Phoenix police have arrested a Colorado woman, Yukari Mihamae, and accused her of "squeezing and twisting" a Transportation Security Agency employee's breast. Mihamae was charged with felony sexual assault. Though early reports said Mihamae, 61, admitted groping the unidentified agent, the New York Post says she denied it in an interview. Is Mihamae's alleged treatment of the agent fair payback for the TSA's hands-on history, or just plain wrong?
Mihamae should get a medal, not jail time: The only rational reason to do such a thing, says Lauri Apple at Gawker, is to make a heroic stand against the "TSA's molesty security measures." When airport security agents touch our bodies in creepy ways, "they're protecting America from terrorism"; if you try to grope them back, it's felony sexual abuse. Mihamae learned this "harsh lesson" for all of us.
"Woman arrested for grabbing TSA agent's boob"
This woman is no hero: Shame on the "rabid anti-TSA crowd," says Jeanne Sager at The Stir. Mihamae and her fans should be ashamed. That agent was only doing her job as the government's defined it — she didn't deserve to be sexually molested.
"Woman gropes TSA agent & makes flying hell for everyone"
But throwing the book at Mihamae will make matters worse: There are a lot of "frustrated and fed up people passing through security check points," says A.J. Strata at The Strata-Sphere. If the authorities come down hard on Mihamae, they could trigger "a wave of TSA disobedience" that will snarl our airports and our courts. Let's hope that before that happens, Washington will contain its paranoia and start hunting terrorists instead of "sifting through senior citizens' Depends and accosting 6-year-olds."
"An all new meaning for the phrase 'tit for tat'"
