jiffthejiffmanjaffa

iTrader: (10)

Hi all,

I've just come back from France after a week away snowboarding.

As I was coming back via Lyon airport, I had a little incident at the security area.

Now, I'm a white British male and in my mind look nothing like a person of Arabic background.

Anyway, I was walking through the security line, I handed over my hand baggages to go through the xray machine and I walked through the metal detector. As normal I set it off, I forgot to remove my belt. Wally.

As I walked back though a lady approached me and asked if I was Arabic. I said no, I'm British. She looked puzzled and very quickly walked off to a office near by.

I walked back through the metal detector and again set it off. At that point, and very large security gaurd turned up and told me to go back through and remove all metal items. I explained I thought I had, and that I didn't know what could be setting it off.

As this was happening the lady had returned, and was talking to someone on the radio, and with what little French I can speck I was being decribed.

I was told more than likely it was my boots, so I had to take them off and again walk though the metal detector. Thankfully, or so I though this time it didn't go off.

As I walked back out the metal detector I was very quickly taken to a side room. They I was told I need to comply with a search, the reason given was I had set the alarm off twice and a thorough check needed to be carried out to make sure I had no weapons on me.

Fair enough I thought, although I'm sure it could hae been done at the securty line.

So I took a wide stance and put my arms out, thinking I would have a hand held metal detector run across my body and a quick pat down. Oh no, I had to pull up my jumper and pull down my trousers.

I had nothing to hide, and didn't really mind so pulled up my shirt and dropped my trousers. If they want me to remove my trousers of drop my pants then I think I may have reacted slightly different.

The security guard thanked me for my time and let me go.

I rejoined my friends in the line to go through to departures. As I waited the same lady as before came over to me, and across again " You are Arabic No?" again I said "No, I'm British"

"Then whats this on your arm?" Pointing to two words of Arabic writing on my right arm. "It spells my two childrens names" I said.

Very puzzled the women run off. And for the rest of the time I was in the waiting room I was observed very overtly by a number of security gaurds.

Now, I'm all for security checks at airports, but I'm a little bit annoyed by this as it appears to me that I was singled out for having Arabic writing on my arm. How can that be grounds to search someone?

I didn't say anything out of line, and couldn't be more compliant in my mind.

GazTheHat

You think a Tattoo is bad, you should've seen the hastle i used to get with Dreadlocks.

Torquemada

Same way that people are singled out if they even slightly resemble someone of middle eastern descent, even though they may just happen to come from somewhere with a better climate and have a tan
I can sort of understand why they were freaked out in this age of paranoia as well as the fact that not all persons linked with terrorism are actually of middle eastern descent, so seeing somone with an arabic tatoo might cause alarm bells to ring (I do think it's quite prejudicial but they are having to look for the slightest signs).
It ain't right and shows the kind of times we are going through but I guess it must be done, or so we are told.
When I shave my head people automatically assume I'm some kind of nutter or some bnp supporter and get a wider birth on the trains but I'm certainly not a bnp supporter. A type of haircut, tatoo, religion or colour of skin doesn't doesn't make you the person you are.
Well annoying.

MikeCardiff

iTrader: (2)

They'll be fxxked then if the ancient celtic tribes ever decide to start terrorist activities, judging by the amount of 'members' they have now.

jayb1970

Yep i'm a member of that "tribe" !!!

BIG FUD

iTrader: (84)

To be honest they can stop me as many times as they like as long as it stops my plane blowing up and others like it.

I know it pi....s you off but they must stop all walks of like doing there job if it makes it safer im all up for it as long as they are stopping the right people also that is a huge point,no good just stopping men with skin heads and tattoos as you have seen the people that have done hijacks bombings ect all in my eyes look alike never sean a white skin head with a tattoo on the news for these acts of terrorism but hey it can happen...

I think no matter what u look like or your skin colour we should all be treated the same im a white male skin head for years now does that mean im part of a group .....HELL YES THE BALD MIDDLE AGED GROUP

Get A Grip

Makes you appreciate the safeguards we have in this country - data protection, freedom of information, human rights, proportionality, necessity, reasonableness.

Jonny Foreigner has a lot to learn...

moff1888

When i occasionally shave my head this assists my "Thug image" as i also have tattoos. I have latin writing around my wrists which works wonders for "personal escorts" around airports .

v8voodoo

Welcome to France.

After people go through this sort of treatment by our Gallic friends, they often realsie how "softly softly" the UK is.

It sounds like they were quite pleasant to you after some of the horror stories I've heard......

finalzero

Happened to me the first time I went to Australia, being dark skinned and with a Moroccan look I was pulled over to one side, my two colleagues were allowed to go through however they had to obviously wait for me.

No one spoke to me for over an hour, then my passport was given back to me and I was asked some length questions, some that I felt were a little too personal or almost an attack on my character however I remained calm as I was on a business trip so had other priorities.

Another hour passed, then two more security staff came over, very publically paraded me across a whole congregation of people checking in who were at this point taking full notice of me. I had two large build security staff walking on either side of me.. now I am not exactly a small guy, at the time I weighed 15 stones in body weight and up to the point of my flight to Australia I was body building 4 to 5 days a week - I suspected they were taking some paranoid precaution when they saw my build.

We were being led by a female security officer who I repeatedly badgered all the way to the other office I was being led to however none of them answered my questions.

When I got to the other office one of my colleagues (who is an Australian native) came over started asking questions as to why I was being paraded around like a trophey however he was very abruptly told to wait at the other side.

After another hour and several threats and some unfounded comments I was allowed to go my merry way.

I get to one of several baggage checkpoints however one of the Aboriginal members of staff saw my plight and let me straight through - haha so much for security.

Get to another checkpoint and there is absolute lack of security - at this point I was with my colleagues again heading to the bar and we all commented about the so called security, so lax in some places that it was obvious the whole affair is just a show and no one really knows wtf is going on.

In the time they ****ed around wasting my time a real terrorist could have walked through without anyone batting an eye lid.

Thankfully the rest of my trip was very pleasant and the next time I flew out to Australia I had absolutely no problems. One place where I found the security to be quite heavy handed was in Dubai however they were very methodical about their checks so you couldn't fault them for being lax in places.

I will never fly to the US, after hearing what UK flyers have experienced (both white and people of ethenic appearance) it's the last place I want to go.

ditchmyster

iTrader: (7)

mostly because my dad is jamaican (mums white) iv'e received special treatment from offical dumb (or should that be dumb officials) all my life! and to be honest it's just the world we live in unfortunatly! but at airports if they are not scrutanising me i kinda want to know why, because ultimatley my looks fit the profile, so they should check me out im my opinion! it's the price i pay for looking this good and just another thing that confirms to me just how SPECIAL i really am. it's somthing iv'e learned to live with and except as part of my life. the BEST thing is that it gives me a very interesting perspective on human nature that not every one is privaliged as i am to be able to see..and that is worth a million searches...

cster

F*ckin airport security - health and safety gone mad!
They should give you a choice of not wasting your time and taking your chances IMO

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Halleluiah to that!

I would just love to see the number of people walking through the "take my chances" gates compared to the "strip me now line"

Paul3446

Did you get your tattoos before 9/11?

Just wondering, as it seems a strange choice, to have an Arabic tattoo, given all the problems associated with that part of the world at the moment.

Unless you are an Arab of course.

hectic

too true..
happened to be flying back in from Dublin on the morining (early) after the 'Trick or Treat' shootings in a bar over in Ireland (if you remember it) had been to a party (my side of the tribe are form over there) and as per, it kicked off a little at the end..
so queue me and the wife, looking completely fekked due to no sleep and her nose throbbing away nicely after deflecting a punch that was meant for someone else.. security didnt even realise we were together even though we walked through the gates chatting.. pulled us both off out to different rooms we were blissfuly unawares of the incident untill getting home and putting on the news...
so even being in the wrong place /time or looking a bit 'shhmmooody' can get you greif...

hectic

shouldnt make any difference whatso ever.. how many people have tattoos of Celtic origin or even polynesian ?
beckham has those sanscrpt (esque) tattoos .... world has gone mad.. it used to only be fat kids and ginga kids... now no fekkers safe!

RussBoy

I've been stopped noticeably on two occasions. The first was many years ago LEAVING Israel! The ******* there go through EVERYTHING in your baggage and look at personal (some of em were photos, ask if me and the girlfriend of the time were 'boyfriend and girlfriend'...'do we sleep together' and so on....and I have shaved blond hair FFS! The whole process took at least 2 hours but in fairness, there was some tension there at the time s when we landed there, an F16 jet was scrambled and flew along side as we landed!!!

The other time was quite spooky. I was going on my own stag weekend to Brussels on the Eurostar and it was in 2002 and a week or so before the start of the world cup. They'd been a lot of newspaper reports about banned football hooligans sneaking over to France to get flights to Japan to bypass the authorities keeping watch on flights from blighty. For some reason, I'd got separated from my mates who were walking as a group behind me. My brother reports that he saw 2 big blokes come out of the shadows from either side me and almost carry me away (I remember thinnking it was a stag prank!). My mates catch up and think there's a bit of trouble as these guys whilst in smart clothing, were nevertheless in civvies. Then one of the guys whips out a Special Branch ID card. They took my passport and the remaining guy was actually a really nice bloke and started joking about what to do and where to go in Brussels for the stag weekend etc. They let me go with a polite thank you but ever since, I've ALWAYS been stopped at passport controls in most countries I visit and had my passport scanned whilst others are ushered through. Just got 'that face' I guess...

Klaatu

I get that too, but I have no tats, just big and ugly...with a skin head! But never had any issue with airport security, and I've been about a bit.

hectic

Shaven head, tattoo's...
hmmmmmmm.. I wonder if thats why I......

idf101

Sorry struggling to understand how you can get upset at airport security, it is not as if you do not know it will happen.
Also if it means my plane is not going to be aimed at a building or blown out of the sky i am all for it, i have never left later than the scheduled departure time owing to SECURITY issues.
As for being targeted so what? if you have nothing to hide why get upset i would rather everyone who was even a little bit suspicious was stopped.
That should stop that horrible "I wonder" feeling when you look at some people at 37,000 feet, which is why i always fly El Al when i can.

luckham

In the current political climate, are you really that surprised that you were searched?!?

You're Joking Right?

davegtt

I think he was being sarcastic, hence the fcuked up smiley face at the end of his post

hectic

I think your missing the point....

Snug Rhino

I wonder how many Arabs have their kids name in English on them?

Obvious alternative is memorise your kids names in the first place.

cster

I'm only half joking.
It seems odd to me that the only place security is taken seriously is in airports, when there are plenty of other ways of doing damage of this type - trains for instance.
The reasoning can only be psychological, as we all stand a much greater chance of sudden and violent death when we start our cars up in the morning yet we don't seem to worry about that too much - maybe we should.

Simon C

The French are racist in my opinion from my experiances.

Got stopped going to Paris in a service station, 3 white guys and 1 black (old white guy driving the merc).

Comment from 3 Gendairmes when the white guys get out of the car (brit registered) was nice car, comfy to ride in?

Black guy gets out and the first comment out of the cops mouths was "got any drugs on you"

Then whilsty searching the car, 1 cop stayed with us, and chatted to us quite calmly about our hobbies, untill it cam e to my turn and he found out I shoot Boy did he back of quick and his boldy language change to protect his revolver




BTW, Ben, didn't have any drugs on him, I did

spireite

Think yourself lucky if your catching the tube over hear and look like a terrorist they shoot you dead

Snug Rhino

They do that for quoting a MASSIVE post when you only want to add one line of text!

idf101

Which is what? that the guy was stopped because he had arabic tattoos as i said so what?

hectic

dont think that was really the crux of the matter, here.. could it be the fact that he set the detectors off not once but TWICE have anything to do with it? then possibly the Arabic markings would come to the fore..

methinks possibly thattheres a bit of the usual tongue in cheek in this thread and as per, some people are getting the wrong end..