The US’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) got another black eye when a toddler flying with his mother from Washington to Reno, Nev., was stopped because there was some water in the child’s cup.
The suspect cup was seized.
The mother, Monica Emmerson, said her only “crime” was accidentally spilling some water in her son’s cup. But she was threatened with arrest.
TSA’s response was to release a video showing that perhaps the spill wasn’t an accident. The video, however, supported her claim of harassment by showing an officer tugging on her shoulder at one point.
Ms Emmerson apparently acted as if the agents should cut her some slack because she was traveling with a young child and is a former Secret Service agent. Mother and child missed their flights. But the loser in the end was the TSA
“The TSA loses because it is tasked with confiscating liquids and gels that obviously pose no credible threat to aviation security. That’s a decision the frontline TSA agents didn’t make; rather, it’s something their overzealous superiors made them do,” wrote a blogger who urged the agency to drop what he called a “silly ban” on liquids and gels.
Report by David Wilkening
