TSA Thwarting Nipple Ring Terror Plots

Posted on March 28, 2008

I’m assuming that the TSA agents involved here are working under the assumption that terrorist may be able to hijack planes with nipple rings. No, seriously this news is quite disturbing. If the ACLU pick up the case for this woman I won’t have much of any argument against them. However, if you want the devil’s advocate argument, Protein Wisdom has an amusing one. Even more disturbing than the news….this photo that accompanied it.

A WOMAN in the US says she was forced by airport security guards to remove her nipple rings with a pair of pliers before she could board a flight.

Mandi Hamlin, 37, is demanding a civil rights investigation, as well as an apology from federal security agents after being forced to remove a nipple ring before boarding a flight from Lubbock to Dallas in Texas.

During a press conference today, Ms Hamlin said she was scanned by a female Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent using a handheld detector that beeped when it passed in front of her chest.

Ms Hamlin told the agent she had nipple piercings. The female agent then called over her male colleagues, one of whom said she would have to remove the body piercings.

Ms Hamlin said she asked if she could 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 jewellery was removed.

Curtain call

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

â€œStill 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,â€ Ms Hamlin’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told the director of the TSA’s Office of Civil Rights and Liberties.

Ms Allred, who also represents Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Heather Mills, used a nipple ring on a mannequin at the press conference to show what happened.

â€œAfter nipple rings are inserted, the skin can often heal around the piercing, and the rings can be extremely difficult and painful to remove,â€ said Ms Allred.

Ms Hamlin said she heard the male security agents snickering as she took out the ring, before being scanned again and eventually allowed on the plane.

Ms Allred said Ms Hamlin had filed a complaint to the TSA’s customer service manager at Lubbock airport, who said the screening was handled properly.

Neocon News:

I know that itâ€™s a choice to go stapling your breasts, but when the woman is willing to visually verify to a female screener that ALL she has on her are two semi-permanent nipple rings, and her top is the only place setting off that buzzer, just give it a rest and let her through. We have bigger fish to fry, trust me. What is the TSA going to do next, toss a can opener to the guy with a metal plate in his head?

» Filed Under 1st Amendment, ACLU, News, Stupidity, War On Terror

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Comments

2 Responses to “TSA Thwarting Nipple Ring Terror Plots”

RegularRon on March 28th, 2008 5:58 pm

Not to sound like a jerk here. But, didn’t alot of you cheer on the Government Thugs, when they took over security, like the TSA?? “They will protect us”. From what? Friggin nipple rings??

I hope the ACLU takes up this case. I want them to sue the crap out of these Government Twits, that have NOTHING better to do, that to intimidate us in to SUBMISSION.

Just in time for McStain, Hitlery, or Oumbo, to become Dictator in Chief.
Ciarin on March 29th, 2008 12:07 am

It’s not the nipple rings that are a “threat”. It’s the fact that there’s a piece of metal on some woman’s chest and the TSA have to make sure it’s not anything else but a nipple ring. The only way to do that is by having the woman remove it herself. The TSA are not permitted to pat down breasts, nor are they permitted to look at bare breasts(in fact anyone who flashes at a checkpoint gets removed by the state police).

I guess no one’s ever heard of people smuggling stuff through an airport before and we should take everyone’s word for it that they wouldn’t do that.

oh, and I also guess no one’s ever heard of a bra bomb. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9dA5Ksw7d8