Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
More on TSA nipple ring woes and pliers incident
When Jeffery wrote his post yesterday, the story about the woman who was asked to remove her nipple rings at an airport security line were sketchy. Now that the details are out, they are almost unbelievable.
The woman was in the Lubbock airport and triggered off the metal detector. Perhaps they were rather large nipple rings, but once she told the TSA employees what caused the beeping and offered to show the rings to a female employee, one would think that would have been enough. I haven't read anything about nipple rings being a weapon. Particularly since corkscrews without a knife blade are allowable and so are scissors if the blades are small enough, it would seem nipple rings would get a pass.
The woman was given the pliers after she couldn't get one of the rings to come out. She reports that she was crying and heard the TSA guys snickering. According to the TSA policies, she could have had a pat down to establish what was triggering off the alarm. At this moment, all she wants is an apology from TSA.
Two weeks ago I saw an older man getting quite the pat down at the TSA line at the Columbus airport. At first I thought he was getting a massage at the back of his neck and shoulders, but decided it was odd that he was holding his arms out from his side. This nipple ring story makes me wonder even more what was up with him. Oh, the woman did say once the rings were out ,she was able to board the plane with her belly button ring intact. With all the things one can pierce these days, if you plan to take an airplane, I'd watch the size of the metal and how much.
Filed under: Stories, United States, Airports, News, Consumer Activism
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Shoeless Apr 1st 2008 3:21PM
I flew without shoes, socks only from New Orleans to Hobby...(my shoes were stolen from my Hotel). When I arrived in Houston to change planes, at the time you had to go through security to catch a connecting flight...While I waited in line at security, a Southwest ticket agent noticed I was only wearing socks, pulled me aside and mentioned I could not fly without shoes and that there were none available for purchase and I'd have to leave the Airport to purchase a pair...after some debate, he gave me his runway shoes GRATIS....I put them on and waited in line, to only, take the shoes off and go through the detector...Ridiculous!!
Fred Gevalt Apr 2nd 2008 12:20PM
As John Donne once said: "No man is an island....." Of course this woman's dignity was violated. So was ours. Just like our Constitution was violated the day that Congress first instated the TSA with its various procedures in the first place. We're all violated as a Republic every day that TSA is allowed to continue illegal search and seizure procedures - nipple rings or not.
I'm in the process of producing a documentary about this stuff. The rest of you can write your Congressmen. Raise hell. Let's stop talking about this travesty among ourselves and start doing something about it. The TSA employees aren't monsters - they're just government employees at the lowest pay grade, with a mission and a set of rules that Lewis Carol (Alice in Wonderland) couldn't have dreamed up.
We've all become as passive and pliable as laboratory rats for tolerating these changes to our government without any thought, and with almost no contribution to security. As Walt Kelly once said: "I have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us!" Believe it. Act upon it.
Fred Gevalt
Kristy Gable Apr 2nd 2008 11:42PM
I worked for tsa for several years. And the woman most likely had an ax to grind. First of a tso has to address the issue any time it alarms. You can not just say to someone oh its a nipple ring? oh yeah thats ok go ahead. Reason being? It could be a razor blade or any number of things. The person is offered two options. Take it out or don't fly. You can not as a tsa person accept someones offer to show them your private parts. Private screenings would work if the person had belly ring. As for being patted down? You can't put your hands on the breasts at all only the back of your hand so that would not work to clear her at all. Was she offered pliers? Probably. Were they sanitary. I doubt they were. As for the comments about six inch knives on board. You people need to learn to read rules. It's 4 inch scissors. And everyone that works for tsa hates that rule. Wanna know why it passed? Congressmen and women screaming they needed scissors for god knows what on a flight. Same with the screwdriver. Some idiot that knew someone raised enough hell and the rules got changed. Most of us that have worked security know the rules don't make sense from the outside. But think for a second. Why should there be a clear cut manual out there for people to read and figure out a way to bypass it. Rules need to change to be able to compensate for changing technology. I can't count the number of times over the years I had people tell me "this doesn't alarm or this passes through...yada yada" Well sir or ma'am this isn't that airport and I don't know why you were allowed to keep it. Don't make the mistake of feeling entitled to keep stuff you know you can't have because another place missed it. If more people read the website before traveling and actually went by the 2 hour window for traveling it would be so easy to go through security. Instead you have people pack everything imaginable in their bag and arrived 20 mins before the plane leaves. I'm sorry but the time limits are there for a reason.