Breaking the Law with a Sippy Cup

Being a fairly frequent traveller I have experienced first hand the frustration that can occur when you travel these days. Have your boarding pass and photo ID out for inspection. Remove your shoes, belts, jackets, pullovers and anything else which could conceivably conceal a weapon. Remove laptops from cases and then place them on the x-ray belts for scanning. Walk through the metal detector and if necessary, you will also be subjected to a hand scanning and/or pat down by an officer to make sure that any suspicions are allayed and that you are safe to travel. Once you're through, you have to quickly reassemble yourself and your things before heading off for your plane. It can be stressful enough but it can be even more stressful with kids.

These days there are so many new restrictions coming up that you can almost make a career out of reporting the changes to travelers. There are so many businesses out there looking to make a buck off of the new regulations that it isn't even funny. New laptop cases that speed up the removal and return of laptops while going through security. Little lanyards that hang around your neck to display your ID and boarding pass so that you can keep your hands free for shuffling your belongings about. All this is there but there are still little things that haven't been changed or improved to make things better. For example, thanks to a group of terrorists in London who sought to smuggle chemicals on board a plane and then mix them on board to create an explosive, liquids, gels and other such things are no longer permitted through security.

Once you pass through the mythical gates of security you can purchase drinks to your hearts content but until that time, you are to have a parched throat I suppose. This rule has been around for a long while now and though there were mix-ups in the beginning, I think the average business traveller knows not to carry anything of the sort with them and most travellers who travel infrequently also are aware of the regulations enough to know not to carry such things. Even if you aren't aware of such things, most airports have enough signs, announcements, illustrations and explanations well before, during and in the lines for security that somewhere along the lines, one would expect that a person would realize that liquids of any kind (barring those that have written medical necessity) will not be permitted through security. Despite all those efforts, there are still those who don't feel that the rules apply to them.

Case in point is the case of Monica Emmerson. A former Secret Service agent from Arlington, Virginia; Ms. Emmerson was on her way out of town through National Airport in DC when she was stopped by TSA security for carrying liquid in her child's sippy cup. Now I grant you, it's incidents like this that stir up the emotions of people everywhere when a child's drinking cup is scrutinized as a possible source of terroristic activity but rules are rules and should be applied across the board. Who's to say that a 19-month old child will be any more or less deadly than a full-blown fundamentalist adult. Anyone who has sat for eight hours next to a screaming kid may have something to say about it but that is another blog. In any case, Emmerson was stopped by security who informed her that the sippy cup was too large to carry through security and that she would have to empty the cup and then pass through security again.

It is at this point that stories differ but according to Emmerson, she was told to empty the cup and then come through security again. She was so upset that when she unscrewed the top of the cup, she accidentally spilled the water on the floor and was then detained by authorities against her will for apparently breaking the law and violating sterile area rules in security. Suddenly the parents of America were up in arms over this latest effort by the TSA to enforce the rules, no matter how ridiculous they may seem. The TSA wasn't going to take this lying down though and they responded by posting video of the security lines and issuing statements online. They paint a somewhat different picture.

According to incident reports from TSA and surveillance footage, when Emmerson was confronted about the water in the cup, she flashed her secret service credentials and stated that the rules were stupid and ridiculous. The TSA officers in question remained firm and escorted her out of the area to empty the cup at which time, from video evidence, she purposely opens the sippy cup and dumps the contents on the floor. At this time TSA officers and an officer from the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority approaches Emmerson and informs her that she is breaking the rules once again at which time Emmerson again flashes her Secret Service credentials and complains against the rules. With all this going on, the TSA and airport police have no choice but to detain Emmerson who then misses her flight. Now everyone is looking to take sides on this issue and point the finger at the wrongdoers. I would say point them at both parties.

Now most people will side with Emmerson for being a mother and attempting to make sense of rules that don't make any sense to a rational human being. That being said, she has no reason to be treated any better or different by TSA and security even if she is a former secret service agent. Whether you are the police, military or President of the United States, if you are going through the airport like the average Joe then you need to undergo the same scrutiny as everyone else, screaming kid or not. The TSA shouldn't have had asked Emmerson to leave the area and go through security again, they could have taken her to the side and had her empty her cup into a trash can. Sometimes the rules are taken too literally and so it leads to bad blood on everyone's part. Sometimes the TSA officers have to act that way because if some members of the public see perceived preferential treatment to someone versus another then you get into cases of perceived racism or the like. It's a sticky mess all around.

The TSA have a tough job and the rules are there so many times when they themselves must question the sanity of the rules they are asked to enforce but to blame them is ridiculous. You occasionally encounter the overzealous ones who like making people's lives Hell just for the fun of it but for the most part they are doing these things to keep everyone safe. When an incident like Richard Reid (the shoe bomber) or the London attempts at toilet terrorism occur, we the public are quick to blame the TSA and other such agencies for their apparent lack of professionalism and security accumen but when we, the general public, are inconvenienced we rail against the system and call the rules stupid. I get aggravated and ticked with the general state of security these days but I know that it's more or less for my security. If I am detained for breaking the rules, then I try to cooperate to the best of my ability and prevent the situation from getting worse. I know I'm not a risk to security but if they think I am, it's my job to make sure I don't do anything to firm up their beilef.