The item pictured to your left is a criminal object, which is cleverly impersonating a book mark. Should you use one, or have one in your possession, you could be arrested and charged. Don't go all innocent on me, these things are dangerous!
Would someone please raid the following dealers in contraband:
Always Something Brilliant
Comfort House
Maxi Aids (for criminals who are disguising themselves by pretending to have a disability that prevents them from holding a book)
Mail Order Shoppe
According to the TSA's official prohibited items list, anyone who brings any banned item to a screening checkpoint, even accidentally, may be criminally or civilly prosecuted. Even items that are not specifically listed, but could be considered dangerous, are illegal. This is a concealed weapon.
You think I'm joking? I'm not. I'd love to know how much this bit of stupidity has cost the Harrington family--$10,000 at least in attorney's fees, let alone humiliation.
In February 2004, Reason Magazine reported that more than 1,000 people have been arrested at airport checkpoints since the feds took over security in February 2002. A single word can be sufficient to trigger an arrest.
TIA screeners saw the teacher's weighted bookmark as a weapon, and she was arrested. The charges were dropped, but a fine is unresolved. By JAY CRIDLIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 17, 2004
TAMPA - For the past month, Kathryn Harrington has stared down the possibility of a criminal trial, a $10,000 fine and the stigma of being deemed a security risk at Tampa International Airport. The reason? She had a bookmark with her as she passed through airport security screening.
"It was a bookmark," Harrington said. "It's not a weapon. I could not understand why I was being handcuffed and put into a police car. I cried for hours."
A month after airport police arrested her on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon - the bookmark - it appears Harrington, a 52-year-old special education teacher from Laurel, Md., could be clear of a potential $10,000 fine.
A spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday the agency, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, is likely to drop Harrington's case as early as next week.
The thing to your right is the neckpiece of a bolo tie. I know some of you like to wear bolo ties.* Keep your jewelry in your carryon? Think this couldn't be categorized as a concealed weapon?
"I think at this point we've decided not to pursue a civil penalty," said TSA spokeswoman Lauren Stover. "But it's not a decision that can be made on the spot. These are things that require an investigation."
Harrington and her college-aged sons were flying home from a vacation in Orlando and Sarasota Aug. 17 when airport screeners found the bookmark - an 8.5-inch green leather strap with lead weights at each end - in Harrington's purse on Aug. 17. She'd carried the $9.99 bookmark on several flights since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, even through Tampa International Airport, but screeners had never noticed it.
This time, screeners thought the bookmark resembled a weighted police weapon, known as a sap or slungshot, used to knock suspects unconscious. Stover said screeners did the right thing by showing the item to airport police.
"They probably felt that this item looked fairly dangerous," she said. "It looked like a bludgeoning type of weapon that could potentially harm someone."
Harrington was questioned about the bookmark, then handcuffed and driven to an airport police holding cell.
"I pretty much cried throughout the whole thing," said Harrington, a Sunday school teacher with a master's degree from Johns Hopkins University.
According to the TSA's official prohibited items list, anyone who brings any banned item to a screening checkpoint, even accidentally, may be criminally or civilly prosecuted. Even items that are not specifically listed, but could be considered dangerous, are illegal.
Harrington was not arrested, but she was charged with carrying a concealed weapon - a first-degree misdemeanor punishable by as much as a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.
The item to your left: we've flown a lot with these things "concealed" in carryon bags--don't you think they're dangerous? Look at those weighted stirrups!--You could use 'em like bolos.
Earlier this month, the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the case against Harrington. Notes on why the case was not pursued were unavailable this week, because the state attorney's office was closed through Thursday in preparation for Hurricane Ivan, said Assistant State Attorney Pam Bondi.
Even without a criminal charge, though, Harrington still faced a civil fine. The TSA's top fine of $10,000 is usually reserved for those carrying the most dangerous weapons - a bomb, for instance, or a loaded shotgun - but Harrington still could have been fined hundreds or thousands of dollars.
The case will be closed, Stover said, as soon as TSA's lawyers give the final say-so.
"We have an obligation to carry this full-circle," Stover said. "It will be sometime next week before all the paperwork is processed to drop the case."
Harrington's attorney, W.F. "Casey" Ebsary Jr. of Tampa, said he hopes travelers will take Harrington's case as a cautionary tale.
"Maybe the most valuable thing is that people find out that this is going on, and it won't happen anymore," he said.
Harrington, who said her friends and family reacted to the case with "jaw-dropping incredulity," said she'll no longer fly with her weighted bookmarks.
"You can be sure that my bookmark will not be in my purse," she said. "That will not be in my purse ever again when I fly."
Jay Cridlin can be reached at [email protected] or 813 661-2442.
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*Click here for purchase info on the bolo tie
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There's a whole blog on stupid security measures;
Dear Free World has more stupid security theater:
This is sort of the opposite of democracy. In democracy, governments are supposed to be accountable to the people. But the TSA loudly proclaims that it is not accountable, even when it does something inexplicable like opening its own locks.This is a $5.00 lock, so this isn't about the money. If the TSA training is so poor that they can't recognize their own TSA-approved locks (or find the key to open these), how can they possible recognize sophisticated terrorists?
U.S. Comedian Mark Russell, in a recent comedy TV special, commented on his experiences with the TSA. "If anyone meets the INS [terrorist] profile, it's the baggage screeners." He then cites the statistics, of how "only 60%" of simulated dangerous weapons, such as a simulated guns or large knives, were successful confiscated by U.S. airport security. "But 100% of tiny cosmetic tweezers" were confiscated by the TSA, citing his own experiences.
One of the linked blogs talks about that author's experiences having (dull) butter knives taken away by security, only to have very similar metal knives distributed by the cabin crew during meal time. He photographed the cabin crew giving him one such dull butter knife. He then stashed the dull knife in his carry on bags for another trip, and when foreign airport security later tried to take it away, he showed them the photo of the same knife being given him by a cabin crew, and asked to have them pose for a photo of it being taken away. "Oh, it's not dangerous; you can keep it." When he tried the same thing at US airports, the knife was unceremoniously taken away.
Oh, and don't forget Charles C. Green's unfortunate writing habits:
Without further explanation, the cops took me to the on-site police station, where I waited for an "interview" with someone from the Transportation Security Administration. By the time it began, I was being accused of writing "bomb" on a piece of paper and waving it around for the people in the back of the plane to see. While two policemen guarded the door, the honcho behind the desk informed me that my choice of dialogue was unfortunate, that life was not a stage play, and that the tiniest thing can ignite fear in American travelers these days. But he still wanted a summary of my novel's plot to get the context for why I had written what I had.
After nearly ten years of jujitsu training, my hands are fairly dangerous. Need I leave them behind on my next flight?
Nearly anything can be used as a weapon with a modicum of training. A five-inch, #2 pencil can kill if properly applied.
Posted by: Clark Oliver | Sunday, September 19, 2004 at 11:43 AM