[Infowarrior] - TSA and Sippy-Cups at DCA (more TSA follies)

[Richard Forno]

*speechless*


Nightmare at Reagan National Airport: A Security Story to End all Security
Stories
by Bill Adler | June 13, 2007 at 05:30 pm | 1831 views | 12 comments
Good Stuff
http://www.nowpublic.com/nightmare_at_reagan_national_airport_a_security_sto
ry_to_end_all_security_stories

Bill Adler
by Bill Adler
3 hrs ago | 79 views

If you travel enough, you've seen it all -- and possibly some of the awful
things that can happen while traveling will have actually happened to you.
But nothing I've read about or experienced comes close to what Monica
Emmerson experienced while at Reagan National Airport on June 11th while
traveling with her 19-month-old toddler. This isn't one of those Catch-22
bureaucratic snafus; this isn't about rules being applied to the letter.
This story is mostly about what can happen simply because the authorities in
charge decide that they're going to exercise their authority because they
can, regardless of whether it's legal or right or makes any sense at all.

The incident started when Monica was stopped while going through airport
security because there was water in her son's sippy cup. The sippy cup was
seized by TSA. Monica wanted the cup back because the sippy cup was the only
way her son would drink -- and it was a long flight between Washington, DC
and Reno, Nevada where she was going for a family reunion. If you've ever
had a toddler you understand about sippy cups.

So she was willing to spill the water out. Drink the water. Anything -- all
that she wanted was to be able to have a cup that her 19-month-old toddler
could drink from.

Here's what happened in Monica's words:

"I demanded to speak to a TSA [Transportation Security Administration]
supervisor who asked me if the water in the sippy cup was 'nursery water or
other bottled water.' I explained that the sippy cup water was filtered tap
water. The sippy cup was seized as my son was pointing and crying for his
cup. I asked if I could drink the water to get the cup back, and was advised
that I would have to leave security and come back through with an empty cup
in order to retain the cup. As I was escorted out of security by TSA and a
police officer, I unscrewed the cup to drink the water, which accidentally
spilled because I was so upset with the situation.

"At this point, I was detained against my will by the police officer and
threatened to be arrested for endangering other passengers with the spilled
3 to 4 ounces of water. I was ordered to clean the water, so I got on my
hands and knees while my son sat in his stroller with no shoes on since they
were also screened and I had no time to put them back on his feet. I asked
to call back my fiancé, who I could still see from afar, waiting for us to
clear security, to watch my son while I was being detained, and the officer
threatened to arrest me if I moved. So I yelled past security to get the
attention of my fiancé.

"I was ordered to apologize for the spilled water, and again threatened
arrest. I was threatened several times with arrest while detained, and while
three other police officers were called to the scene of the mother with the
19 month old. A total of four police officers and three TSA officers
reported to the scene where I was being held against my will. I was also
told that I should not disrespect the officer and could be arrested for this
too. I apologized to the officer and she continued to detain me despite me
telling her that I would miss my flight. The officer advised me that I
should have thought about this before I 'intentionally spilled the water!'"

Monica said that the incident ended this way: "I missed my flight, needless
to say after being detained for over 40 minutes. After the officer was done
humiliating me, I was advised that I could go through the security check
point in an attempt to catch my flight. The officer insisted that my son and
I be rescreened despite us both being detained and under her control the
entire time."

During the weeks and months after 9/11 some passengers who were caught with
unidentified fluids while going through airport security were told to drink
the liquid (including breast milk) to prove that it wasn't an explosive. In
one incident, a fourteen year old boy was ordered to drink water that he was
carrying, and it turned out that this was unclean pond water he was carrying
for a science project. Monica was more than happy to drink her child's tap
water --all three or four ounces of it-- and tried, in fact. But it was the
trying and spilling that seems to have escalated this into a situation that
required the presence of four TSA officers and three police officers.

TSA found no other security problems with Monica Emmerson. Not even a nail
clipper. Just the water and the sippy cup.

TSA's rules allow passengers to take up to three ounces of liquid on board;
they also allow parents to take milk or baby formula on board in larger
quantities than that, if declared to TSA. But the question that she was
asked by TSA --was this "nursery water" in the sippy cup?-- was an
unanswerable one, since there's no such thing as nursery water in the TSA
regulations. Or in the real world, either.

Monica Emmerson was detained for 45 minutes. She wasn't questioned about
possible ties to terrorists. Her carry-on items weren't rigorously searched
-- or even searched again. Neither the police nor TSA took any action that
indicated that they through she might be a security risk. She was just
detained, harassed and threatened with arrest. All because of a sippy cup
with water in it.