Joke at Tim Hawley's expense leads to unfunny security delay
Screeners at Milwaukee airport find nothing to laugh at when passenger writes “Tim Hawley is an idiot” on plastic bag
There are three things one may not bring through an airline security checkpoint: a gun, a bomb, and a sense of humor. Even a child knows not to make jokes such as “no, I left the C-4 in my checked luggage” or “I’m just bringing some gifts home from my uncle Osama.” Such remarks, everyone agrees, are entirely innapropriate. What can be made then of Ryan Bird’s failed attempt to poke fun of the new Transportation Safety Administration’s (TSA) rule requiring passengers to place their liquid personal items into plastic bags? Is there anything threatening (or humorous) about the phrase “Kip Hawley is an idiot” when it is scrawled on a zip-lock?
TSA officials at the Milwaukee airport thought so. Kip Hawley, after all, is their boss, and the message seemed to impugn the TSA chief’s character as well as the legitimacy of the entire enterprise with which the screening staff was involved. Officials detained businessman Ryan Bird for twenty-five minutes following his little prank, even going so far as to tell him that free speech rules did not apply inside airport security zones.
-read more in this USAToday report ; read Ryan Bird’s original account of the episode
