Posted on 11/16/2001 1:11:40 PM PST by logic101.net
AIRPORT SECURITY OUT OF CONTROL
11/14/01
It is well past time for a reality check about airport security. We have designated box cutters and plastic knives to be weapons. Ok, well somehow a number of terrorists managed to use these items to hijack 4 planes and kill a lot of people. Now there is a call to expand the size of our government by putting baggage screeners on the federal payroll, as if government employment equals efficiency. In Chicago there was a scare about a guy who tried to bring a number of knives and a stun gun onto a plane; the key word here is tried, he was stopped. Just recently a chef from Hong Kong was charged with the terrible crime of trying to bring two metal spatulas onto a plane. In fact he had these deadly weapons on one flight from Miami and was stopped switching planes in Chicago. If I were a steer I might consider a spatula a weapon, but I'm not. To me it is a cooking utensil. I could do much more damage with my belt that has a heavy buckle on it than with a spatula! Will be ban belts next? How about fly swatters? Knitting needles? Why not, we have already banned finger nail clippers!
All this hysteria can be avoided with a simple solution; make sure that the pilots are better armed than a potential terrorist. If we arm the pilots, we won't need Sky Marshals, new security procedures or any of the other silly proposals out there. If a potential terrorist knows that on the other side of that cockpit door will be 2 guns pointed at him he won't even consider attacking it with a spatula!
MARK A SITY
http://www.logic101.net/
Can you blame them? Somebody might attempt to make an Afghan!
The best suggestion for airport security I've heard:
"Randomly pull the screeners from their station & stick 'em on a flight. I'll bet they'd be a damn-sight more dilligent if they thought there was a possibility they'd be getting on the plane."
In fact, it is absurd anyway. The box cutters and knives were not the reason 19 men were able to kill 5,000. It was because the government and the airlines taught the failed and fatal policy of victim compliance. You have heard it before: Dont resist. Do what they say. Give them what they want. Leave it up to the Authorities.
It was the victim compliance policy that failed, and it is that policy that is now dead. There is no need to deprive grandmothers of their knitting needles, or to prevent grown men from carrying a pocket knife. No group of passengers or crew will ever let hijackers take over a plane again, whether they are armed with box cutters or firearms.
I keep hearing this - every day, someone on radio or TV says that airport screeners must be government employees, or we'll never be safe. What everyone forgets is that airport screeners ARE government employees NOW. SeaTac's baggage screeners are employed by the Port of Seattle, not the airlines. Why does anyone think that the feds will do any better than local gov?
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