Be Careful What You Write

Conservative Truth ^ | 9/29/02 | Tom Barrett

[YoungKentuckyConservative]

The final tid bit just pi$$e$ me off. My father must be "flagged" as he's been screened every time he's flown since the "new" regulations. It must be the "NRA" hat that got him flagged. You've got to watch out for those "defend my country", overweight, pasty-white types. You never know when they'll want to attack the pilot or passengers in a rage of patriotism.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

None of her the family was allowed to help her. She was on the other side of the screening - and the 'security' guards just let her lie there.

Not in my world. They would have had to shoot me to keep me from helping that woman. I'd have been on the news for sure as some kind of a loon...but man oh man, that's just wrong.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

This screening is a complete joke! I am also searched every time I fly because I take one way flights. How random is it when you KNOW that if you have a one way ticket you get searched??? The last time it happened, I told the screener I'm not dangerous, but I'm pissed! I'm sure the plane will feel safer knowing the 45 year old white woman has been searched. The other person being searched at the time was a 60+ grandmother.

[MadelineZapeezda]

My cousin just flew multiple trips in the last three weeks. While all 120pounds of her were randomly checked scanned and rechecked and shoes removed, she noticed that the several Arab-looking that were there were never stopped.

[joesnuffy]

[Blood of Tyrants]

I'd be kicking some dumbass if he had treated mu 90 year old grandmother like that. And then I would have the meanest, hungriest junkyard dog lawyer I could find slapping a $500 million lawsuit on the airport and the TSA.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I have never written a column about airport security. However, out of the last eight flights I took, I was selected for search on three.

Perhaps it was because there were no middle-eastern looking people on the flight and they needed to fill a quota.

[Blood of Tyrants]

He's a dangerous looking fellow alright. I fell better already.

[sneakypete]

These airport security screeners are here to stay. You will
never get rid of them because they satisfy two groups. One group are the people screaming,"Save me,massa goobermint,save me! Just do SOMETHING!". The other group are
politicians who want more unionized feral employees.

[Half Vast Conspiracy]

Surely this was a coincidence!

Yeah Tom, you are being targeted by the Federal Government because you wrote an article on an obscure conservative site. And, I'm Tinkerbell.

[BluH2o]

Here’s how the gate check works. (I hadn’t noticed the details before, but since this harassment began, I have been watching the process very carefully.) The gate agent places the boarding pass under a scanner. If everything is OK (which it is 95% of the time), a green light comes on at their console. They hand you back your boarding pass and you get on the plane. However, if you are "randomly selected" to be searched, a red light goes on

On a recent trip to Europe from the U.S. I had cleared the initial screening area, however, as we began to board a screener at the gate came over ( I was standing in a line of sorts) and selected me for further screening. I had not yet reached the point when you submit your boarding pass for screening ... in fact, no one else had their boarding pass scaned before being selected for security screening. I was annoyed, and made no pretense of hiding it ... mostly because I get wanned and asked to take my shoes off every damn time I fly ... which is fairly frequently. I'm caucasian, six feet tall, over fifty, a former Marine still in good physical condition ... with a short haircut that could still pass muster with the Corps. In other words, what the hell gives with these screener types ... they're obviously clueless.

[alnick]

I don't believe that last paragraph for a minute.

[The Truth Will Make You Free]

"You Americans look for things. We watch for people"

Wisdom.

There are so many easy, common sense, things that should be done: armed marshalls on every flight, racial profiling, non-uniformed armed airport security personnel, etc

An interesting poll would be: Which would make you feel safer flying: a) current random search program; b) automatic search of every Arab male aged 15-45.

[justsomedude]

what a joke.

[Blueflag]

Personally, I don't believe half this guy's story. I'm not sure which half is baloney, and which half is true, so I choose to discount all of it.

The security system is both random and rules-based: how you pay for your ticket, itinerary changes, proximity of purchase date to flt, and so on. I think ALL veteran frequent fliers also know not to be first in line.

Personally, I've learned to dress and pack differently and breeze through security most times. If, however, I change my itinerary on the day of travel, and do so with a re-issue or ticket purchase, I ALWAYS get 'flagged.' So be it. The system looks for travel behaviour, not people.

This is not to say I think security does a good job. It doesn't; simply window dressing.

The best security is already on the plane -- passengers who will never let it happen again, and a flight crew with permission to violently manuever the aircraft.

But about the article -- the part about a 90 year old grandmother being allowed to bleed on the concrete is preposterous. I simply refuse to believe that and other elements of this 'story'. I think the author is both annoyed and inventive.

[mountaineer]

Maybe it was a coincidence, maybe it wasn't. What's your half-vast theory on why the same American white guy is randomly searched?

[mewzilla]

We were told by a screener that they (this bunch of screeners) pick the friendliest looking folks, who probably won't put up a fuss and make the screeners' job unpleasant. Nice security technique, huh? Another one of the infinite number of reasons I'm not flying anywhere anytime soon unless it's a bloody emergency.

[posterkid]

I have flown once since 9/11 -- Hartford-Cleveland-Chicago. In the airport in Chicago, as I was pulled aside for a search (oh horrors, my the loops in my boots made it beep), they waved through this 20 year old looking Arab kid wearing a basketball jersey that said "MECCA 13".

One of these days... some 60 year old white woman is going to flip and choke a screener to death. And they'll have it coming.

[fogarty]

Everyone needs to remember that the man responsible for this fiasco is President Bush. The buck stops with him. These idiotic policies and the idiot (Norm Mineta) who enforces them is there by the pleasure of GW Bush. If it was that important to actually check Muslims and Arabs, Bush would have made it so. It is clear Bush cares more for PC and polls than actually making our country safe.

[mountaineer]

My husband was pulled out of the security screening line because the little metal stud things in the pockets of his Levis set off the detector. The screener proceeded to "wand" him for about five minutes, as though thoroughly perplexed by such a phenomenon (I'm hoping it wasn't just because he wanted to wave his wand, so to speak, in the general direction of my husband's pants - ewwww!).