Woman Says TSA Forced Piercings Removal

UPDATE:

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.

Keep reading AP story.

This was in response to an incident at the Lubbock airport on Thursday.

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 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. Allred is a well-known Los Angeles lawyer who often represents high-profile claims.

Keep reading AP story.

Comments

[Smartey]

I knew a guy who had had a vasectomy, and the urologist tied the vas deferens with tiny metal clips. One time, he went through the metal scanner in San Francisco, and it went off. After being wanded, the TSA agents concluded the "area" tripping the alarm was in his pubic region. Several of the TSA agents were obviously gay, and my friend was a very handsome fellow. A couple of the agents told him they had to do a pat down of his "region", and after that they insisted on a visual inspection. My friend agreed, as he was desperately trying to make his flight to Chicago for a critical business meeting. And wouldn't you know, during the undressed inspection two of the agents felt his naked scrotum "just to be sure" it contained no "explosives or weapons". They then allowed him to board his flight.

I think he should also sue, but this happened in the late 90's and the statute of limitations may have run out.

[LeftRight]

If it was in the late 90s, then it wasn't the TSA, it was some private security firm hired by the airport.

[Smartey]

I really don't know. It was about a week after an attempted terrorist attack at LAX. My friend said the "guys" were talking about pressure from the administration over that, but he also said they seemed to enjoy themselves a bit too much during the pat downs. I'm thinking it was late 1999, around then.

[scottyboi84]

This is an outrage. Male security officers should never have been involved at all. And she told them what was setting off the alarm, offered to show in private, and still had to go to this extreme? They should be ashamed of the way they handle business, not defend their actions, saying that things were done according to protocol. I have nipple piercings of me own, so I can sympathize-it IS painful to remove them, even just to rinse them off in solution and put them right back in. When you get a piercing like that, it is a private triumph, and when someone else comes along and MAKES you remove them, it can really harm you, not just physically either. it is a great feeling to know that even though the world is crazy, your body is still your body, and you are allowed to do whatever you want to it....unless you plan to fly.

[bogananda666]

It's the only way these TSA goon can get a date.

[Warmglobe]

I think what this is all about, along with the latest thing of taking all those planes offline for "inspections" is airline people protesting. They don'y want to do the inspections and searches so they will keep performing "stunt" ones until the consumers become fed up.

[PaulRaymond]

Small minds, with a little bit of power, are always quite troublesome. But, they do work well for fascists.

[LITU]

You saved me a long tirade. Thanks.

[TheHandyman]

You meant the shrub and his vp, right?

[LeftRight]

Them too, but since they are hiring the kind of people that they know........

[Gerald36]

Mandy Hamlin should thank George Bush for her ordeal. TSA is an insult to all travelers.

[ctmommy]

They are there to try to protect us, anyone remember 9/11? 10 year olds get body searched because of the ridiculous PC rules put in place by the Liberal ACLU. If we didn't have to worry about offending Muslims than women with nipple piercings, grandmas and 10 year olds could enter planes with no trouble.

Thank you LIBERALS.

[CheneysACoward]

Thank you LIBERALS.??? I think you may wish to do a little fact checking.....your "liberals" comment is childish.

[ctmommy]

really, what facts?

[BBackSoon]

I find your comment childish, You sugges that the other comments are wrong but back it up with......NOTHING.

You are a Poo Poo Head!

[markusmarkus]

Actually. several studies, including one by the GAO, showed that all the work that TSA screeners do doesn't really contribute to safety or prevent hijacking. Of course, one of the resident chimpsmirkers will write, "But, but, but we haven't had a hijacking since 9/11." True, but the studies show that the screeners FAIL to detect illegal materials or items close to 80% of the time. Ooooooooops!

[oliviasmommi]

HuffPost's Pick

Protect us from what? Explosive nipple rings? The point is, when the metal detector goes off they are required to determine its source before allowing the person to pass through. This woman had no problem exposing her breasts and clearing up the issue, but the TSA agents took it to the extreme. If you read above:

On its Web site, the TSA warns that passengers "may be additionally screened because of hidden items such as body piercings, which alarmed the metal detector."

"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.

A pat down search would not have even been necessary if they would have simply went along with the woman's request to show the female TSA agent her piercings...removal should have been a last resort.

And, why thank LIBERALS, when everyone knows it is the CONSERVATIVES that are the masters of fear mongering when it comes to terrorism.

[ctmommy]

I'd say the radical islamists are the masters of fearmongering when it comes to terrorism, wouldn't you?

[Sumocat]

Why do you assume terrorists are dumber than yourself? Remember when we used to allow knives and box-cutters on planes? That, and fear, is what they used on 9/11. If we consistently don't check 10-year olds for bombs, then terrorists will hide bombs on ten-year olds. If we purposely exclude a certain group, then we make that group a path to circumvent our security. If we purposely target a certain group, then terrorists will expand beyond that group or alter themselves to appear as if they are outside that group. The attacks on 9/11 were intelligently executed, exploiting holes in our security. We don't do ourselves any favors by intentionally leaving holes open.

Granted, the screeners could do a more intelligent job of checking passengers. This particular situation merits investigation. However, I don't have a problem with screening everyone, including children and the elderly, if it means keeping them safe from exploitation. Last thing we want are terrorists taking advantage of our young and old and turning them into unknowing weapons.

[Jason357]

Using that logic, let's start body cavity searches, just like in prison. We'd all be really "safe" then.

[bogananda666]

Your gibberish shows you don't know what you're talking about. I had a knife confiscated from me in the early 1980's getting onto Mexicana Airlines. As for the rest of your irrational imagined fears about 10 year old, how does elal the Israeli airlines handle 10 year olds and nipple rings? The DHS/TSA might check out elal and do the same rather than be government terrorists. Also, I haven't heard about 10 year olds hijacking planes and flying them into buildings. If you are that fearful you might not want to fly anymore or even leave your house for fear of 10 year old carjackers.

[LeftRight]

Yeah, because the 9.11 terrorists took control of the plane with their NIPPLE PIERCINGS!!! Oh wait, I'm sorry, it was their c0ck rings!!

And as regards 9/11, and that's why we all need to sacrifice, don't try to feed me that line of bull. I KNOW how bad the TSA is, and bushco(tm) DOESN'T GIVE A RAT'S A$$!!!

[FirstShirt]

Hey look. First it's nipple rings and then someone brings an AK 47 up their colon. Rules are rules!

[TheRealist1]

If she were dead, these idiots would be removing her fillings.

[RoseMerry]

I hope a judge who gets this case racks the TSA over the coals and flogs them with parchment and FORCES them to understand the Constitution and a some common sense. No one is endangered by some jewelry that is hidden under a shirt, for Christ's sake. I pray they have engaged a Texas wildcat will fight this to the MAX!

YOU GO GRRL!!!!!!

[CheneysACoward]

Prior to 9/11 these people made $8.75 an hour now they think they are gods of the sky. It's time people start standing up to these "clowns" ....a little air port protest in the security lines of ten air ports on one day at the same time would shut down the whole Country.

[gevan]

Next time wear the plastic nipple rings that don't show up on metal detectors and drive the terrorist-suspect-authority people nuts.

[oogabooga]

So if you flunk the Wal-Mart employment test, you go to the airport and get hired as a guard?

[LeftRight]

Actually, that's pretty much the way that it goes!

[Bart33]

What I find so chilling about this whole TSA thing is how most people just accept that these minimum wage earners (and I mean no offense by that) are "professional" security experts.

I've never seen so much shit shoveled down a population's throat. Once in a while doesn't some media outlet do an expose about how their reporters snuck a fake bomb past these jokers?

I mean, isn't this America? Why are we buying this Big Brother bullshit?

[bogananda666]

The so called "reporters" are more afraid than anyone else about these TSA goons. They are a prime example of cowardice and who have helped elevate cowardice to hero status. Just ask Bush, Cheney, Rummy and all the neocon cheerleaders for war, as long as someone else does the fighting and dying. They brag about this. Just ask the Young Republicans, who follow their examples and brag about it with arrogance and disdain about those in Iraq for no good reason other than Bush's megalomaniac's messianic deranged ego which knows nothing about unhealthy shame.

[sailmaker]

My then 10 year old son got searched. I was allowed to watch from behind a plastic panel only after I raised a ruckus and hinted that the TSA was acting 'unfairly' (the hint was more about the man on child search) towards a minor. The rivets in in his jeans tripped their wires.

[bogananda666]

This is child abuse by the government. If you did the equivalent to your own child you could be jailed and your child taken from you by Child Protective Services, especially is Florida. Incidentally, where is Child protective Services on these incidents of child abuse by the government?

[farseer]

It's insufficient that the agents who did this should be fired. They should serve a jail sentence. The top brass of the TSA should lose their jobs if they pre-approved a policy mandating that piercings be removed.

[scottyboi84]

I agree. Too many of these cases go unchecked, where everyone covers their tails quickly, hoping there's someone left to take the blame. Jeeze, it's like musical chairs, last one standing gets the blame...