after this happened (~$600, lawyer ~$2,000). Nothing untoward happened on this flight, NW Airlines gave me a cup of airline coffee and reassured me about my making connection. That's all I asked, airline behavior, some care, some humanity for all the money.
I was an MD trying to get back to Cleveland after visiting her parents for a weekend in Florida and I can't fly since then and the nightmares come back over and over of what could I have done differently. What happened that night got out-of-control with a superficial blonde who couldn't be bothered and a black cop who needed to be aggressive and hurt someone to make up for MLK.
I said nothing 'threatening, ' nothing crude (not like what was said to me), nothing that I haven't said to other airlines. There were no drugs - I've never done them. My family and I need an explanation. Delta needs to stop calling false security 'threats' on MDs and explain how they got the Airport Security to over-react to the point of having me beaten up outside of the gate arrival/ticketing area that night. My reputation was destroyed with 'threat, ' 'drugs' - words loud enough for all to hear in the area that night. The purpose???
If the purpose of Airport Security & Delta Airlines in Jacksonville is to try to irk and 'psych out' passengers with bizarre comments and threats - then this blonde and the black security cop are the best at it that I've seen - they will destroy your life in a night with false charges, lies and even try to bruise you up to get back at you that you dared to deny 'drugs' or question or exist. Then Delta says 'so what' we 'back up our employees no matter what' - which is why they are in bankruptcy - bizarre nights, bizarre behaviours, we can do anything we want to passengers.
Delta passengers be warned in Jacksonville! Run if you see a blonde or a black security cop with an attitude, run fast and keep the ticket.
Rita
Mayfield Heights, Ohio
U.S.A.
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