80-year-old woman strip-searched

UPI.Com ^ | July 2, 2002 | UPI Staff Writers

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., July 2 (UPI) -- The daughters of an 80-year-old great-grandmother said Tuesday that their mother was strip-searched at Gerald R. Ford International Airport after her knee replacement set off metal detectors.

Mary Jane Price was headed home to Florida after visiting family members when security personnel directed her into an employee break room where she was ordered to pull down her pants and lift her blouse to prove she was not wired with explosives.

"What upsets me is how it was handled," Price's daughter, Kim, said. "Does an 80-year-old elderly woman pose any type of threat as to having to give her a strip search?"

Kim and her sister, Bonnie, accompanied their mother to the airport Saturday. When Mary Price went through the metal detector, her jewelry and knee replacement apparently set off the equipment. Security guards used a wand for a secondary screening and it also beeped.

Bonnie Price said the screener then said she would have to conduct a strip search and sought help from a second screener.

"When the first security guard called for the second guard, the first thing out of the second guard's mouth was, 'Where are we going to do this?'" Kim Price said, indicating screeners had no procedure to follow.

Bonnie Price said while the strip search was being conducted, a man walked into the break room "because they didn't even lock the door!"

The sisters said their mother was humiliated by the incident, and they are demanding an apology.

The screeners at Ford airport work for Globe Security, which is still handling security until the federal government is able to replace the private company with federal employees.

WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, said the new head of federal security for the airport said the incident is under investigation

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Unreal that this happens, yet "Mohommad Al-Shabobo" jauntly walks past security while fuses in his shoes are smoking...

[Slyfox]

And they say they aren't profiling.

[fogarty]

Yep, good old Tom Ridge and Norm Mineta - Bush appointees - allow any Islamic, middle-eastern looking thug to pass right through the screeners...meanwhile every 80 year old caucasian grandma and disabled white war veteran gets stopped and strip searched.

[LibKill]

This is such cr@p!

It wasn't 80 year old women who blew up the World Trade Center.

[Slyfox]

"Mohommad Al-Shabobo" was able to take his case to court and get the authorities to ignore the fact that he is middle-eastern and is possibly going to hijack the plane.

[MonroeDNA]

They are now federal workers, and you have no choice.

Resistance is futile.

[Brilliant]

I would not be surprised to see an 80 year old woman become a suicide bomber.

[B Knotts]

Ah, wonderful. Our brilliant airport security hard at work again.

It boggles my mind that anyone even considers flying on airlines these days.

[Aria]

The lawyers will be the end of us.

[TLBSHOW]

Calling Ann Coulter time to Boycott flying. Stop this garbage in its tracks.

[AAABEST]

I feel much safer since they started shaking down and humiliating grandmas.

I'd rather hop on one toe to my next out of state destination than let these uneducated, unqualified pigs lay one hand on me or any one of my family members.

[Alouette]

And they say they aren't profiling.

Yeah,they are. Can't single out twentysomething Muslim men. That would be "racism", and being subjected to "humiliation" is a horrible thing in their culture, unlike ours.

[Registered]

Unfortunately some people must rely on flying to do business. A boycott isn't what's needed, common sense is what's needed combined with throwing this PC crap out the window! This liberalism will be the end of us all!

[AAABEST]

BTW what happend to that boomerang thread?

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

That would be "racism"...

Exactly. This incident amounts to something akin to "reverse racism by omission..."

[JonH]

No doubt the secrity people could have used better manners and judgement. Regardless, the lady should have provided her medical card that is now provided to all joint replacement recipients for precisely this reason.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

BTW what happend to that boomerang thread?

Good question...I had no idea it was already missing.

[MississippiMan]

I've posted several times about my flight experience a couple of months ago, during which Middle Eastern males saunter onto planes without a glitch while old men and women are pulled out of the same boarding line to pull their shoes off and such. Common sense has left the building. This is the government taking care of us.

MM

[Mulder]

How much longer are a Free people going to tolerate this crap?