Afro checked for weapons at ATL (TSA forgot to call a Code Bravo?)
 

Here's a new TSA outrage, this one having happened in Atlanta, the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.:

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Afro checked for weapons at Hartsfield-Jackson
(7:44 p.m. Wednesday, September 21, 2011)

A short quote:The article goes on to explain that her hair was searched for a weapon.

While that is pretty amazing itself, I have to wonder how the passenger "escaped" from the checkpoint - so much for the "Code Bravo" drills many of us have experienced at ATL!

This made the local NBC news in NYC this evening.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44599441

Now on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/....cnn?hpt=hp_t2

She needs to file a great big lawsuit.

This has happened before. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/bu...ethinking.html

(Note, this took place in SAT and I am still waiting to hear from SATTSO about how/why this happened.)

It looks like targeting people with Afros is a new policy. Given who wears Afros, this is a straight up racial profiling/targeting case, and should be struck down immediately.

My question is, if she was already halfway to her gate, didn't she already go through screening, either by AIT or WTMD? How could this not have been resolved there? If AIT cannot detect things hidden in hair, especially since WTMD can, this seems like yet another strike against AIT.

I´m personally very worried about this new nonsense. I´m not of African descent, but have a unruly curly mane that only gets more untamed during overnight travel, such as I do before getting to the US. I also have a personal hate of people touching my hair, probably seeded in the fact that as a child my curly blond "fro"-like hair attracted strangers all the time (yuck!). Seriously, hands can get caught and forever entangled in there.

I also have a thing against touching hair with gloves on - anyone who works in gloves for sterility purposes knows that is not done.

If someone touches my hair in an airport, I may well kick back.

Most likely, you'll never get a response.

I don't think she has a discrimination case. TSA can say "we do the very same check on bald white guys"

and in that rare instance, not be liars. idiots, but not liars.

"‘Hey you! Hey you! Ma'am! Ma’am! Stop! Stop! The lady with the hair! You!"

As everyone in the terminal except the bald white guys turn around. ;)

Mike

Oh goodie, that means the tee-ess-aaaa ain't after me* :D



*God made so many perfect heads and the rest she covered with hair

So, lemme see if I got this straight...

We've been forced into spending $2.4 billion on these invasive, dangerous scanners, because they're supposed to be able to detect weapons and explosives. But:

1) They can't see through heavy clothing, so you still have to take off sweaters, jackets, and other outerwear, or you alarm and you get a pat-down
2) They can't see through pleats and folds, so if you wear voluminous pants or shirts, you alarm and get a pat-down
3) They can't see through thick hair, so if you have thick hair, you have to hav it patted down
4) Even if they don't alarm, they are so unreliable that you may get a random pat-down anyway

That about cover it?

We sure bought a lot of security for that $2.4 billion, didn't we?

You forgot they can´t see inside cavities, or under fake skin. You forgot that you can evade them with a pancake. You also forgot they can´t tell the difference between a sanitary napkin and an "underwear bomb".

ATL TSA is among the lowest of the low. Nothing they do surprises me.

5) They can't differentiate a bomb from a boarding pass.