Posted on 06/18/2008 4:13:02 AM PDT by CWWren
It's been at least five years since I've flown commercial, and for good reason: I don't wish to be arrested for questioning actions by often arrogant, rude Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers.
Two years ago, my decision was reinforced by my daughter's experience when going through airport security with her two lovebirds. Having shown her ticket and ID to security personnel, and walking toward the metal detector, they started shouting to her, "Miss, you're going to have to take them birds out of the cage." I watched with incredulity as she approached the metal detectors. Fortunately, a TSA worker took the cages and my daughter followed without further incident. Had it been I traveling with the birds, I might have told the TSA workers something that would have gotten me arrested.
James Bovard has an article titled "Federal Attitude Policy" that appears in Freedom Daily (June 2008), a publication of the Fairfax, Va.-based Future of Freedom Foundation. According to the February 2002 Federal Register, people can be arrested if they act in a way that "might distract or inhibit a screener from effectively performing his or her duties … A screener encountering such a situation must turn away from his or her normal duties to deal with the disruptive individual, which may affect the screening of other individuals."
That means it is a federal offense, and a fine of up to $1,500, for any alleged "nonphysical interference" that makes a TSA screener "turn away" from whatever he was doing.
What's nonphysical interference is solely up to the discretion of a TSA screener since it isn't defined in the regulations. TSA agents can levy fines for a passenger disagreeing with the behavior or arrogance of a screener. The TSA has made little effort to control screener behavior.
Bovard reports that in March 2004, airline passengers filed almost 3,000 formal complaints with the federal government over the conduct of TSA screeners. Hundreds have complained about the rudeness of TSA screeners. And yet, none of these passenger complaints resulted in disciplinary measures. In fact, passengers filed four times more complaints against the TSA than against airlines.
But it's going to get worse. The TSA aims to have 500 "behavior detection officers" (BDOs) in airports by the end of this year. The job of the BDOs will be that of examining passengers for "body language and facial cues … for signs of bad intentions." They look for what the experts call "micro-expressions." Fear and disgust are the key ones, he said, because they're associated with deception. That would make me a prime candidate for scrutiny and possibly trouble because if I ever had to go through airport security procedures, I would have those "micro-expressions" of disgust and fear of arrest.
McClatchy Newspapers reported in an article, "New airport agents check for danger in fliers' facial expressions," (August 2007) that Jay Cohen, undersecretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology, "wants to automate passenger screening by using videocams and computers to measure and analyze heart rate, respiration, body temperature and verbal responses as well as facial micro-expressions."
Someone who wishes to hijack or destroy a plane will spend considerable time and effort to get around the TSA's attitude-detecting policies. The bulk of the people hassled by these and other TSA procedures are law-abiding Americans who have no malicious intentions, along with a few people traveling with drugs and other contraband. The TSA routinely confiscates about 15,000 items a day from passengers, in addition to the hassle, rudeness and arrogance. With these kind of costs imposed on the traveling public, I'd like TSA to give an account of themselves, namely just how many hijackings or bombings they have prevented, along with the evidence. Americans have been far too compliant and that has given the TSA carte blanche to treat travelers any way they wish. I'm staying away. TSA has its rules and Williams has his, and one of mine is to avoid tyrants and idiots.
The Israelis do not do this sort of screening.
They have in place people with functioning brains who have been trained to profile and sort out potential terrorists.
That’s my poor uncle.
Most people who have to fly would disagree with you, Barf.
Those who must frequenly fly (as we usually have only one other option...drive) observe and contend with this flagrant abuse of 'power' by those who have never managed an ant farm before being ordained as a TSA groper.
I also thought this was over the top. He could have omitted that episode.
I have grounds for complaint on virtually every flight I take, but I have never filed a formal charge. I figure why go to the time and bother when it will do no good, and may even subject me to additional harassment.
I bet there are many, many others out there who feel exactly the same way.
The TSA regs are as much about conditioning the American people to accept greater levels of state intrusion into their lives as they are about protecting them.
Bottom line on all of this?
Anyone who attempts to seize a commercial flight after 9-11 would be beaten to death before he could get NEAR the reinforced and locked flight deck door!
Some of us are more concerned about the stuff that gets aboard these planes as FREIGHT, much of which is very cursorily screened or not at all.
Due to the offensive attitude and the multiple documented abuses of travelers by the more self-important, poorly screened. megalomaniacal TSA employee, unless a distant family member becomes suddenly and seriously ill or dies and I need to get somewhere quickly, I will never fly commercial again.
These main reason these people behave this way is because they CAN. The most authority some of these people have ever wielded before joining TSA was over their bowel function. They simply LOVE the power they now have over others. In other, less PC times, that would have been called “tyranny” and they would be called “petty tyrants.”
High fuel costs — and an overbearing TSA — are why the airline industry is in deep trouble.
I feel safer not flying with this author.
You would probably have to cut down all the trees in the Amazon to get a book big enough to fit all the insults and offenses committed by TSA.
“The TSA regs are as much about conditioning the American people to accept greater levels of state intrusion into their lives as they are about protecting them.”
Ding, Ding, Ding!
We Have A WINNER.
That is EXACTLY what they are about.
I flew for the first time in years last week. This author is not out of line. State and federal PRISONERS are treated better in prison than passengers at the Atlanta airport.
When I am paying over a thousand dollars of my money for a commercial service, I expect better treatment.
What do I know about flying, airplanes, and the airlines? I am a former airline employee, commercial pilot, and federally licensed mechanic.
Knowing the inner workings of the airlines, I saw little true security advances over what was done pre 9-11. The only thing the TSA is doing is harassing passengers and conditioning the public to getting used to increasingly fewer freedoms.
I read an article last year written by a visitor from Russia. She stated we have far fewer freedoms in the US now than she enjoyed in the former USSR. I believe her, and it is where the Dims want this country to go.
TSA has also implemented the x-ray devices that can see through clothes despite public disgust with the concept. Now we have rude arrogant peeping tom agents who can have you arrested for no good reason.
>>While there are dumb and rude TSA workers, by and large they work hard and try to be accommodating where they can.<<
Don’t fly much through DCA (Wash-Reagan) or IAD (Dulles), do you?
Rudeness and arrogance on a good day.
Rant on (not directed at you, sir)
Those of us that travel a lot, like over 150,000 miles per year, see TSA as ineffectual harassment.
Nothing is more frustrating than to suffer through TSA screening and know it is eye-wash and ineffective.
3-oz containers? Take your 9-oz bottle of shampoo and pour the contents into three 3-oz bottles and place them in the 1-qt baggie. Now, did that silly TSA limitation on 3-oz sizes do any good? Nope.
How about this: just don’t pull your liquids out of your carry-on, as liquids cannot be seen on the x-ray machine—that is why they are asking you to pull them out in the first place. Will Ackmed place his dangerous liquid in a tub to be seen when it can’t be detected by the machine? Nope.
How about just having Ackmed fill his shoes with Anthrax spores and when he takes his shoes off to go through the unsanitary-never-cleaned, x-ray portal, he leaves a trail behind and all the passengers that follow plant their feet in his foot-fungus cultural, too include the spores he left behind.
Forgot your ID? No worries, TSA will let you through as long as you agree to secondary screening. Refuse to show your ID and you are turned away. This makes sense? Apparently to TSA goons it does.
An airline pilot has to be screened like the rest of us, but at the same time he has an axe in his cockpit (and some even are certified to be armed in the cockpit), AND if he wants to, he can simply crash the jet anyway. So, where is the sense in that?
Pre-cleared traveler program? Pay a third-party contractor to do a quick background check on you and you are good-to-go, but your US Government Top Secret clearance means nothing and you are subjected to intrusive screening and physical pat-downs by TSA screeners that are un-educated, ineffective, common-sense deprived, Muslim and (in some cases), illegals.
I will take TSA precautions seriously when they apply the same standard to people riding a Wash DC Metro 8-car Orange Line train full of 800 commuters. Right now, for the Metro it is zip in, zip out, no take-your-shoes-off and inspect your bags. . . even though we know Ackmed has attacked trains and subways before (Madrid, London, for example).
Profiling works but our ever-silly ACLU/CAIR ninnies won’t allow that smart tactic to be employed, so we end up doing a kabuki dance and the sheep delude themselves into believing the dance is keeping the wolves at bay.
Rant off.
But keep an eye peeled on that swarthy looking arab sitting across the aisle from you.
He didn't get groped by a TSA goon, but not to worry, he's reading from his koran and clutching his prayer rug.
Watch the movie. Pleasant dreams.
I’ll tell you what keeps American airline passengers safe—kicking the holy crap out of ragheads in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. Forget weapons of mass destruction; it would have been a good idea if for no other reason than to teach would-be terrorists a lesson about f***ing with the United States.
That’s Dr. Williams to you, Non.
His friends get to call him Wally.
I *don't like* going through security, and I will always drive over flying if given the choice. However, I've never had any particular issue with any of the screeners. They're not very friendly folk, but they've always been competent and polite.
I suppose that "This guy at security pointed me in the right direction when I asked for help, and this other guy running the X-Ray machine was competent and polite" isn't all that interesting a comment to make, though.
My worst experience was at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix two years ago, when the TSA officers were all angry and sullen because their afternoon relief had not arrived (they were bitterly complaining while screening us). The security line was backing up and becoming chaotic, and they just started roughly slamming peoples belongings (including my delicate business laptop) through the x-rays and down the conveyor system to try and push it all out faster. I was not pleased and filed a complaint, but just received a form letter back telling me that my complaint had been forwarded to the TSA chief in Phoenix. I never heard anything else about it.
Thoughtcrime is here, again.
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