When You Should Give The Shirt Off Your Back

NEWSDAY ^ | june 2, 2002 | Elliot Hester

[blackbag]

Whenever I hear about passenger "outbursts" at airport security checkpoints, my temperature rises a few degrees.

What are these problematic people trying to accomplish? Why are they being so thorny with the very people who are trying to keep them safe?

But after my recent clash with airport security at Miami International Airport, I realize that some passengers have valid complaints.

Traveling for pleasure and dressed in civilian clothes, I placed my carry-on on the conveyor belt and prepared to walk through the metal detector.

[Kerberos]

Geeze, and this is what the government is trying to pass off as increased security?

[E Rocc]

I issued this request in an agreeable voice, but judging from the employee's response, you'd have thought I'd been caught with a firearm. His eyes hardened. The sloping shoulders suddenly stood erect. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by three or four of his security cohorts. "See, you should've done like I told you."

Saying what this hemmorhoid deserves would get this post pulled.

-Eric

[Darth Sidious]

You vill take uff de shirt undt you vill LUFF itd!!

The more stories I hear about these gestapo-wannabes, the more I wanna see the whole sorry lot of 'em pistol-whipped black and blue.

[blackbart1]

Is this stupidedness what the public is paying increased wages for? No way I would have been as calm as this fella. Hope this gets more coverage.

[Senator_Blutarski]

Zero tolerance meets airport security.

As a person with a low BS tolerance flying is becoming very difficult for me.

Watching the airport security goons frisk 80 year old grandmothers while Mohammed and Ahmed waltz through the lines drives me crazy. Even worse, I start my travels out of a small midwestern terminal where the average passengers are Ole and Lena Oleson on their way to Duluth to attend a Lutefisk dinner honoring Ole's cousin Luther from Bemidji. It is common to have more security personnel than passengers.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

I had to fly to Washington recently from upstate NY.

I got on the plane at home no problem.

We had to change flights at LaGuardia. We got off the plane, walked to out next gate and waited for the next flight.

Now, mind you I could only have gotten to our next gate by passing through the previous airport security, either in upstate or Laguardia.

When it was time to board the plane, they pulled me out of line. They asked me to open my brief case. Fair enough. Clipped onto the inside of my briefcase was my badge and ID. The ID says on, BTW, that I am authorized to pass through all local police, fire and security checkpoints. (And before you ask I didn't flash or reference either my badge or ID in an effort to get out of something).

The security guy keeps rifling through my briefcase. I'm not overly concerned. He has me empty my pockets. Okay I say. I even offer to remove my jacket because of its metal buttons.

He then runs the handheld metal detector wand over me. Nothing goes off. So I figure: well, that's that.

Wrongo.

Now the guy tells me to spread my arms and legs and FRISKS me.

Now I am getting seriously PO'd. However, I keep reminding myself that I am in an airport in New York City and better to remain calm.

Finally, he stops patting me down, tells me to close my brief case (which aint easy, given he has totally disorganized everything in it) and lets me on the plane.

I get on the plane and tell my wife "well, honey, enjoy the trip, because its the last time we are flying anywhere."

I am convinced that they pulled me precisely because I was the "waspiest" man in that line.

I didn't set off any of the metal detectors I had gone through previously, security I had my ticket and one form of government ID out, I had a badge and other government ID in my briefcase and I was traveling with my wife. Hardly the profile, racial or otherwise of a terrorist.

Furthermore, on the way back through, I noted other people getting pulled out and they were, you guessed it, middle aged and older white (usally Irish looking) business men wearing suits and ties.

Maybe they are expecting a big IRA strike next time?

Yeah, right.

[Emile]

Who says the Soviet Union is dead? In many material ways, our government apparatus has become the "evil empire". Question is, will we collectively rise from our gulags and do something about it, or just let it go on?

[Darth Sidious]

"Take off your jacket please," said a security attendant. He was young, maybe 21 or 22 years old, slope- shouldered and pimply- faced.

[VOA]

Before leaving the security checkpoint, however, I threw a look over one shoulder.
The pimply-faced kid with sloping shoulders flashed a victorious grin.

And this little Hitler will probably soon be a Federal employee...

[Phantom Lord]

My brother came down to NC for one of his several visits a year to see me and our parents.

He flies out of Binghamton to Pittsburgh and then on to Raleigh. His flight out of Binghamton had 7 passengers. Prior to boarding the plane at the gate the gate agent or some form of security said to the 7 people waiting to get on the plane "well, we have to search someone" and they selected my brother. He said the 'inspection' was rather lame and referred to it as 'going through the motions'.

[Phantom Lord]

And this little Hitler will probably soon be a Federal employee...

And his current $6.00 an hour wage increase to $40,000 a year will no doubt be spent on Gin and Hookers.

[VOA]

Furthermore, on the way back through, I noted other people getting pulled out and
they were, you guessed it, middle aged and older white (usally Irish looking) business
men wearing suits and ties.

Just my gut feeling, but I think "reverse profiling" was already in effect before 9-11.

I am in your demographic as well. Even a few months before 9-11, I went on a couple of trips.
My carry-on bags (not always the same one) got the heavy-duty going over
EVERY TIME I went to get on the plane.

I haven't been on a plane since 9-11, partly due to the BS I was undergoing before 9-11;
partly from what I hear from friends being subjected to heightened level of BS.

I suspect that the only reason Dubya keeps Norm Mineta in office is that some day Dubya
will say "the only politically-correct nut in my Cabinet is a Democrat".

[Mike K]

As a person with a low BS tolerance flying is becoming very difficult for me.

I'm glad to see it's just not me.

I don't know how many times I've seen 65 year old blacks and whites searched at the gate while the middle eastern looking guy just gets on the plane. When I ask about it, I'm told, "thank you sir, just wait in line sir" or "thank you sir" - with a grimace.

Let's not profile for terrorists or criminals, it might make sense.

[Darth Sidious]

I'm curious: do Bush, Mineta et. al. allow themselves to be subjected to the same treatment they've imposed on the rest of us? Or is that only for "the little people"?

I'd have infinitely more respect for Bush if he were made to take his shoes off in front of everyone, while having a metal detector waved over his genitals.

[VOA]

One more thing about my theory of "reverse profiling".
In the weeks following 9-11, I simply got angrier and angrier when I'd read about
the things The Talented Mr. Atta and his crew of butt-boys were able to get away
with that would have gotten me a quick push to a detention view to talk an
the airport police:
Buying tickets with cash
Buying one-way tickets
Having hardly any luggage
Arriving late for boarding, and using a "no speaka' da English" reply to
security questions...but being pushed onto the plane used to hit the WTC.

From a number of articles I've read here on freerepublic, Atta and his friends
should have been answering questions many times.
I'm sure that if I'd tried these tricks, I would have.

Oh, and I am still dumbfounded about how Atta and one co-conspirator simply ABANDONED
their small airplane on the flight line at the major airport in Miami a few months before
they carried off their mission.
Did authorities question them...NO, some airport workers towed the plane off
the line so others could take off...and they just said "Oh those silly foreign flight students".

What happened 9-11 was made possible by reverse profiling.

[Phantom Lord]

Gov. Jeb Bush got the "airport security treatment" last week.

You know that airport security is a joke and nothing more than a feel good action that is 100% symbolism over substance designed to make us "feel safe" when the Governor of a State gets the treatment.

The chances of a Governor of a US State hijacking an airplane is ZERO. It is NEVER going to happen. NEVER. Spending time on a Governor means you are NOT spending time lookin for REAL threats.

[usconservative]

Is this stupidedness what the public is paying increased wages for?

Yes, and I've been subjected to it myself, although not to the extreme that this guy has. On the same trip, I was taken aside TWICE and forced to remove shoes, turn on laptop, cellphone, bags searched TWICE by hand, shoes checked, wand searched and then followed by an airport security worker.

As I stood in the "staging" area shoeless with all my posessions out on a table being groped and fondled by people who probably didn't even have a high-school degree, I thought to myself - and almost said out loud - "what next, a full body cavity search?" .... thankfully I caught myself or surely that would've been next!

Our airport security SUCKS. It is no better than it was on Sept. 11th. Everything they're doing is WINDOW DRESSING to cover up the real problems with our airport security.

[Reactionary]

I think you're right. If you're a rather strong-looking white boy - as opposed to being a swarthy Middle Easterner with sunglasses on - they'll pull you out every time.

It's part of their quota system, I'm sure. (In FedSpeak that must mean that you're part of the only group that can be discriminated against with impunity.)

[Wings-n-Wind]

These useless drills are time-2-time norm for airline crewmembers.... even when ON DUTY!

Power trip.... about sums it up.

Regards,