Net: Penn’s Experience Of Being Frisked

One of my favourite TV personalities and magician is Penn Gillette – one half of the infamous “Penn And Teller” duo (Penn is the tall, large noisy one that also appeared in ‘Hackers‘ – Teller is the short, slim quiet one) who had a TV series on Channel 4 and occasionally even appear on things like Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Via Gamer’s Nook (who found it via Boing Boing) I found out about Penn’s encounter with Las Vegas airport security where a security guard, whilst “frisking him”, grabbed Penn’s crotch (but not his genitalia). Since Penn, obviously, got a bit annoyed at this he decided to make a complaint. Airport security insisted they did nothing wrong and tried to insist that the police leave as Penn had a plane to catch (Penn, being the rich lucky magician he is, said he was perfectly willing to catch a later plane or a private jet).

He filled in all the details of the assault (as that is what it is: unless you think grabbing someone else’s crotch in public is ‘alright’) and a couple of days later (after reviewing closed-circuit television footage) he received a very apologetic phone call where the airport asked him when he was next flying so they could make his next experience “very pleasant” (whether that means he’s going to be frisked by topless showgirls or not is still unknown).

Hopefully the airport will realise there are boundaries to things and learn, but for some strange reason, I think they’ll only treat people that complain (and know their rights) as humans – the rest of the paying passengers will get treated as cargo…