Mar 28 2008
The War On Nipple Piercing
This is story illustrates how bureaucracies can lose their focus regarding threats to this nation:
A Texas woman who said she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane called Thursday for an apology by federal security agents and a civil rights investigation.
“I wouldn’t wish this experience upon anyone,” Mandi Hamlin said at a news conference. “My experience with TSA was a nightmare I had to endure. No one deserves to be treated this way.”
Hamlin, 37, said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a Transportation Security Administration agent after passing through a larger metal detector without problems.
The female TSA agent used a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of Hamlin’s chest, the Dallas-area resident said.
Hamlin said she told the woman she was wearing nipple piercings. The agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the jewelry, Hamlin said.
Hamlin said she could not remove them and asked whether she could instead display her pierced breasts in private to the female agent. But several other male officers told her she could not board her flight until the jewelry was out, she said.
I know the security agents have final say on these kinds of things, but the last time I checked it was not illegal to wear jewelry on a plane. I fly with my wedding ring on all the time and never take it off for the security screening.
Americans will not take the threat of terrorism seriously with this kind of idiocy. The TSA agents should be reprimanded and sent back to training as to the purpose of their jobs.
We are fighting a war on terrorism, not nipple piercing for heaven’s sake. And yes, the woman is owed a huge public apology.
Sadly, many TSA screeners are people who couldn’t get a job anywhere else. They get a little full of themselves and aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.
I’ll bet she milks this for all she can get.
But seriously, “retraining” is useless – they need to be fired. These TSA employees were just being petty and sadistic because the job is boring as hell, and you can’t “retrain” people who think it’s fun to abuse their authority. All you can do is get rid of them.
Maybe I should let everyone know my son is now a TSA agent – so let’s not get too ridiculous about the bashing of these people. There are some not so good ones in a large sea of people who take this job seriously and do a good job.
And I can attest to the fact it is not easy to get into the TSA program – it took my son months to get accepted and certified.
Cheers – AJStrata
I’m on the SSSS list so I have the seething hatred of a thousand suns against the TSA.
There must be a huge difference in hiring standards at TSA across the nation. I fly a lot and have seen some excellent personnel, many who get the chance to do rotations across the country, and then again I have seen a lot that were herding goats with a stick only a week ago on the Discovery channel.
Funny part with this I saw in another story after going through all the stuff over the nipple piercings, they finally let her on the plane and she still had a belly button ring or something, but I guess they could see that one.
There was also something about letting a female TSA do a pat down.
Now that could be troublesome with some of the ‘delicate’ areas these gals put rings and things anymore.
Plus some of the heavy metal (or whatever today’s substitute is) guys also have this type of stuff done to their private regions.
Don’t know bout you, but they can’t pay me enough to do pat downs like that kinda deal.
LOL Merlin!
I really wonder why they made a big fuss about the jewelry, because ordinarily explainable blips like that just aren’t a big deal to anyone.
example: my wife has a metal rod in her spine. We tell them that she’s going to set off the machine beforehand, we tell them why, the screener waves the hand wand over her, verifies where the signal is coming from, and then she’s passed through – no problem. Lots of people have metal in them these days – hip joints, knee joints, metal screws in the bones from fracture repair, etc. – it’s not an uncommon situation, and usually not an issue.
(I like to tell people it’s made out of adamantium, just like Wolverine)
I agree with WWS – they just making fun, abusing people. TSA should better check people they hire.