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.
Marge Simpson?
What there were no grandmas or 3 yr old kids to strip search?
TSA is useless except as an oppressive tool.
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.
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.
Pretty close.
how big is Texas hair?
Hmmmm...suspicious!
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?
Turban bomb kills key Afghan political leaderBy the CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/20/world/asia/afghanistan-violence/index.html
Isis Brantley, natural hair expert.
Not guilty!
Are we sure that’s a woman?
NO!
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!
That's a huge fro. But terrorist, come on.
I’d hate to be the one sitting next to her on the plane. She needs an extra seat just for the hair !!!
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.
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