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Posted by: Cinderella

Woman forced to remove nipple ring at US airport



LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who claims she was ordered by federal airport screeners to remove her nipple rings with pliers demanded an apology from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration on Thursday.

Mandi Hamlin, 37, also called for an investigation into the February 24 incident in Lubbock, Texas, saying that snickering male agents violated TSA policy by forcing her to remove the jewellery.
"I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated, scared and angry," Hamlin told reporters at the offices of her Los Angeles attorney, Gloria Allred.
"This situation was totally out of control. I will not sit quietly. No one deserves to be treated this way."
The TSA, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security that was set up after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, said it was investigating the incident but that agents were trained to search people with piercings in "sensitive areas" with dignity and respect.
"TSA is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body, therefore we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm we discover," the agency said in a written statement.
The TSA said incidents of female terrorists hiding explosives in "sensitive areas" were on the rise and provided a picture of a "bra bomb" that was used in training its agents.
Allred said the incident began when Hamlin, who has a number of piercings, set off a hand-held metal detector and told a TSA officer that her nipple rings were the problem.
A small group of TSA officers gathered around Hamlin, Allred said, and told her she would have to remove the jewellery from her nipples if she wanted to board her flight.
Hamlin went behind a curtain and removed one of her nipple piercings but could not budge the other, tearfully telling the officers it could not be taken out without pliers, Allred said.
"As Ms. Hamlin struggled to remove the piercing behind the curtain, she could hear a growing number of predominantly male TSA officers snickering in the background," the attorney said.
Allred said TSA policy called for a pat-down under such circumstances but did not require the piercings to be removed.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080328/...wd8ihEweidk3QF

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Posted by: 5-0

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...17-401,00.html

I think that this is a picture of her on the right... file this picture under 'things that you never want to see again'.

OMG IT GETS WORSE!:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23830845/

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Posted by: HousingCop

I guess it's true what they say..... Things are ALWAYS bigger in Texas.

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Posted by: justanotherparatrooper

Hey SE...you have any problems getting through with your prince albert?

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Posted by: USMCMP5811

Quote:

Originally Posted by justanotherparatrooper Hey SE...you have any problems getting through with your prince albert?

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Posted by: kwflatbed

TSA to Change Body Piercings Procedures After Woman's Nipple Rings Claim

Saturday, March 29, 2008



AP
Mandi Hamlin, at center with attorney Gloria Allred, demonstrates how she removed her nipple ring.


LOS ANGELES — The Transportation Security Administration said it will change they way its officers search passengers with body piercings after a 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 lot of physical pain.
The TSA said Fridday 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."
An after-hours call to Hamlin's attorney, Gloria Allred, was not immediately returned.

Click here for more on this story from TMZ.com

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,343068,00.html

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Posted by: justanotherparatrooper

They should make her wear a bag, that face is a weapon in itself!

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Posted by: KozmoKramer

LOL JAP.... Not exactly what I was expecting when I first heard of this story...

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