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TSA Searches Dallas Woman's Hair for Weapons
NBC DFW ^ | 9/20/11 | Susy Solis

Posted on 09/20/2011 10:12:05 PM PDT by Huntress

Is it possible to hide weapons in your hair?

The Transportation Security Administration thinks so.

Dallas resident Isis Brantley said she was stopped on Monday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta after she went through security.

Brantley said an agent asked her if someone had checked her hair. She said no one had and continued on her way. She then heard someone yelling as she went down the escalator to catch her flight.

"I just heard these voices saying, 'Hey you, hey you, ma'am, stop. Stop -- the lady with the hair, you," she said.

Two TSA agents told her she could not go any further until they checked her hair for explosives, Brantley said.

She said she reluctantly allowed them to do it. The agents patted her hair down right there instead of asking to return to a private area for screening.

"And so she started patting my hair, and I was in tears at that point," Brantley said. "And she was digging in my scalp."

She said the experience was very humiliating.

"I was outraged," Brantley said. "I was humiliated. I was confused."

"TSA's screening procedures are designed to ensure the security of the traveling public," TSA said in a statement. "Additional screening may be required for clothing, headwear or hair where prohibited items could be hidden. This passenger left the checkpoint prior to the completion of the screening process. She was offered but refused private screening."

After the pat-down, Brantley complained to a TSA supervisor at Hartsfield-Jackson who then apologized to her.

"She said, 'Ma'am, please, I promise you, I'm going to take care of it. I'm so sorry that happened to you,'" Brantley said. "And I'm like, 'OK, that's weird.'"

Brantley, who styles hair for a living, frequently travels to style clients across the country. She said has worn her hair naturally for 20 years and has never had her hair checked until Monday's incident.

"They've never done that to me, ever -- never, never, never," she said.

Brantley said she is scared she will be harassed again the next time she flies.

NBC 5's Scott Gordon contributed to this report.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afro; tsa
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I guess she's never seen that scene in Casino where Joe Pesci's wife smuggles stolen diamonds in her beehive hairdo.
1 posted on 09/20/2011 10:12:07 PM PDT by Huntress
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To: Huntress

Marge Simpson?


2 posted on 09/20/2011 10:14:11 PM PDT by Cboldt
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To: Huntress

What there were no grandmas or 3 yr old kids to strip search?

TSA is useless except as an oppressive tool.


3 posted on 09/20/2011 10:15:44 PM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Huntress

This is the Afro hair case which was reported earlier on Yahoo. Note that this article avoids using the word Afro. The woman involved had a very expansive hairdo in the sixties style. In any case, I thought the behavior of the TSA agent was outrageous.


4 posted on 09/20/2011 10:18:07 PM PDT by Ciexyz
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To: Huntress

If she had been through a scanner, of course it would have scanned her hair too. I’m guessing she just got the gropedown, and the groper didn’t think to grope her hair.


5 posted on 09/20/2011 10:19:27 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (There's gonna be a Redneck Revolution! (See my freep page) [rednecks come in many colors])
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To: Cboldt

Pretty close.


6 posted on 09/20/2011 10:19:46 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter Hobbit)
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To: Huntress
Is it possible to hide weapons in your hair?

Absolutely. Ask any security professional at a prison.
7 posted on 09/20/2011 10:20:21 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: Huntress

how big is Texas hair?


8 posted on 09/20/2011 10:21:07 PM PDT by RitchieAprile
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To: Huntress

Hmmmm...suspicious!

9 posted on 09/20/2011 10:21:35 PM PDT by NYTexan
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To: Ciexyz

I thought TSA was getting in more scanners to eliminate or minimize the gropedowns, which are not on anybody’s favorite vacation experience list. No scanner there to use?


10 posted on 09/20/2011 10:21:44 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (There's gonna be a Redneck Revolution! (See my freep page) [rednecks come in many colors])
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To: Huntress
If you can hide a bomb in a turbin, then it's not a stretch to do so in an afro.

Turban bomb kills key Afghan political leaderBy the CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/20/world/asia/afghanistan-violence/index.html

11 posted on 09/20/2011 10:24:23 PM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: Cboldt

Isis Brantley, natural hair expert.

Not guilty!

12 posted on 09/20/2011 10:25:03 PM PDT by jonrick46 (2012 can't come soon enough.)
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To: Ciexyz

13 posted on 09/20/2011 10:27:26 PM PDT by hatfieldmccoy (It's not racism..... it's probability, actuarial tables, statistics. Facts are stubborn things.)
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To: NYTexan

Are we sure that’s a woman?


14 posted on 09/20/2011 10:28:20 PM PDT by kalee (The offenses we give, we write in the dust; Those we take, we engrave in marble. J Huett 1658)
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To: kalee

NO!


15 posted on 09/20/2011 10:31:28 PM PDT by NYTexan
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To: Huntress
Nothing suspicious...


16 posted on 09/20/2011 10:33:04 PM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (REPEAL WASHINGTON! -- Islam Delenda Est! -- I Want Constantinople Back. -- Rumble thee forth.)
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To: Huntress

Black women were notorious for hiding broken pieces of razor blades in their hair if they were going to get in a fighting situation.

Women seem to be natural hair-pullers when they fight and this was a way to really cut your opponents hands to shreds!

I say black women because they are the only one’s that I ever saw use the technique when I was growing up and the afros were perfect for holding the razors!


17 posted on 09/20/2011 10:34:46 PM PDT by freejohn ("Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." --- Mark Twain)
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To: Huntress
Is she this Isis Brantley?

That's a huge fro. But terrorist, come on.

18 posted on 09/20/2011 10:36:17 PM PDT by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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To: NYTexan

I’d hate to be the one sitting next to her on the plane. She needs an extra seat just for the hair !!!


19 posted on 09/20/2011 10:39:09 PM PDT by TheCipher
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To: HiTech RedNeck
No scanner there to use?

Of course Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson Frankiln International Airport (gotta get all the names in to be PC, hope I didn't leave anyone out) has scanners.

20 posted on 09/20/2011 11:02:06 PM PDT by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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