You're talking to the person, who when searched for the third time in the Dulles airport, whipped her shirt up over her breasts and unbuttoned her skir, yanking it halfway down her hips in order to PROVE to the screener with the wand that yes, indeed the stupid thing was just registering the underwires in my bra and the button on my skirt.

My husband couldn't quit laughing, and the woman just muttered, "Ma'am, that's not necessary."
To which I responded, "Obviously it was, or you'd still be waving that damn thing at me. Can I put my shoes on and catch my plane now?"

I flew out of BWI last year on a business trip and was told they had to swab my wheelchair for bomb residue (not uncommon, I know), lest I was a faux paraplegic with terroristic intentions! The real laugh came when the lady told me "we don't suspect you of anything, but someone might've put something on the wheelchair when it was out of your possession." I think I stared and blinked for at least 30 seconds before I explained that, since I can't WALK, the ONLY TIME the wheelchair WAS NOT IN MY POSSESSION is when THEY PUT IT UNDER THE PLANE!!!

Security, I get it. But don't make up BS excuses for WHY you have to invade my personal space and property.

When I was 18, my friend and I were on a road trip and we got pulled over by a state trooper for going 74 in a 70. I thought that was weird in the first place, but then he came over to the passenger's side where I was sitting and started being flirty with me (dude was like 40). I had my high school yearbook in the car and he kept asking to see my picture in it. I had a hairband on my wrist and he started yanking on it and snapping it and eventually ran his hands up and down my arm. My friend and I were totally freaked out but also sort of in the middle of nowhere. Eventually he let us go we called our parents. They were more than a little upset. Lucky for us, he had left his State trooper ID on a form he gave us.

Ick.

I've never found airport security people to be independant thinkers. They seem to be working out of a manual which would rather strip people of rights / privacy instead of being considerate, understanding, or sensible.

At the same time, it's an easy news target to try to slip things through security just by knowing / working the system. This way the media can do a few hard hitting pieces on how lax LAX may be (which only gets security tightened even futher, making travel a bigger hassle than it is).

I wish I made enough money to charter private jets.

Obviously people in power harassing women is a bad thing, but saying the cop was out to "expose and humiliate" the woman depends on some pretty big assumptions. I live in MA and my Dad was a cop, I can somewhat sympathize with the trooper's position.

1)People go zooming down the breakdown lane during a traffic jam CONSTANTLY.

2)People falsely claim a variety of problems to get out of a ticket, and i personally have known women who claim...various...reproductive...issues.

3)We know nothing about the woman's size and build so wouldn't necessarily be obvious she was pregnant. Nor do we know the couple's attitude.

From the trooper's perspective it might have looked like a car was caught speeding in the breakdown lane and lied about the cause. If the situation was dubious, he's certainly not going to prove an escort for them without any corroboration.

Are there bad cops out there? Certainly, but this story seems to have quite a bit indignant spin to it.

You know, my sister and brother-in-law both said that the airport screening in Germany was one of the most physically invasive they had ever been through (sister's comment "I guess if I'm going to smuggle something, I should tape it to my nipples since that's the only part of me they didn't touch"), but that the screeners were unfailingly polite and respectful. Why can't US screeners be polite and respectful.

I'm in a band, where we play shows late at night, have to load our gear and I dress in what one calls 'stage clothes' rather than street clothes. These clothes tend to involve multiple layers of fishnets and sequined skirts. I look flashy and good because, a)i like to wear that stuff and b)it looks good on stage.

As you can imagine, I get a lot of looks while picking up my 70 pound bass amp and carrying it to the car in my fishnets and miniskirts. I'm generally fine w/ it when dressed like that, but what I'm not fine w/ is blatant objectification. Looking is one thing, even multiple glances, but more triggers me.

Last week I was loading gear into our van on a relatively quiet downtown street when a car drove by just as I was shutting the back door. I had a jacket on, but my fishnets/boots were visible. The car slows to almost a stop, the rider rolls down the window and leers at me. As the words "Fuck You!" roll off my tongue, I see he has a cop hat on....

He actually continues driving and I go to the side of the van to get something out, I come back around and see he has backed his car up in the street and rolled down his window AGAIN. So I hid behind the car and waited for him to go.

I know, cowardly, but I really didn't want to deal w/ an arrest/further confrontation. I really felt he was abusing power and it was icky. Or maybe he thought I was actually selling something... its still a mystery. Either way, I'm glad I kinda got to stick it to a cop w/o going to jail....

This reminds me of when I got a speeding ticket in Detroit in 2003. I commuted from city to suburb and I was late to class. So I was speeding down Woodward Avenue, which is a main road in the D. I was going 40 mph in a 30 mph zone. My car is old so the speedometer was broken. For instance, if I am going 40 mph it actually means that I am going about 36-37 mph. Anyway, the cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket for going 40 in a 30 mph zone. I was rushed, having family issues and my life was a mess at the time. So I was not the most balanced and grounded person at the time. So I believed I played a part in getting the ticket on some level. The cop handed me a ticket although I said I was late for an exam for class. As he walked away I said, "why don't you fix your Fu***** city instead of giving people like me a ticket." If anyone knows the D they know why I would of had anger about the state of the city and why I said something like this to the cop.

A few minutes later after I found a parking spot I was kicking myself for saying something like that but was glad he probably did not hear me.

Cops abuse power for sure, they need to be taught compassion, peace and tolerance and not how to perpetuate abuse, violence and all ways that maintain the police state.

A year or so after the first OJ trial (which was also the year I moved to NYC), I was having a disagreement with my boyfriend on the street. He threw a bottle on the sidewalk in anger, and a cop car happened to be driving by at that time. They slammed and cuffed him against the car immediately. When one of the officers asked if I wanted to press charges, I said, "no" (because he had done nothing to me). The officer replied, "OK, Nicole!"

I kid you not.

At least we had a good laugh about the whole incident at 4am during his allocated phone call...

I wear an ostomy on my lower abdomen. Sometime it fills with air. This one particular day, I went through airport security, and after I took my hoodie off and went through the detector, I had a security guard stop me and pull me to the side and asked what was underneath my shirt. I told him what it was. He didn't believe me and demanded that I take whatever it was from my shirt. I laughed and said okay. I raised my shirt and un-buttoned my jeans halfway to show him the pouch. He looked at me and said, 'All you had to say was it was a medical device." Fucking asshole.

I wear an ostomy on my lower abdomen. Sometime it fills with air. This one particular day, I went through airport security, and after I took my hoodie off and went through the detector, I had a security guard stop me and pull me to the side and asked what was underneath my shirt. I told him what it was. He didn't believe me and demanded that I take whatever it was from my shirt. I laughed and said okay. I raised my shirt and un-buttoned my jeans halfway to show him the pouch. He looked at me and said, 'All you had to say was it was a medical device." Fucking asshole.

So I'm on the beach discreetly having a beer, right, when up roll these two pimply faced cops, clearly a couple of geeks who have finally been granted manhood courtesy of the NYPD. They're on one of those four wheeling ATV things, and they start busting my chops about drinking being prohibited on the beach. They let me off with a warning after having me empty my beverage, so I'm pissed, but I'll get over it. I WAS breaking the law, after all.
Cut to about about two hours later, and I'm coming out of the ocean to my towel, and I see the same two cops parked about thirty feet away. I'm thinking they're giving a hard time to the 4 young ladies who've been drinking and smoking weed since they got here awhile ago. (Im so naive, I know!).
On the contrary, a grand time was being had by all. The girls were taking pictures with the cops while sitting on their little beach cruiser thing, and the cops were giving them an in depth interrogation regarding where they're from and if they've got boyfriends.
Now, not only were these girls were clearly drinking, not one of them looked legal drinking age, and one was very obviously drunk, which prompted one of these young officers to remark "she's having fun today".
New York's Finest!

That was fucked up. And why doesn't the husband know how to drive?

I hope the woman who was in labor sues the officer for the cost of the ticket.

I don't really respect police officers much, given the few interactions I've had with them. There is this sense of entitlement to respect they have that I simply cannot stomach.
Talk to me like a HUMAN BEING. You put a badge on someone and they go nuts. Anyway, that's just my take on the whole thing. This particular cop was a scum bag. I think I very may well have called 911 when being pulled over in this situation. Granted, it's very stressful and cops know how to make people feel helpless.

Feministing,

You dropped the ball on this one. Although Campbell's editorial is a nice slam, she doesn't quiet give the whole story, which includes some important points. Such as:

1) "They [the Davises, husband and preggo wife] pulled up behind a state trooper to ask whether they could continue using the lane to reach the next exit, near Alewife Station." They were not pulled over but approached the trooper.

2) "The Davises say the contretemps occurred after two other troopers they encountered had waved them along in the highway breakdown lane, allowing them to evade gridlock while advising them to be cautious and keep their hazard lights on."

For a website that is usually really good at redeeming the WHOLE story (from say, crazy anti-abortion groups that want to limit women's rights and access in the name of "god" or doctor's rights), you really neglected to do some research, relying on only one source. Here's the oringinal source that even Campbell cites: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/12/04/in_rush_hour_labor_ticket_delivered/

You people kill me! I see all these people talking about how they told off a cop after getting a ticket, and in the same posts talk about how the cop(s) had/have a bad attitude. Are you serious? Gee I wonder why their attitude is so bad? Could it be from dealing with everyone that thinks they SHOULD be the exception to the rule? That their excuse is a good enough reason fro breaking the law? Maybe it's from dealing with idiots that broke the law, got ticketed, then cussed out the cop? The lady was in labor, I get that, how many times has the cop heard that when it wasn't true? Driving in the "breakdown" lane. Hummmm.... sounds dangerous, what if say, oh I don't know, lets pick something stupid, like there's a car broken down in the breakdown lane. Imagine the possibility of that! I know the odds are slim right? I'm not a cop, never have been, never wanted to be, I'm in another line of work that has a lot of rules, the rules are there for a reason. MAYBE you people should pull your heads out?

Why isn't the cops name put out there? We don't hold them accountable like we do idiot politicians and idiots athletes? If they couple had be wrong their names wouldn't be shielded.

RE: The airport thing.

It's weird that the woman in front of you didn't have to take off her jacket, and it's weird that the guy let you get away with it. Every time I've had a flight I've had to take off my jacket in order to get through security.

A lot of the time this stuff is justified. Some cops are assholes, and some airport security people are assholes, but for the most part they're just trying to do their job. People lie and hide things, and when it's your job to figure out who's lying and who's telling the truth, you can't exactly take them at their word.

While I believe the cop was acting cruelly in this instance, I back up Miki on the "fuck da police" rant that most people seem to be having. If I had to deal with everyone thinking they should be the exception to the rule, I'd be grumpy, too.

my aunt had a great one when being harassed by the metal detectors when going into a court room.

she yelled out, "LOOK. I'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT ON ME. SO IF IT'S STILL GOING OFF, IT'S EITHER THE STUFF IN MY FAKE TITS OR THE METAL PLATE IN MY SKULL. I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU!"*

* my aunt doesn't actually have either.

Cops have been nothing but nice to me, personally. And not in the contrived 'well you just be a good girl, sweetie' way. Nothing sexist and nothing that would indicate an abuse of power.
guess im either personally lucky or we have good cops where i live

I've had nothing but bad experiences with cops and security guards.

Whenever I fly, I always - ALWAYS - get picked for the "random" pat-down, undo-your-belt-in-front-of-everyone-else-in-line search. I've been completely strip-searched once for no reason. As to cops - cops commit so much violence against women that it's hard for me to conceive of why a woman would ever come to a cop's defense. What about all the women - especially non-white women and transwomen! - who've been harassed, beaten, and even killed by cops? What about the thousands of deaths every year that go under-investigated or even not investigated at all because police negligence was a huge contributing factor? How many times have you heard about sex trade workers getting harassed by cops, or cops getting called into a domestic violence situation and saying "oh, well, we can't interfere"?

Most folks are quick to tell me that oh, there are some decent people who are cops, but I fail to understand how a decent person can ally themselves and work with and present a united front with people who actively participate in one of the most systematic and disgusting abuses of power in North America. Like, yeah, I'm sure some nazis were decent people, too, they just happened to condone the murder of thousands upon thousands of innocent Jewish, gay, black, and disabled people! Fuck.

TL;DR - rather than condemning the cop-bashing going on here, I think it's to be commended and encouraged. People SHOULD challenge the power that cops have, because they sure as hell aren't doing any good with it.