TSA - never accused of being mental giants

[SKLJ]

Teacher Arrested After Bookmark Called Concealed Weapon



POSTED: 10:17 am EDT September 17, 2004


TAMPA, Fla. -- A weight may soon be lifted off a Maryland woman charged with carrying a concealed weapon in an airport.

It wasn't a gun or a knife. It was a weighted bookmark.

Kathryn Harrington was flying home from vacation last month when screeners at the Tampa, Fla., airport found her bookmark. It's an 8.5-inch leather strip with small lead weights at each end.

Airport police said it resembled a weighted weapon that could be used to knock people unconscious. So the 52-year-old special education teacher was handcuffed, put into a police car, and charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

She faced a possible criminal trial and a $10,000 fine. But the state declined to prosecute, and the Transportation Security Administration said it probably won't impose a fine.

Harrington said she'll never again carry her bookmark into an airport.

Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
​

 

[SkiMoguls]

Unbelievable...Well wait, I can believe it. The TSA's (a few of them) that I've come in contact with can't wait to catch someone with anything that resembles a weapon or "illegal" item. They are so proud to drop it in their "gone forever" safe at security and gloating to you on their way to it! One of them took a butter knife away from my F/O that he'd been taking with him for a year and a half when he was in uniform!

But a bookmark from an old lady????

Truly left an anchovie type taste in her mouth didn't it.

I think most of them do a fantastic job considering...But a bookmark, C'mon???

Wow. Thanks it made me laugh!

 

[ivauir]

Yet another very good reason not to read ....

 

[Juvat]

This is the perfect example of the "un" profiling of America. Let's go pick on the old ladies while we let some 20 to 40-year old men pass through without question (who do fit a threat profile)...simply because we fear offending somebody more than being blown up.

This whole thing offends my sensibilities beyond words. I wonder how many others feel the same way.

 

[FlyboyPhil]

I was talking to a check airman this morning on the way home about TSA and he told me they confiscated his money clip because it had an embossed gun on it(gift from his wife who works for Browning).. embossed.. single piece of metal.. only half the gun.. about 1.5" long, no holes.... and to top it off when he complained to the tsa grunt, the grunt walked off with the clip and money to get the supervisor who didn't seem any more enlightened. I don't mind extra screening, but idiocy like that, and breaking the nail file off of the pistol-toting air marshals nail clippers makes you wonder(another true story!)

 

[atrdriver]

I know a guy that had a 1 inch long replica of a Colt .45 auto on his keychain, and he was detained at LAX. For a solid metal 1 inch long replica of a gun. This is what is wrong with the system...We have to be so PC that we can't look at a possible threat for fear of "profiling", while we take stupid, incredibly stupid stuff seriously..

atrdriver

 

[batsky2000]

All TSA agents are Idiots, They all need to read the book "Proper Screening for Dumies" I find it totally ludicrus to walk through one security line for them to say I have something in my bag that does not look right, and they just want to toss my entire bag, I decide to say NO and leave, go to another line and my bag go's through with no problem, some of these idiots love to watch your bag get tossed, and I also find it embarrasing when they take a senior citizen that can't stand and strip search them and let some young person go with no problems, so they find that a person who can't stand and has to be wheel chaired is more dangerous than a healthy 20 year old, insane, I just look at those TSA idiots and shake my head in disgrace.

 

[TR4A]

It's the Post Office running security.

 

[RV7]

Can you imagine what would happen if TSA faced this scenario...

>>>>>>>>>>>>

September 18, 2004
KLM said on Friday it had become a victim of "jumbo jacking" after gunmen robbed a cargo plane at Johannesburg Airport.

Police exchanged fire with the robbers during Thursday's raid, but the gunmen escaped. South African media said they had stolen gold and diamonds.

With a major car jacking problem where drivers are robbed of their possessions, the South African city is not the safest place on earth but the robbery took crime to a new level.

"The group of armed men struck while freight was being unloaded on the ramp," KLM said in a statement.

"The police intervened and shots were exchanged, but neither passengers nor flight and ground personnel sustained any injuries. The gunmen escaped in the ensuing chaos," it said.

KLM, now part of Air France, said in a statement the robbery had targeted its flight KL591, but declined to say what was stolen from the Boeing 747-400 Combi.

The airline said it was reviewing procedures for the shipment of valuables to Johannesburg.

(Reuters)

 

[Mach 80]

Read this book sometime:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=VQ8v5N2Atf&isbn=0762423765&itm=1

 

[Tripower455]

TR4A,


I laugh EVERY time you post...... That avatar would be even funnier if it weren't so true!

 

[igneousy2]

Don't you love it when they bag check you because of something they saw on the x-ray. They grab your bag, you try to be helpful "What are you looking for?!" they reply "I CAN'T TELL YOU!".

These guys are idiots. A good portion of the front line workers are trying their best but are limited because...

1. They lack common sense...

2. They have BS procedures that don't protect anyone from anything...

3. Their supervisors & managers are idiots to...

A friend of mine is a great guy of middle-eastern descent, mid 30-s and really looks it to. It was soon after 9/11 when they were doing "random" screenings. He was getting on a flight to come visit me when they selected the 21 year old mother carrying an infant in front of him and the cane yielding great-grandmother type behind him for a pat-down when he lost it. He went up to the screener and said "Why are you selecting these people when they clearly pose little threat, and let me on the plane without any interference when I LOOK like the 9/11 hijackers, didn't you see their pictures!?"

To apease him, they searched him to at that point. Too funny, he's lucky he wasn't arrested for saying the word "hijacker" in an airport.

Anyway, the logo for the TSA may as well be a Swastika.

Later

 

[OtterFO]

Last week I was droping a friend, who is a muni cop, off for a flight. He checked his gun case. When the TSA searched his other bag, they had a major problem with the ammo being in the magazines. He was told that it had to be in a container designed for carrying ammunition. I thought that was the sole reason magazines existed. The TSA supervisor stated their policy was to call the local PD and have them take a statement... Remember my friend is a local cop. So the shift sargent comes down to the terminal to take a statement from this hardend criminal....... What a joke....

Can someone explain to me why a federal government employee who is on TDY gets both Per Diem and COLA? If you are TDY, you arn't having to pay to maintain a household in the local you are workig TDY in.

 

[Juvat]

Can someone explain to me why a federal government employee who is on TDY gets both Per Diem and COLA? If you are TDY, you arn't having to pay to maintain a household in the local you are workig TDY in.

Okay, I'll bite. Sorry for contributing to this thread hijack, but here's my thoughts:

I sucked on the COLA tit for 3 years while overseas. Whenever I went TDY (doing catastrophic landscaping in Iraq, etc.) my family was still back home paying the big bucks for their cost of living. Perhaps that's why.

 

[RJP]

Okay, I'll bite. Sorry for contributing to this thread hijack, but here's my thoughts:

I sucked on the COLA tit for 3 years while overseas. Whenever I went TDY (doing catastrophic landscaping in Iraq, etc.) my family was still back home paying the big bucks for their cost of living. Perhaps that's why.

Should've lived on base....

 

[OtterFO]

I asked this because the TSA people in rural AK are almost all TDY. They collect both per diem and COLA. The government is putting them up in a hotel, with a kitchenette. One guy I met from Vegas even paid off his house with the COLA pay. This didn't make sense to me, because his per diem paid for his meals and incidentals. As Tom Brokaw would say "The Fleecing of America."

 

[AK737FO]

Here is a good one.

A Captain for a major airline goes through security. He is wearing a tie tack that is in the shape of a handgun and is about the size of a nickle. Granted, this is not allowed by the company FOM, which allows an ALPA pin or a company provided tie tack, but this fellow is into handguns.
TSA says he can't go into the secure are with a handgun. He says it is only a tie tack made out of pot-metel. TSA takes it away from him. True story...

I fly with many pilots who flew fighters and like to wear a little F-16 or the like as their tie tack. So which is more dangerous? A handgun with 6 rounds for a revolver or up to 15+ for semi-auto, or an F-16 with a drum of 20MM and two sidewinders?

Obviously TSA is lacking in common sense. An F-16 tie tack can carry a heck of a lot more ammo! This clearly shows that the TSA training is lacking if they allow a fighter aircraft tie tack into the secure area!