Woman forced to remove nipple ring with pliers to board plane

[HiredGoon]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080329/...s/nipple_rings

LOS ANGELES - The Transportation Security Administration said it will change they way its officers search passengers with body piercings after a Texas woman complained she was forced to remove a nipple ring with pliers in order to board an airplane.

Mandi Hamlin, 37, had demanded an apology and her Los Angeles-based attorney sent a letter to the TSA this week requesting a civil rights investigation.

Hamlin said she was trying to board a flight from Lubbock to Dallas on Feb. 24 when she was scanned by a TSA 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.

Hamlin was taken behind a curtain and managed to remove one bar-shaped piercing but had trouble with the second, a ring. She said the officer gave her pliers to remove the ring, a process which caused a physical pain.

The TSA said Friday in a statement on its Web site that the officers properly followed procedures, but that the procedures must change. In the future passengers can either allow a visual inspection of their piercings, or remove them, the agency said.

The statement stopped short of apologizing to Hamlin.

"TSA acknowledges that our procedures caused difficulty for the passenger involved and regrets the situation in which she found herself," the agency said in a statement. "We appreciate her raising awareness on this issue and we are changing the procedures to ensure that this does not happen again."

Hamlin's attorney said she accepted the TSA statement as an apology, and commended the agency for taking quick action. The policy change is "an achievement for the protection of passengers' civil rights while meeting the security goals of the TSA," Gloria Allred said.

[TaurusGuy]

You know...The other day I was having a discussion about the way this country has become since 9/11....my opinion (and it may not be popular) is that the terrorists got what they wanted out of that and they beat us.

Look at the way we have changed so much since then. Piercings? You need to remove piercings to get on a plane? This is just absolutely crazy... Did they think she was going to take over the plane with the piercings?

I thought it was f**ked up a few years ago when I flew to Az and I had to remove my shoes and send them down the conveyor at every airport I stopped at. One airport they pulled me to the side and made me run the shoes again because "they saw something"...what? I still don't know.

Now I have to fill out this form and show 2 forms of ID to renew my post office box that I have had for 11 years...why? Maybe I became a terrorist in that amount of time and showing proof of who I am will make sure I stop being a terrorist?

What about this "Real ID" that's going into effect now?

How about that the government can pretty much do anything they want in the name of fighting terrorism....yeah....not cool.

There are other examples but I won't go on....all I'm saying is that they won because we are slowly losing the simplest of things that we used to take for granted....the law abiding citizens are all paying for the acts of a few crazy assholes...we are not living the same as we were before then...and that is what they wanted. THAT is terrorism at work...

Ok...flame away if you must...

[awkx]

Originally Posted by TaurusGuy

You know...The other day I was having a discussion about the way this country has become since 9/11....my opinion (and it may not be popular) is that the terrorists got what they wanted out of that and they beat us.

If the terrorists "hate us for our freedom", as the Bush Adminstration claims, then you are certainly right that the terrorists got what they wanted. This country is much less free today than it was before Sept 11, 2001.

[NineseveN]

Originally Posted by TaurusGuy

You know...The other day I was having a discussion about the way this country has become since 9/11....my opinion (and it may not be popular) is that the terrorists got what they wanted out of that and they beat us.

Look at the way we have changed so much since then. Piercings? You need to remove piercings to get on a plane? This is just absolutely crazy... Did they think she was going to take over the plane with the piercings?

I thought it was f**ked up a few years ago when I flew to Az and I had to remove my shoes and send them down the conveyor at every airport I stopped at. One airport they pulled me to the side and made me run the shoes again because "they saw something"...what? I still don't know.

Now I have to fill out this form and show 2 forms of ID to renew my post office box that I have had for 11 years...why? Maybe I became a terrorist in that amount of time and showing proof of who I am will make sure I stop being a terrorist?

What about this "Real ID" that's going into effect now?

How about that the government can pretty much do anything they want in the name of fighting terrorism....yeah....not cool.

There are other examples but I won't go on....all I'm saying is that they won because we are slowly losing the simplest of things that we used to take for granted....the law abiding citizens are all paying for the acts of a few crazy assholes...we are not living the same as we were before then...and that is what they wanted. THAT is terrorism at work...

Ok...flame away if you must...

I've been saying this for 7 years, and you're right. The goal of terror is not to win, it's to terrorize and cause the target to harm itself more than you could harm it on your own.