Believe it or not a woman was refused entry into a federal courthouse by security guards until she removed her bra.
The bra in question had underwire supports and naturally it kept triggering the alarm. Lori Plato and her husband were both stunned when asked by the U.S. Marshal Service employees to remove her bra.
Geez, don’t they know that most bras have underwire in them?
“I asked if I could go into the bathroom because they didn’t have a privacy screen and no women security officers were available,” Plato said Wednesday. “They said, ‘No.’
“I wasn’t carrying a shank in my bra. If it’s so dangerous, why did they give it back and let me put it on?”
The U.S. Marshal in Boise, Patrick McDonald, stated that the appropriate security protocols were followed during the September 20th incident. Apparently the guards had suggested that she simply remove her bra in her car outside or in a restaurant washroom.
“She’s inflating it,” McDonald said. “All of a sudden she just took it off. It wasn’t anything we wanted to happen and it wasn’t anything we asked for her to do. She did it so fast.”
Plato, of Bonners Ferry, said she was parked on a busy street and wasn’t familiar with downtown Coeur d’Alene businesses. So her husband held up his coat to shield her from the rest of the people in the courthouse lobby while she removed her bra underneath her shirt.
Generally, McDonald said, undergarments aren’t considered a danger to security.
“I don’t think they’re considered a weapon, really, the last time I looked,” he said.
He declined to discuss other ways the federal courthouse guards could have screened Plato for weapons.
Plato wants the Marshals Service to apologize and stop forcing women to disrobe.
“It was very humiliating,” her husband, Owen Plato, said. “They could have handled it with a much more professional attitude.”
Interesting. I guess I’d better tell the wife to either not wear a bra or to wear one that doesn’t use underwire when we travel to the US in a couple of weeks. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t want to have to take off her bra at the security check in area!
oh no… I’m mad to hearing the news. 🙁
at least the “status” of women is much better here than in mexico or the middle east. its funny how it takes leaders and always conscious thought to be “good”