Leave your bookmark at home next time you go to the airport

[Das Pferd]

Teacher Arrested After Bookmark Called Concealed Weapon

POSTED: 10:17 am EDT September 17, 2004

TAMPA, Fla. -- A weight may soon be lifted off a Maryland woman charged with carrying a concealed weapon in an airport.

It wasn't a gun or a knife. It was a weighted bookmark.

Kathryn Harrington was flying home from vacation last month when screeners at the Tampa, Fla., airport found her bookmark. It's an 8.5-inch leather strip with small lead weights at each end.

Airport police said it resembled a weighted weapon that could be used to knock people unconscious. So the 52-year-old special education teacher was handcuffed, put into a police car, and charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

She faced a possible criminal trial and a $10,000 fine. But the state declined to prosecute, and the Transportation Security Administration said it probably won't impose a fine.

Harrington said she'll never again carry her bookmark into an airport.

 

[Solo]

Our tax dollars being put to good use......

 

[griz]

I wonder when folks will realize that we are not any safer because we arrest people who carry random objects that scare others. I also wonder if she "challanged" their authority by arguing that it was harmless?

 

[Atticus]

POSTED: 10:17 am EDT September 17, 2004

Where? Got a source?

 

[mete]

It was on Drudgereport also on tv. I'm gladHomeland Security is making us more secure !!! As an Israeli terrorism expert said - 'Israel looks for terrorists and America looks for weapons !

 

[4v50 Gary]

If we promote illitterasee, then we wouldn't have to worry about people reading aboard air planes and bringing those book marks with them.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Saddam Hussein is in custody. Norman Mineta, a representative of the Democratic (sic) party, is still on the loose.

 

[Carlos]

TSA makes me wanna puke.

How absurd can you get? This one is better than the Chef's frying pan confiscation and the TSA Thieves from my airport caught stealing cash and travelers checks on at least two occasions.

TSA is an abomination that needs some serious attention. Mineta is a JOKE. He and his attorneys have been known to outright LIE to a Federal judge on a case that doesn't get much press anymore, but is active. Government cheated and should pay. They play dirty, and it has got to stop!!!

:banghead:

 

[Mumbles_45]

some of ridge's retards once tried to confiscate a keychain I had with a very very small revolver on it. After about a 5 minute argument they decided I could keep it if I kept it out of sight.

 

[UnintendedConsequences]

Hmmmm..........

No wonder airlines are in financial trouble. Passengers are getting tired of all the stupidity they have to deal with just to get on a plane. I have also heard about a charter airline that leaves the passenger approval up to the pilot. If he/she doesn't think you are safe to be on the plane, you don't go.

The way they get around the security garbage like the TSA is that it is a charter flight airline and they fly smaller planes.

Honestly, I hate to fly so I will probably just drive where I want to go.

 

[Firethorn]

Hmm....

How about we open up "Mad Joes express airline service"

You drive up to the loading terminal, give your bags to the clerk, show your ticket, ID, and firearm(for the discount), and go to the plane. An explosives dog sniffs the luggage, and you're good to go.

Only thing is, you have to climb up a short flight of stairs to enter the airplane, unless you're in a wheelchair. In which case you either get a ride up the stairs being carried by a guy probably called Hanz, or they pull the baggage loader out for a bit and point it at the entrance...



I bet the airline would never be hijacked...

 

[fistful]

I bet the airline would never be hijacked

Ya know, it may sound nutty, but I say, ARM THE PASSENGERS! Of course, that would give us the Israeli situation - with everybody packin', terrorists had to stop shooting people and start using bombs. Which is better?

Honest question.

 

[JohnKSa]

My dad has one of those.

It's more of a page holder for an open book than it is a bookmark.

I was over visiting and he had it on a book that he was reading--I took one look at it and told him that if he was caught off his own property with it there was a potential for legal trouble.

For all practical purposes, it's a sap--looks just like one. He bought it as a bookmark.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00014VVWQ/ref=nosim/thebookvenue/002-5335350-6736813

 

[UnintendedConsequences]

Hmmm.....

Perhaps I am dense....but don't the terrorists already use bombs on our planes and we are unarmed passengers. Didn't the last hijackers use boxcutters against the unarmed passengers and fly the planes into targets as flying bombs? I see no difference.

Perhaps if we triple tap the hijackers each time they get a wild hair to do it, they might get the idea. Better yet, hand out pig blood coated ammunition as additional deterrent for the mad muslims who wish to go to paradise and let them know that they will be filled with those rounds.

We can either crack down and show force or just let them hijack our aircraft or bomb us into cowering positions with abandon. The force is against the terrorists, not the passengers.

 

[JohnBT]

"For all practical purposes, it's a sap"

What he said.

I know a man with a small collection of old saps and one of these bookmarks would fit right in. In fact, I like it better than some of what the old man calls blackjacks.

John

 

[.45FMJoe]

TIA never ceases to amaze me.

2 summers ago I went to Grand Cayman for a week. I took my school backpack with me since I was taking a physics course over the summer break and I didn't want to fall too far behind. Well, the month prior to that I dropped my car off at the Ford dealership for some warranty work and put EVERYTHING in my car into my backpack...including an empty mag for one of my 1911's. Fast forward the day I go through TIA security with the mag (unbeknownst to me) still in my backpack. Somehow, I made it though security without it being detected at all. I was unfortunately arrested at Owen Roberts International Airport on Grnad Cayman the day of my return trip for possession of a firearm! Yes, British laws classify an unloaded magazine as an actual firearm. Eh, that day sucked. BUT anyway, TIA security is a joke.

 

[Firethorn]

.45FMJoe,

How'd you get out of that situation? They decide it wasn't worth it to throw the bloody yank in jail and spend the funds and time when the thing (and what it goes into) are legal where he's going?

 

[griz]

Having seen the bookmark at the posted link, I believe I'll backtrack here. While I still think we are fooling ourselves by keeping pointy things away from passengers, that thing could easily be seen as a weapon.

 

[nico]

pardon my ignorance, but what's a sap?

 

[JohnKSa]

Look at the pic in the link!

A sap is a lead weight (or two if it has a weight on each end) that is contained in a flexible and strong material--typically leather. They're usually very flat so they can be carried in a pocket easily.

It's made to allow one to administer a good deal of striking force to a very specific area without a lot of effort.

The flexibility of the leather and the weight allow you to really smack something hard without having to rare back and make a big swing. They're very effective for being such a small striking weapon.

 

[nico]

I thought the pic in the link was of a bookmark? I guess you really meant it when you said it looked like a sap

 

[sendec]

It looks very much like one generically known as a slapjack. Frequently the lead head would be mounted on the end of a flexible flat spring and the whole thing sewn into a leather cover. It is my understanding that back in the day they were popular with both BGs and LEOs, for who a favorite tactic was to strike a person in the sternum with their first, the end of the sap springing forward and breaking the collarbone. Striking with the seam would cause laceration and bone fractures. Nasty little things, not seen very frequently anymore in LE because of the high rate of injury.

Anything can be a weapon. Any of us would be gloating about the morons in TSA if we had managed to get on board with one.

 

[Archie]

Since the early '60s...

When hijackers were taking commercial airliners to Cuba, I've advocated arming passengers.

However, the problem is now bombs that will destroy the aircraft. As much as I like being armed, my heater isn't very effective against the timed bomb in the suitcase in the cargo hold.

Good news and bad news about TSA. Good news: TSA is being removed from Transportation and assigned to Homeland Security. Bad new: Not much has changed yet.

 

[fistful]

Ya know, it may sound nutty, but I say, ARM THE PASSENGERS! Of course, that would give us the Israeli situation - with everybody packin', terrorists had to stop shooting people and start using bombs. Which is better?

When I posted the above, I wondered what reaction I would get. Is baiting legal on this hunting ground?

We should remember one big difference between pre and post-9/11 hijacking. Time was, hijacked passengers (and crew) believed they would be released if they cooperated. Now, they expect to die when the plane is used against ground targets. That means terrorists have to control the plane and the passengers. The only way I can see doing that in the new environment is a) an extremely cowed bunch of passengers, b) killing all passengers immediately with conventional means, c) taking out the passengers with poisoned meals or with a gas that would kill them or put them to sleep (and the crew, of course), or d) have control of the plane from the get-go by the pilot and co-pilot (at least) being sleeper agents. I'm sure there are other scenarios, but this is all I have.

Options A and B would be difficult with armed passengers. C and D sound a lot cleaner and easier for the Tangos, but how difficult would they be to defend against? I don't know enough about how airlines and air traffic control works. What do y'all think?

Also, how many people would pack on the plane if legal? Should the airlines issue weapons and training to adult passengers, to ensure enough detterent effect? That sounds scary, doesn't it?