Thought this article was pretty interesting, as well as the comments as to whether or not its going to be effective. Of course, I can already hear the words "My rights are being violated........" IMHO, I don't think that anyones rights are being violated. Its very simple...they pull you aside at random, do a quick check, and you're on your way. Its no different than a DUI checkpoint. The more people complain, the more headaches that are caused for everyone else. But of course, like anything else, these screeners are damned if they do, damned if they don't. Either way, people *****. A bomb gets brought on the plane, people cry foul that the screeners didnt catch it. Yet, let the screener stop that same person who cries, and now that person will still cry foul. Go figure.
Random Airport Screenings Resume
- Thread starter MJS
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I've got problems with DUI checkpoints too. They should need a reason to stop you, not just stop people and use some statistical or stochastic reasoning to justify it.
I've been checked before, it was kinda humorous. When the guy asked me to take my shoes off & I looked at him and said "Are you serious?" and pointed at my flip flops. My ticket said Cancun.
No big deal either way... people who get all uppity & indignant about it are looking for a reason to raise hell anyway. If they're actually running that late to the point of a 2 minute check (if you work with the TSA peeps, it really doesn't take much longer) is going to make you miss your flight, it's your own damn fault for leaving so late. Plan better... it makes the rest of us enjoy the day so much more.
No big deal either way... people who get all uppity & indignant about it are looking for a reason to raise hell anyway. If they're actually running that late to the point of a 2 minute check (if you work with the TSA peeps, it really doesn't take much longer) is going to make you miss your flight, it's your own damn fault for leaving so late. Plan better... it makes the rest of us enjoy the day so much more.
They were always a stupid, useless, intrusive piece of security theater. There's no rational justification for them. They were always about control and about cowing people into servile obedience.
"Ma'am, if you don't let us confiscate your tweezers and fondle your teats the Terrorists will kill us all."
"Ma'am, if you don't let us confiscate your tweezers and fondle your teats the Terrorists will kill us all."
The simple fact is this - if you put a fence around three sides of your four-sided property, you do not have security. That's what we have with air travel now.
Fact: The TSA does not check all parcels that go on passenger planes. Items shipped as cargo by third-party shippers are 'self-certified' to be safe. Therefore, anyone who wants to, can plant a bomb on a passenger plane by shipping it as cargo and 'self-certifying' it as safe. Don't believe me? Check the Congressional record - the TSA has been upbraided time and time again since 9/11 for CONTINUING to disregard Congressional mandate on this issue. they still refuse to comply.
If the TSA does not check packages shipped as cargo, then any inspection they do of passengers is nothing more than window-dressing, security theater, done for the benefit of the sheep involved.
I used to travel for a living. Seven years, 150,000 miles a year, twice a week in the airport. By 2004, I had enough. Enough bully-boy tactics by the TSA, enough nonsensical 'security' that was anything but secure, enough of my personal property being stolen from my checked luggage (fly enough, and it becomes an occupational hazard, guaranteed you'll be stolen from a couple times a year on average). I quit a job I loved because I knew that sooner or later I was going to choke the living chit out of some pimple-faced non-high-school graduate wearing a TSA uniform who said the word "Sir" like a curse word.
I don't fly now if I can possibly help it. I hope the airlines all go bankrupt. I take the train or drive. Screw the TSA. Good and hard.
Fact: The TSA does not check all parcels that go on passenger planes. Items shipped as cargo by third-party shippers are 'self-certified' to be safe. Therefore, anyone who wants to, can plant a bomb on a passenger plane by shipping it as cargo and 'self-certifying' it as safe. Don't believe me? Check the Congressional record - the TSA has been upbraided time and time again since 9/11 for CONTINUING to disregard Congressional mandate on this issue. they still refuse to comply.
If the TSA does not check packages shipped as cargo, then any inspection they do of passengers is nothing more than window-dressing, security theater, done for the benefit of the sheep involved.
I used to travel for a living. Seven years, 150,000 miles a year, twice a week in the airport. By 2004, I had enough. Enough bully-boy tactics by the TSA, enough nonsensical 'security' that was anything but secure, enough of my personal property being stolen from my checked luggage (fly enough, and it becomes an occupational hazard, guaranteed you'll be stolen from a couple times a year on average). I quit a job I loved because I knew that sooner or later I was going to choke the living chit out of some pimple-faced non-high-school graduate wearing a TSA uniform who said the word "Sir" like a curse word.
I don't fly now if I can possibly help it. I hope the airlines all go bankrupt. I take the train or drive. Screw the TSA. Good and hard.
My family and I are always screened when we fly. That is the price of having a mixed/interracial marriage. Usually my youngest who is now 9 gets the most thorough going over.
Now if I fly by myself they leave me completely alone. :erg:
As to check points I wish all passengers were checked and all bags both passenger and all third party packages that are being shipped. That is the only way to have real security on airplanes. What we have now is a farce!
Now if I fly by myself they leave me completely alone. :erg:
As to check points I wish all passengers were checked and all bags both passenger and all third party packages that are being shipped. That is the only way to have real security on airplanes. What we have now is a farce!
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The only way to be part of the solution is to not be part of the problem. If I can't get there by road or rail--I won't go.
Nolerama
Master Black Belt
This is slightly off subject, but doesn't TSA have a new scanner that can see past your clothes, x-ray style?
Personally, I don't have a problem with someone seeing me naked, but I'd like to find a paint that responds to that sort of sensor and have funny messages written on my body when I pass through those sensors, like:
"You like what you see? $5"
"I see dead people... You see my junk."
(on back) "Kiss my... [arrow pointing down]"
"HELP! SOS!"- If you had the time to just sit around the airport while TSA personnel run screaming in panic.
Or I could do some research, and take a picture of a TSA worker's face a few days prior to getting on the plane, and have his/her picture painted on my belly when I go through the checkpoint. That would really freak them out.
Basically, I like to mumble when I deal with them. Then they think I don't speak English, so they speak a little more loudly and slowly. Hilarious.
Personally, I don't have a problem with someone seeing me naked, but I'd like to find a paint that responds to that sort of sensor and have funny messages written on my body when I pass through those sensors, like:
"You like what you see? $5"
"I see dead people... You see my junk."
(on back) "Kiss my... [arrow pointing down]"
"HELP! SOS!"- If you had the time to just sit around the airport while TSA personnel run screaming in panic.
Or I could do some research, and take a picture of a TSA worker's face a few days prior to getting on the plane, and have his/her picture painted on my belly when I go through the checkpoint. That would really freak them out.
Basically, I like to mumble when I deal with them. Then they think I don't speak English, so they speak a little more loudly and slowly. Hilarious.
Nolerama
Master Black Belt
I wonder if the mere existence of TSA, and the rapid growth of Homeland Security in the past decade has created such a large amount of jobs that the government is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to closing down that department and letting its workers go, thereby creating an employment vacuum that can be very frightening in light of today's job market and economy.
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That's about all I can figure.
I agree with any form of stops, there should be a reason in the first place other than drive while being "X".
I have said for many years, if people got the same "random" inspection I "always" get then there would be no problems at all.
I just got back from Mexico for work. When I step through metal detectors I always ask to proceed even if there is no beep or red light. After I get dressed again and repack my computer and equipment I always ask to leave the area first.
Most just smile and say go. A few actually smile and nod with that look of someone who wishes everyone would do what I just did. Yet a few more look at me like I am dumb for asking.
I did have a check at one gate recently, where they asked for my passport (* even after being checked at check in *) and then she had to go to her computer and cycle through and check me off her list. I knew I was not "Random", but some of the others may have been.
My problems are the following:
1) First TSA does not have standards. While all require Laptops to be in a tray of its' own some require that the computer bag be in a tray and some do not. So, I ask. I get the DUH! look. While the locals might be an expert to of the local process they obviously know nothing about what is done elsewhere.
2) Two lines for Business travelers to get ID checked and the other for Families. But as the Business moves faster for there are no kids or elderly trying to explain their travel papers, or explain that a Passport is required or ..., . Then Families get into the "faster" lane and this forces everyone to back up and get into which ever lane is open. But the TSA ID checkers and Boarding Pass Checkers look at you like you are the wrong one when you might be in the wrong isle as a Business traveler but nothing is said to the Family.
3) That X-ray person that just has to look and look and look again at your stuff and move it forwad and backs and forwards and even forward to take a physical look and pick up your laptop and then put it back into the tray by "Dropping" it from 6 inches to 2 feet into the tray as they are to damn lazy to get off their chair a second time to set it down.
When you ask them, "Is there a problem?" They just look at you and say no. Or at best they say I have never seen "Anything" like that. ** Gee 25,000 Company emplyees traveling wiht Laptops add in other companies and she has never seen an external battery. NOTE: TSA has a policy on these batteries to travel with them in your laptop bag or on your computer, but not to check them as they have "issues" with the temperature and pressure or the lack of these in storage. DUH! I know more about some of their procedures than they do. I really wish I could just give them my DUH! face and comments.
OP
- Thread Starter
- #19
Well, while I do see your point, as I said in my OP, damned if they do, damned if they don't. Should something happen on the flight, I'd bet that those that cry about the check points, would be crying that the screeners weren't doing their jobs.
Kinda like when we hear the cop bashing...."Well, if that cop wasnt bothering someone for going 10mph over the speed limit, and patrolling the neighborhood......"
OP
- Thread Starter
- #20
I wonder if there've been any cases of a bomb being planted in the cargo, and being set off by remote device from someone in the plane. Then again, I wonder how much of the baggage is screened, but we dont see it. I mean, I've gone on a few cruises. Considering there are thousands of people, it'd take all week to screen every bag, thus, the use of dogs.
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