A partially deaf, paralyzed, blind in one eye, unarmed brain cancer teenager was slammed to the ground by armed Transport Security Administration (TSA) guards at the Memphis International Airport on June 30, 2015.
Her fault? When she was heading back to Chattanooga after receiving a final round of radiation for a brain tumor at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, then-18-year-old Hannah Cohen became disoriented after she accidentally set off a security alarm at the security check. The TSA agents grabbed the confused Hannah, slammed her to the floor, and smashed her face against the concrete which left her bloodied and bruised.
This is teen-age cancer patient Hannah Cohen after beating by TSA agents. She’s partly deaf & blind in one eye pic.twitter.com/cogDAiyZN2
— Ivan G.Goldman (@ivan_goldman) July 2, 2016
“They wanted to do further scanning. She was reluctant. She didn’t understand what they were about to do. She’s trying to get away from them, but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor. There was blood everywhere,” Hannah’s mother Shirley told WREG-TV adding that she tried to tell TSA agents about her daughter’s disability and requested them to be gentle, but she was pushed aside by the police.
The ordeal didn’t end there. The scared and injured teen was arrested, taken to a hospital, and thereafter spent 24 hours in Shelby County jail. When she was released, she cried in her mother’s arms, saying “I’m sorry, Mama.”After causing her physical and emotional injury, the administration dropped the charges later.
But now but the family has filed a federal lawsuit against the Memphis Airport, Airport Police, and the Transportation Security Administration seeking damages of $100,000 for the incident, which caused Hannah and her mother “medical expenses, personal injury, emotional injury, pain and suffering, and embarrassment.”
The lawsuit alleges that the TSA and airport police discriminated against Hannah because of her disability and failed to provide reasonable accommodation for screening her, that the security personnel failed to recognize that she was confused because of her obvious disability and was unable to cooperate with the search, and that these acts were either done intentionally or with reckless indifference or negligence causing her severe emotional stress.
Shirley told The Guardian:
“These people think they are God. They think they can do anything they want. Well, in this country we have the Americans with Disabilities Act. And if they will do this to a disabled girl, does that mean they’ll do it to an 80-year-old grandmother? It’s time for justice.”
TSA spokesman Mark Howell and Jerry Brandon, chief of public safety of the Memphis International Airport Police Department, refused to comment on the litigation. But Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority president and CEO Scott Brockman had something to say:
“Anybody can file anything, and we don’t comment on active litigation. Clearly there are additional facts in this matter, and we won’t comment until we address the litigation.”
. @TSA you guys picked a bad day to run this ad. How did you protect the safety of the disabled child you beat? You failed Hannah Cohen
— TW: Daves (@Dave_Blogger) July 2, 2016
This article (The Memphis Int’l Airport Staff Did This To A Half-Blind, Paralyzed Teen Cancer Patient 516) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and AnonHQ.com.
yeah, disgrace, they should all be fired and never aloud to work in law enforcement again, no exceptions.
if you actually think TSA is actually capable of catching intelligent criminals then you’re seriously deluded.
Agreed
I would learn proper English before stating an opinion.
In proper English. …..go fuck yourself.
#1. a l l o w d
#2. should have sued more and make national headline
You mean allowed?
No No No There fit,,, very fit to be Cops anywhere in THE USA ..
Tsa is a joke they are bullies that follow no rules.I was bullied and manhandled for being a bigger guy that looked threatening.. I’m a football player of course I’m bigger ..
They hire some sick puppies. I hope they win and I wish it had two 0’s attached. It’s like Prison Guards for John Q. Everyman. Liable to feel you up and beat you down because of something from their altar boy days I imagine.
When people attack airports why can’t they target the TSA? I’d kind of look the other way with that wouldn’t you? Bad Muslim guy went that way (pointing to wrong direction)
1 TSA officers are not armed ever. 2 if you read the original article the Memphis police seperated the 2 and during the pat down she ran and memphis police tackled her and beat her. 3 thanks for telling people they should attack innocent people that go to work work hard and keep another 911 from happening you sick fuck
Only 100k? When the police officer pepper sprayed that burger king worker who he thought had taken his $10 (officer claimed he got change for $10 but gave het $20), the family received $50k. This has gotta be worth about $200k if it happened to an able-bodied person. So how much compensation do these people really deserve?
Should sue for unspecified amount , A few Million ?? Enough to force changes In this Ignorant system , The treatment of this Girl is completely Unacceptable , If they had people with above 40 IQ they would have understood this girl had Issues , They had her Arrested , 24 Hrs. in Jail, Dealing with Cancer is traumatic enough , Then have to deal with a bunch of Damn Fools who want to display their power, In a 3rd rate, Has been Airport is a disgrace , Part of that suit should be that every” SOB” involved be fired , Then drive to and from Chattanooga from now on ,The next time the young lady could end up shot by some of these Thugs …
Well now the video is out. Seems like the headline needs to be edited a bit. She did not seem paralyzed when she was carrying the bin with her stuff in it, and she certainly did not seem the least bit restricted as she was shoving and punching the police officer. Always good to have a complete story before jumping to conclusions.
I saw the video as well. She is the one who attacked the officer. People are too quick to blame the police these days.
Well said, good to see that there are at least three of us here with a brain.
She got what she deserved. These comments show the level of intelligence of some people. I watched the video and it was perfectly clear that she threw a punch. Does nobody realise that we live in dangerous times and that you don’t try to fight security officers doing their jobs? What a bunch of cretins some of you people are.
Funny how they left out the fact the this dumb bitch threw a punch. Having Cancer doesn’t mean you are above the law.