Morrissey has just wrapped up a North American for that was mostly without incident or cancellation. But just as the former Smiths frontman was set to leave our land and head to London for a quick break before a few additional shows in Southern California next month, he claims he experienced an unsettling incident with a TSA official at San Francisco International Airport.
Morrissey says the agent “sexually assaulted” him while going through security, and detailed the incident on authorized fan site True To You, which he often uses to reach fans and spread his beliefs and news. This incident allegedly took place this past Monday, and he says a travel service agent from British Airways witnessed the situation and backed him up on site.
Mozzer’s statement reads, in part, via Stereogum:
At 2:30 in the afternoon I went through the usual airport security procedure including the stand-up ‘scanner’, and all was well – no bleeps and nothing unusual.
Before I could gather my belongings from the usual array of trays I was approached by an “airport security officer” who stopped me, crouched before me and groped my penis and testicles. He quickly moved away as an older “airport security officer” approached.
The officer who sexually assaulted me was identified as the General Manager On Duty. Luckily I was accompanied by two members of British Airways Special Services, who were horrified at the sexual attack and suggested that I lodge a complaint. I asked if there would be any point in lodging a complaint since, as with any complaint against a figure in “authority”, the complaints are simply collected in order to protect the guilty officer should the matter go further. The British Airways Special Services employees assured me that a complaint was worthwhile, and so I filed the appropriate information. However, before doing so, the guilty “officer” was confronted, and the conversation went thus:
You have just sexually groped this man.
Officer: That’s just your opinion.
What you have done is illegal.
Officer: That’s just your opinion.
You have no right to do what you have just done.
Officer: That’s just your opinion.Apart from “that’s just your opinion”, he would not comment, even though, since the penis and testicles were mine and no one else’s, then my opinion must surely have some meaning. But, of course, what the airport security officer was saying was: your opinion will never count in the eyes of the law. The words “that’s just your opinion” volunteered themselves from this ‘officer’s’ mouth before he had even heard the question. He knew he could be confronted, but he also knew that he could never be challenged (even though the entire incident is most certainly on CCTV camera).
Morrissey concludes by saying he doesn’t expect the situation to be dealt with, and warns anyone traveling through San Francisco airport to be prepared to be groped.
More to come, certainly…