“You’ve committed a felony. And you’re considered a terrorist,” security screeners at LAX told Cecilia Beaman, a 57-year-old grandmother and principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines (a Seattle ‘burb).
Beaman helped chaperone 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California, reports KOMO TV. She made sandwiches during the trip, misplaced a bread knife, but alerted screeners to the other two knives in her checked luggage. LAX’s finest found the missing knife “deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler.”
Beaman apologized but “was told her name would go on a terrorist watch-list” and that she’d have to pay a $500 fine.
“[W]hat about my constitutional rights? And they said ‘not at this point … you don’t have any’,” Beaman said. More below:
And we wonder why tourists from other countries are afraid to visit the U.S.?
More from the article at KOMO TV, Seattle’s ABC affiliate:
“They said ‘no’ and they said it’s a national security issue. And I said what about my constitutional rights? And they said ‘not at this point … you don’t have any’.”
KOMO News did reach a spokesperson with the Transportation Security Administration for comment. They said they did not have record of Beaman’s confrontation but did admit that TSA screeners are, by design, becoming more strict.
Despite continued warnings to passengers, TSA screeners say travelers continue to bring banned items in their carry-on luggage. Knives, guns, and other weapons are found and confiscated daily.
Fines issued for knives and other sharp objects range from $250 to $1,500. Fines issued for firearms discovered in carry-on luggage range from $1,500 to $7,500.
The TSA web site also indicates firearms violations will be referred for potential criminal prosecution. The same site does not propose the same criminal referral for knives like the one Cecilia Beaman was carrying.
“This is not the way my country should be treating me,” she said. My concern is that if that’s the way they’re treating American citizens I would hate to think how they’re treating other people. It’s crazy.”
The TSA reminds travelers that is has the authority to impose civil penalties up to $10,000 per violation.
“TSA needs the help of the traveling public in reducing the number of prohibited items brought to airport screening checkpoints,” reads the Sanction Guidelines section of the TSA web site. “TSA recognizes that most passengers who carry prohibited items do so without any ill intent. TSA does not impose fines on the vast number of passengers who inadvertently carry prohibited items. Dealing with any prohibited item, however, adds time to the screening process both for the traveler who brought the item and for other travelers as well.”
(Via PEEK, at Alternet.)
