Woman forced to remove body piercings before boarding a plane....

[cynatnite]

snip:
She was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring.

"Still crying, she informed the TSA officer that she could not remove it without the help of pliers, and the officer gave a pair to her," said Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, reading from a letter she sent Thursday to the director of the TSA's Office of Civil Rights and Liberties.

Hamlin said she heard male TSA agents snickering as she took out the ring. She was scanned again and was allowed to board even though she still was wearing a belly button ring.

snip:
"If you are selected for additional screening, you may ask to remove your body piercing in private as an alternative to a pat-down search," the site says.

Hamlin would have accepted a "pat-down" had it been offered, Allred said.

Hamlin was publicly humiliated and has "undergone an enormous amount of physical pain to have the nipple rings reinserted" because of scar tissue, Allred said.

"The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary," Allred wrote. "The last time that I checked a nipple was not a dangerous weapon."

TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird said he was unaware of the incident. There is no specific TSA policy on dealing with body piercings, he said, "as long as it doesn't sound the alarms."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080327/ap_on_re_us/nipple_rings

:grr:

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Seriously, security thinks that she can hijack the plane with a nipple ring?!

[Gormy Cuss]

2. It's a BMD

Boob of Mass Destruction.

Most of the TSA are professional but the little emperors and the flat out incompetent ones need to be weeded out.

[mrcheerful]

3. Whats next? Sorry ma'am, your going to have to remove that metal plate

that was used to replace your hip? Or how about sorry sir, you can't fly because you have metal in your head because your skull was busted and bone had to be removed? NSA should be named the DHA, Department of Harassing American citizens. I mean really how many stupid things that they have come up with in the name of safety? 2 yo put on the no fly list, breast milk is deadly, so is shampoos and tooth paste. Where will it stop? Just how many dangerous terrorists have been stopped by the NSA? The strangest thing to me is the no fly list, how many terrorists use their real names to board planes? No wonder we are gaining the rep of being the dumbest people on the planet.

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. She must have looked like a tackle box.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. This kind of crap viserally rings my bells

I hate the whole TSA thing. So that's where I start on this. Then the humiliation inherent in being 'checked'.

But most of all, it is how we have allowed ourselves to become ****suspects**** and allowed ourselves to be exposed to all sorts of 'subject' hassles.

They have some very petty, unthinking, mean spirited fucks working in the 'security' field.

bin Laden must be laughing his ass off.

[texastoast]

7. bin Laden is laughing his ass off

as we "brave" Americans allow this to happen.

[ConcernedCanuk]

9. You are so correct - and it just ain't Bin Laden; - Russia and China are laughing as well

.
.
.

But the USA war-machine flounders on

It'll get pounded by China and Russia if it starts much more in the ME

Russia and China ain't scared - they can destroy that fleet in the Gulf in less than a few days if they want to.

I'll bet you that there are thousands of missiles already targeted at the USA fleet in the ME.

One shot at Iran -

WW3

and it will be AGAINST the USA, not Germany or Japan

USA will be the "bad guy" this time

Bad Guys lose.

[canadianbeaver]

19. I too am laughing my ass off..this is beyond stupid....

The US has become the joke of the world.....Good on ya B*sh...you dumb f*ck..

Wake up America...November can't come soon enough....just don't embarrass yourselves even more by electing McSame....that is if your elections are fair...which I feel they are not....

Canadian elections....pencil/paper a mark on it and counted by people...who knew it could be so easy to have your vote counted.

[flvegan]

6. Sue.

That's all I have to say about it.

[Mike03]

8. That is just wrong. It's just plain wrong, and there's no other way to put it.

Our rights are being so flagrantly eroded.

[hlthe2b]

10. I will never forget the humiliation rendered to a woman

just in front of me in line a few years ago. Large busted and fairly overweight, the agents kept screaming at her to take off her sweater so they could "wand her," as I guess her bra had set off the metal detector. Horribly embarrassed and startled, she fumbled... As her sweater finally fell off, her blouse sprang open and so, too, the bra, that she'd apparently not hooked totally. This poor 60ish looking woman wailed in wrenching tears, as she stood there totally exposed and two of the asshole security agents snickered. Everyone in line was just aghast. After what seemed like forever a woman agent briskly ushered her off to a corridor, where I guess, she could try to redress and regain some dignity. I still can hear her anguished crying as I moved on down the gateway to my plane. I was crying myself....

[cynatnite]

12. Some of these people seem to get off on humiliating women like this...

:grr:

[Echo In Light]

21. That's the only motivation that fueled their actions. Should have looked em in the eye and said..

FUCK. YOU.

[ConcernedCanuk]

14. I watched a friend get wanded and her bags searched - yeah, right here in Northern Ontario

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.
.

I had already decided never to visit the USA again after the Iraq invasion,

And this added to my list of "things not to do" to never fly again.

We survived for centuries with only traveling a few hundred miles from our birth place.

That's where I'm at.

I'll survive with what is close.

[uppityperson]

11. After reading the story, I think she should sue them for medical bills, pain and suffering

at least. What a nasty TSA batch.

[cynatnite]

13. I hope she does, too n/t

[Codeine]

15. Reinserting nipple rings is a bitch.

For many of us nipples never really heal "hard," so even a short time without the jewelry in can cause the tissue to begin sealing up. And repiercing through existing scar tissue is even more painful than the original piercing.

Besides, :wtf: was she gonna do with nipple rings? :banghead:

[undeterred]

16. Expose them to the male pilots and say

Stick em up! :shrug:

[Liberal In Texas]

17. I think one of the problems TSA has is that the pay starts around $10/hr.

(It may be a little less, but I can't remember exactly from when I talked to a "new employee" about his experience with TSA.)

Because of this, I would think that getting a high degree of professionalism for their staff would be almost impossible.

[MetaTrope]

18. I wonder what the DHS guards carrying submachine guns in Amtrack stations are paid?

And what's going to happen when one of them cuts loose in a crowded station with a weapon that fires 800 rounds per minute?

[Echo In Light]

20. Fascist Misogynist Pricks. Jello Biafra nailed it: "Nazi punks, Fuck off!"

[King Coal]

22. Not so fast, people. I knew a girl who had her tits filled with prill and diesel fuel.

All she had to do was pull the detonator rings in her nipples and BLOOEY! Would you want to ride on a plane with a girl with tit rings? Not me! No way in hell.

[Poll_Blind]

24. Holy shit, THAT'S an image that's going to stick with me for the rest of the day! LOL! n/t

PB

[twiceshy]

23. Does anyone know anyone in the TSA?

I've asked all my family and friends and no one seems to know anyone in the TSA even through remote acquaintance. Half of them seem foreign. Where the hell do they come from and who are they - besides incompetent, "tin-badge", retards.

[SoCalDem]

25. All I can say is that she must want money in a BIG way..

The publicity this will garner is Springer-esque to say the least... There has to be a big ole lawsuit in the works..:eyes:

Hassle-free travel tips:

Leave jewelry at home
wear flip-flops (slip on shoes)
Bring NO metal stuff with you at all
Put everyhing you NEED in the smallest carry-on you can muster
(Most places you will travel to, sell shampoo & toiletries)
If you are visiting family, UPS your "stuff" ahead of your trip
Never make jokes or off the cuff comments