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Nightmare at Reagan National Airport: A Security Story to End all Security Stories
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by Bill Adler | June 14, 2007 at 02:10 am
311977 views | 82 Recommendations | 201 comments
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UPDATE: TSA has posted a video in the incident on their website. You can read more about this video, the TSA incident report, and the incident itself HERE.
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.
And if this can happen to a former law enforcement officer with the United States Secret Service, it can happen to anyone.
The incident started when Monica, who left the Secret Service to raise a family, 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 with 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, and it's not a generic term.
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 throught 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.
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at 13:49 on June 13th, 2007
Everybody is ordered to read this story.
OK, not an order. But aggressively encouraged. I can't believe this: a woman is accused of "deliberately spilling water."
Good stuff. I hope this inspires others to report their experiences of official harrassment at US airports.
at 07:04 on June 15th, 2007
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin
at 17:38 on June 16th, 2007
Before we start quoting the founding fathers over spilled water, let's remember they never had to deal with this stuff nor does this apply to someone who is so self involved and unable to understand rules and regulations that are posted for everyone to see. Perhaps the basis may be the same (of your quote), but it doesn't apply here. Sorry, I love BF too, but wrong place to put it as this has nothing to do with rights. It's a privilege to fly - not a right.
at 08:53 on June 17th, 2007
Travel is a constitutionally protected right, no a privelege as the above poster FrMikeC suggests.
> It's a privilege to fly - not a right.
Read the Constitution, in particular the Privileges
and Immunities Clause of Article IV, Section 2, of the United States Constitution.
Edwards v. People of State of California, 314 U.S. 160, 173, 62
S.Ct. 164 (1941).
The Fourth, Ninth and Tenth Amendments also seem to suggest the Security Theater engaged in by the TSA is simply a demonstration of the validity of Frederick Douglass' warning:
"Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the
exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them;
and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or
blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the
endurance of those whom they oppress."
Does that suggest WHY the TSA has been created?
Your papers, please?
at 17:58 on June 17th, 2007
IF, in fact, it is Constitutionally protected, then why couldn't she adhere to the rules and regulations imposed on this protected travel? Are you saying we should let every Tom, Dick and Habib just board a plane without rules and inspections? It's a small inconvenience, deal with it - I know I do. Do I agree with it? No. But it is there and if I wanna fly by my own volition, then I chose to subrogate myself to the rules imposed thereupon.
at 10:23 on June 18th, 2007
Hold on a second.
Interstate travel IS a constitutionally protected right, but the method by which it can be effectuated is not definited nor enumerated, to wit, nothing was stopping Ms. Sippy Cup from getting into her car, loaded with all the water she wanted, and driving to Reno. In other words, when the Constitution was written, travel between states was done on foot or horseback and was not hindered. The same goes for today, only the horse has been replaced by the car. Just because she opts for the quicker method of airplane (and I presume train, but I'm ignorant when it comes to rail travel) run by private companies (the airline industry) and must subject herself to their security checks and rules doesn't mean that travel has been restricted - she can still go by car and not deal with any security.
If she wants to get onto an airplane, she's got to check her attitude at the ticketing counter and comply with the rules just like the rest of us. The rules, some of which are a little ridiculous, are there for the majority of people. Since JFK proclaimed "As not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country", there has been a shift from the benefit of the whole to the benefit of the individual, at the expense of the whole. This ex-Treasury agent chick is a perfect example.
She and her kid got what they deserved.
at 13:54 on June 18th, 2007
> Interstate travel IS a constitutionally protected right, but the method by which it can be effectuated is not definited nor > enumerated, to wit, nothing was stopping Ms. Sippy Cup from getting into her car, loaded with all the water she wanted, and driving to Reno. In other words, when the Constitution was written, travel between states was done on foot or horseback and was not hindered.
This kind of sophist nonsense would make the Founders vomit.
Of course it's the excuse that control freaks regularly use, these days, but it's still inexcusable. Just as ALL forms of communication are protected by the acknowledgement, in the first amendment, of our natural right to freedom of communication, so ALL travel is protected.
This kind of authority-worshipping cowardice, being willing to excuse and justify abuse of authority just in case it might possibly make us feel safer, is grotesquely anti-American.
at 05:18 on July 10th, 2007
Did you read the article? I don't see any reason to believe she "got what she deserved" or didn't "check her attitude." According to her she was dealt with in a very overbearing and threatening manner and complied with orders that were at LEAST "a little ridiculous" (ordered to apologize, clean up the spill).
You might subjectively infer that she is lying about accidentally spilling because she was nervous. But such a conclusion wouldn't be founded on the info contained in the article. It would speak to your biases.
I agree with you that security regulations are mandatory and to be complied with. But I don't believe that the existence of regulations gives TSA officials (a government functionary) carte blanche to humiliate and demand servileness from their customers (citizens). We all need to reflect on whether the specter of terrorism automatically requires pinning facist badges to the fabric of our society.
at 05:31 on December 9th, 2008
"She and her kid got what they deserved."
You are a fatuous ass.
at 04:11 on November 29th, 2008
You are obviously an idiot.
at 04:19 on November 29th, 2008
The idiot referred to was MikeC. Rules are there for a REASON. The authorities have obviously lost THEIR REASON, if they ever had any. They obviously aren't really concerned about any REAL terrorism, which is what "THE RULES" were put in place for!!
at 15:06 on December 1st, 2008
yes....our freedom still applies. No government issued badge has the "right" to behave in the manner of an asshole. A frazzled mother doing her best to comply in every manner asked that accidentally spills water? A bunck of sick jack booted thugs. Yes we need security....and we need some real screening for these jobs. Which corporation would put up with such behaviour? none. Why should we????!!!!!!!!!
at 16:48 on June 15th, 2007
She did though. Watch the video. You see her take the lid off and pour it onto the floor. Than turn around and try to re-enter the exit only lane. go to tsa.gov, watch the video, and READ the report filed.
at 06:37 on June 16th, 2007
Bwahaha, the TSA released video showing her pour the cup out. Lying bitch.
http://www.tsa.gov/approach/mythbusters/index.shtm
I like the where she pulls her secret service ID out and says "do you know who I am?" Yes lady, the rules DO apply to everybody.
Don't believe every load of crap some jackass says on the internet.
at 10:16 on June 16th, 2007
WATCH THE VIDEO ALL YOU GULLIBLE "WE'LL BLEIVE ANYTHING IF SOME BLONDE WHINES AND CLAIMS IT IS TRUE" NITWITS!
That whining blonde bimbo who belives she is "oh so entitle" to do what she wants because her "child wants it" and she reproduced (someting any rat or inesct can do) is LYING through her teeth - she jist happened to forget about video cameras.
She walks out with the TSA agent, he turns away, and you can see her open the cup and TURN her hand and dump it on the ground. She most certainly did act like a 2 year-old in a temper tantrum and throw the water on the ground.
"Sippy" cups are not necessary for surviavl. Toddlers were drinking from regular cups long before those were invented.
She is a self-centered, narcisstic cow who should never have bred. Pack the cup and ask the stewardess for water once on the plane.
I travel with a mobility assistance Service Dog and TSA has always been extremley polite helpful and considerate - of course, I put his EMPTY collapseable water dish in his packs and the stewardess happily gives me some water if he needs it.
Lying pretentious cow.
at 11:20 on June 16th, 2007
Thank you for saying the truth. I had to watch the video 3 times until i realized she had poured the cup in an instant - I was looking for an 'accidental' spill.
She should be (a) charged with abuse of authority (b) lose her job as she is no longer so 'secret'.
On the other hand, it is comforting that an idiot president is being guarded by idiot agents....
at 00:35 on June 17th, 2007
Yeah! I second that....!
at 13:58 on June 18th, 2007
You are correct, that she appears to be lying on the errant premise that this will strengthen her case.
What do you expect" she's a former government bureaucrat, herself.
But it doesn't make the TSA thugs' behavior any less inexcusable.
If she can DRINK the damned water, then obviously there's not a problem and she should be allowed to pass.
Authority abused is authority invalidated. I commend her for dumping the water and trying to go right back in...just not for, as far as I can tell, lying about it afterward. We should never treat with respect the abuse of authority, nor any unjust law, or we become an accomplice to it.
Authority worship, and surrendering liberty for imagined temporary safety, are forms of grotesque cowardice.
at 10:25 on June 16th, 2007
Wow, she even had the nerve to pose for this picture, too. It'd be one thing to cause this mess and then just let it go after the incident. But no, she wants her 15 minutes of fame.
"What we've got here is... failure to communicate honestly. Some women you just
can't reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way she
wants it... well, she gets it. I don't like it any more than you folks."
at 10:32 on June 16th, 2007
The Woman DID DELIBERATELY SPILL THE WATER!!!! Who does she think she is...just because she is Secret Service, rules Do NOT apply to HER? Come On, she started it, she knew the liquid policy BEFORE arriving at the airport...we ALL know the liquid policy!!! I THANK security for NOT treating her any differeny even though they should have strip searched her after the scene she caused! If I were security I woiuld have wondered what was she trying to hide with all the drama over a cup...NEXT TIME...Arrive at security with an empty cup, go though security, buy water, pour into cup, continue on journey...
at 10:47 on June 16th, 2007
Mr. Adler, do not believe everything you read or hear. I am not a fan of the sometimes "silly" TSA procedures either, but I am thrilled they released the video proving Monica Emmerson lied. The poor TSA folks have a hard enough job to so without some "holier-than-thou" (former) secret service agent flashing her (former) credentials. Your rush to judgment of the TSA without asking them for their report or confirming the story reminds me of how the American media have completely dropped the ball on the Iraq War, with absolutely no independent research or what used to qualify as journalism. Now everyone just takes someone else's story (AP/Tony Snow/etc.) and runs with it as though it is Gospel.
at 11:07 on June 16th, 2007
Did you even watch the video before you decided Emmerson's "version of events" is a little misguided?
Also, this "Law Enforcement Officer" flashed her credentials as if it would get her some sort of special treatment when, in actuality, she LEFT the Secret Service to raise her family.
The video doesn't lie. She believed she was ENTITLED to special consideration when she needs to abide by the same rules and regulations that we ALL do.
at 14:18 on June 18th, 2007
Regardless of what that woman thought to be the source of her "entitlement", the cold, hard fact is that every one of us has a NATURAL RIGHT to better treatment than that.
The TSA should not have an erg of authority to violate our natural rights, not even in the name of keeping cowards feeling safe. To insist that a mother can't drink the tap water in her child's sippy cup is a beautiful paragon of "Who is John Galt" bureaucratic power-madness.
They should be fired, and blackballed from ever working in ANY position of authority, again.
at 18:25 on June 16th, 2007
Horrible Article Bill thanks for not substantiating any of these allegations before posting this. It was linked like a true news story in various places online giving people even more negative and this time false information about our Government. Seriously the very least you could do is add more then the freaking blip you have at the top saying you are wrong. You know since the women totally lied about just about everything and you allowed it to go around as Gospel. I hope you do better work on the next article you decide to write.
at 00:44 on June 18th, 2007
Although she poured the water out and although she may have gotten pissy with the TSA, I can understand why anyone would act that way.
Flying in and out of Regan is a nightmare. I flew out of there with my 3 year old and before we boarded the plane I took her to the restroom to go potty. We boarded the plane and then they had the plane sit there for over an hour. My daughter told me she had to go to the bathroom and the flight attendant told me that no one is allowed to go to the bathroom for a half an hour after the plane takes off.
I explained that we hadn't even moved yet and my daughter had to go to the bathroom. The flight attendant told me no and that my daughter would have to just pee on herself. I said "WHAT!!!" and then they brought me a blanket. I asked what it was for and they said so my daughter could pee on it!!!!!!!!
I told them they were crazy and that I didn't have a change of clothes and we had a connecting flight and I was not going to have my daughter go around the airport wet! My daughter cried the whole time after we got in the air for a half hour waiting to go to the bathroom.
I was so angry!!! I don't care what the rules are. If they believe that someone is going to do something then they could have taken her to the bathroom themselves. I wrote a letter to Continental about the incident expressing my horror and informing them that I would not be flying on their airline ever again! That was 3 years ago and I have NOT flown on their airline since.
I sympathize with everything having to do with security and no, I don't want to be at risk, however there has got to be a better way. Until then, I will continue to drive. I can stop anytime I want, eat what I want, and pee when I want!
at 18:50 on July 18th, 2007
I hope you watched the video as well as read her "version" of what happened.
I understand where she is coming from with the toddler & the sippy cup... I have a 9 year old and a 5 month old, and I know that it would upset me that I would have to pour out water ... But you do have to take a few things into consideration:
1) Pouring water out on the floor so the next elderly lady (yes there was one that walked right through it) can slip and fall on it and break her hip, is not being a "responsible" parent, not to mention that she is a former Secret Service Agent that should know these rules already.
2) Arguing with security WILL get you no where unless you wanted to get arrested. I am sure that when she was a SS agent, that if someone were to argue with her about pouring something on the ground then she would've dealt with it in a very similar fashion.
3) Calling your fiance into the argument will get you no where but right to the road where you don't want to be if you want to catch your flight.
As a parent, I can understand the frustration she must've felt between giving her kid water & being told to "deal with it" as the TSA officer asked her to do. DEALING with it does not mean pouring it out, THEN SHAKING the cup to empty it of contents and then lying about it to make people feel sorry for you.
Suggestion: Leave it be... everyone on the internet knows that you are a liar and OH By the way.. YOU WERE NOT ON YOUR HANDS & KNEES .... another lie...
at 23:33 on August 6th, 2007
I am 47, have been flying since I was 8, to and from more Countries than I care remember.
What I can say is, in many Nations the "TSA" equivalents are military, and have Rules and Regulations and procedures... and if they get things right, pat on their back, but if they make mistakes, including being overpretentious and oppressive, then they are in hopeless trouble. This TSA, on the other hand, seems to have more authority that Lawmakers in Congress: she stops a US Official, ignores Regulations on the 3-oz. permitted amount, refutes the passenger's offer to drink the water, and purposefully makes her lose her flight.
Look at Video#1, the Mom is being escorted to the gate by a gentleman in a kind of uniform. Look at Video#2, as the escort leaves the Mom, the TSA Police Officer stops her, and... in the end, prohibits her from drinking that water.
Where is the legal justification in prohibiting the woman from drinking her baby's water? How can National Security be at stake from a sip of water?
The Mom flicked her credentials. OK, she's entitled to doing that; SS does not mean "secret agent", those people go through extremely difficult screening and training to qualify as US.SS. Flicking her credentials did not mean "I am untouchable", it actually meant "I'm safe, you can rest assured" If the TSA Officer ignored those credentials, she could be prosecuted for that.
The Mom overreacted, sure, but the primary mistake is with the TSA Officer. In my system, that TSA Officer would be fired, or issuing parking tickets overnight.
at 04:37 on November 29th, 2008
Very enlightening article.
It confirms my concerns that in the Bush era of control the inmates have taken over the asylum. I was intending to visit USA shortly, but as an organic devotee who travels with his preferred items of personal products, forget it. I respect justified and well mannered authority, I'm 71 years old, never even had a parking ticket, let alone any other sort of law abiding infringement, but I do not suffer fools... God knows where I would end up in the current cesspit of the american dream. Probably dead.
Would'nt be suprised if my email address is tracked down for a red flag marker, being so, get a life you sick, inadequate pathetic bastards.
You want respect..? First have the wit to earn it by simply giving it.
djk
at 13:57 on June 13th, 2007
Bill Adler, thank you for posting this. I had a similarly nightmarish customs battle, and my sister and I had a terrible airport battle (in which I had to watch my sister get essentially strip searched and patted down. She was 14). What scares me the most about this is the people with the highest ability to intrude upon our lives in these situations--customs officers, security screeners--require the least education and training of any "law enforcement" branch. Most power, least education...something's wrong there.
I hope that Monica's okay now. Thanks for telling her story.
at 10:08 on June 17th, 2007
Yes, "thanks so much" for telling this STORY....you make it sound like the story of someone fleeing a refugee camp and having suffered immensely. I guess this is why Americans are so soft. If you bothered to look at the video (which you didn't b/c that might contend with your view of those pathetic security officers at the airport), you would notice that this COURAGEOUS, UPSTANDING, DEAR MOTHER OF A YOUNG CHILD...AND BLONDE AND WHITE TO BOOT...did in fact SPILL her water right in front of the security guard, shake it out and then kept going as if to say "there ya go peon, no more water, happy?". She's not downtrodden and humiliated. She was a WITCH and abusing her OWN SENSE OF AUTHORITY. What a story. You deserve the pulizter prize for this one. And all the sympathetic souls need to get a faster internet connection because apparently they couldn't view the video on youtube that shows what happened in reality.