March 28, 2008 10:39 AM
Fighting terror - one nipple ring at a time
So this is why half the headliners at Lollapalooza are on the no-fly list.
A Texas woman was forced to remove her nipple rings before boarding an aircraft but was allowed to fly with a belly-button ring.
"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.
She's represented by high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, who says her client will sue if she doesnt' get an apology.
"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."
March 28, 2008
11:35 AM
Tbone writes:
Thank god for george buch keeping us safe!!!111!!!ONE!!!
March 28, 2008
12:31 PM
ML writes:
Every time I fly, I am thankful that the loon who packed his shoes with explosives did not pack them in his underwear, 'cause sure as shit we'd all be dropping our drawers at the airport instead of just taking our shoes off!
March 28, 2008
12:38 PM
SASQUATCH writes:
I can sleep as long as we have the NIPPLE NAZIS working overtime at our airports.
March 28, 2008
1:06 PM
Mr.Clean from the GOP writes:
Anyone with pierced nipples or dongs should be heavily stripped searched because chances are they will turn out to be liberals with no values.
March 28, 2008
1:52 PM
citizens writes:
Another example of how stupid government employees are. Unfortunately, these idiots make our lifes miserable and since they give these people of low intelligence guns, it makes them even more dangerous. The only saving factor is every time I see a TSA employee, it brings a laugh to think that people will lower themselves to work for this Nazi department (or is that a Bush department - same thing).
What do you fear more - Arabs flying or the thugs at the airport security line?
March 28, 2008
2:44 PM
Anonymous writes:
This is what they do in Texas
which proves
no president should ever be elected from that state.
March 29, 2008
5:54 AM
Samuel R Ebel writes:
I agree Texans should not be elected to to the white house, when will we learn?
March 29, 2008
10:28 AM
Holier Than Thou writes:
This is a joke, right?
You're kidding me...they actually told a woman to loose the nipple rings?
Please, tell me this is an early April Fool's joke.
Next thing, you're going to tell me that TSA is hiring immigrants who reek of gunpowder from Egypt, Saudia Arabia, and Pakistan.
Yea, OK, you're joking. Ha ha...very funny.
March 29, 2008
7:23 PM
Dick Hertz writes:
Amazing...once the source of the detector buzz was discovered, why didn't they let her go? It appears that these Paki SOB's get a kick out hassling Americans, especially women, once they are out of reach of the Koran.
I wonder if they requested she remove the rings in English, or did they have to wait for an interpreter.
TSA, my ass!
March 29, 2008
8:30 PM
Hazardous_T writes:
I guess nobody has ever heard of a "booby" trap!
March 30, 2008
10:59 AM
jim writes:
The TSA response doesn't address its policies with regard to other body parts piercing, such as labia, prepuce, belly button, tongue, foreskin, eye lids, lips and oh yeah, ears.
The passenger should have tattooed grenades on her breasts so the rings appeared like detonation devices. These guys couldn't get a job flipping burgers at Micky Ds.
March 30, 2008
11:58 AM
Anonymous writes:
Oh, my, people need to learn three basic questions:
1. What's your name, I need to write it down?
2. What's your supervisor's name, and would you get them for me ?
3. What's the name and phone number of the attorneys who represents you ?
March 30, 2008
12:01 PM
J writes:
Oh, my, people need to learn three basic questions:
1. What's your name, I need to write it down?
2. What's your supervisor's name, and would you get them for me ?
3. What's the name and phone number of the attorneys who represents you ?
March 31, 2008
11:31 AM
Nipples are fun writes:
What an idiot this girl is. In the heightened atmosphere of terrorism surveillance, would it have been so difficult to pack her metal accessories in the checked luggage?
Too much ado about nothing.
April 1, 2008
4:20 PM
Anonymous writes:
well 11:31, you're either an idiot, or not a woman .... but the bottom line is that there are basic rules of respect (remember that word people????) whereby at least Hamlin could have been visually verified by a FEMALE TSA agent ..... is everyone who works for TSA a freaking dumbass?
April 2, 2008
4:46 PM
B.T. writes:
Well 4:20, as a thinking woman I know you are an idiot to suggest that in the age of world terrorism any American should be so self-absorbed to demand special accommodations and "respect" for an avoidable security alert. You are the reason the lines are so long in the airport.