Random quotes/comments:
“Water bottle? Could be a dangerous chemical.”
Which is why the author was wholly willing to chug it in ront of the TSA agent.

“A terrorist isn’t going to raise hell about his sunglasses. It’s stupid to think someone is a threat when they’re making a fuss, when a real threat would do as much (or as little) as possible to go through undetected.”
Absolutely 110% true. If I’m trying to break the law, I’m NOT going to draw attention to myself. But we’re conditioned to think that scene-causers are threats

“It’s the same as refusing to do what an officer tells you to do”
Last I checked, you did have the right to know which law you’re violating if you’re being detained by a cop. You also have the right to refuse to cooperate with an officer. If one asks to search your vehicle, without justification (ie reasonable suspicion/probable cause)–and if they’re asking, they don’t have it–you can say no. They may follow up with a warrant, but without RS/PC, you can’t be detained. If I’m out late, in a bad neighborhood, and just happen to be an ethnic minority, but NOT doing anything wrong–not doing anything but walking home–a cop may ask me to stop and talk to me. But based on ONLY THAT (assume I don’t legitimately match the description o someone wanted for questioning/arrest), they can’t FORCE me to comply. Don’t be a sheep–know your rights.

“have the intelligence to realize that the precaution is for yours and every one elses’ safety.”
Bull **** . Making eye contact does nothing to guarantee safety. A terrorist may well make eye contact, but people with certain mental disorders, and those from other cultures may seek to avoid it, for no other reason than it makes them extremely uncomfortable, or is (in their culture) a sign of disrespect. How does drinking a (thus far unopened) bottle of water, BEFORE getting on the plane guarantee my safety? Or eating a sandwich (as another commenter mentioned) BEFORE getting on the plane? And yet, people still manage to bring knives on planes (20 of 22 tests FAILED), which ultimately COULD jeopardise my safety. Honestly? Get a clue.

“Civil disobedience is one effective way to fight the government’s ridiculous laws and regulations. Will those who say you should have just taken your glasses off repeat the rhetoric when asked to submit to finger prints, retina scans, a DNA sample, your clothes, or to interrogation? I think the answer would be yes. People who blindly bow to authority without question or challenge have always existed. That’s how the last Nazi’s managed to be so evil.”
A perfect comment.

“Having to take off sunglasses or answer questions is not a sign of fascism. ”
And the bull **** with not being allowed to drink the water OFF THE PLANE? What, pray tell, do you call THAT?

“Did you expect for them to break out a bloody carved in stone code for your convenience? Just because you do not know the law, does not make it, not the law.”
Actually, asking to be shown the law is not terribly unreasonable. And no, it needn’t be carved in stone. Printed in ink on paper is more than sufficient. And them SAYING it’s the law? Doesn’t MAKE it a law. “It’s the law” is probably a rote response to people questioning ANYTHING, whether it IS the law or not. Because idiots like you will back down and mumble ‘Oh okay’ when they hear it, no matter how utterly flipping RIDICULOUS the “law” in question is. Btw, if the “law” becomes that you must be strip searched before boarding a plane, how compliant will you b then? You’re not a civil libertarian–you’re a wannabe.

“Most people do not know that agents who originally
signed up with TSA did so because they had a family member, friend, co-worker with whom they lost on 9/11.”
So… they have a vendetta and are now given a position o power. Doesn’t make me feel real secure, thanks

“If TSA is doing such a lousy job and is nothing more than “inmates running the asylum”, why aren’t our airliners being hijacked, taken over, and blown up?”
There have only been 7 instances of flights out of the US having been hijacked since 1950 (59 years!!!). Three of them occurred in the 70s. Correlation does not equal causation (ie: The TSA screening is not necessarily the reason for the lack of hijackings. It is, and has been, a rare occurrence to begin with).

“I do racially profile, I’d certainly treat obvious Arabs / Muslims different tah upstanding white folk.”
I REALLY hope this is sarcasm. Btw, the 7 incidents mentioned immediately above? 5 were perpetrated by AMERICANS.

“You can not judge all the TSA employees by the actions of one. I know several TSA employees and they are as dedicated to protecting this country as any military man or woman. Cut them some slack.”
My guess is, they’re not acting like douchebags and therefore not subject to the author’s vitriol.

Sorry for the longwindedness, and I know that most people Im commenting on/to wont see this, but at least I’ve said my bit now

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

too bad i don’t really wear glasses of any kind… maybe they’ll tell me that if i don’t take off my hat i will be an official enemy of the U.S government hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

LOL-ROFL-ROFL-LOl-LMAO

one time i had a similar experience when i was told that i couldn’t have my skateboard but the excuse was that it counted as a carry-on and i already had one. sunglasses, though! i’d understand if they needed you to take them off to compare your eyes with your liscensce but still.

when i read that i had what i call a LOLocaust, which is when you laugh so long that you would need to type LOL like 400,000 times or about one time for each american death in world war 2 (hence the holocaust in LOLocaust.)

P.S i mean no offense to any jewish bros or bras or to anyone whos friends or family died in WW2 (stupid Nazis should all be burned until not even ashes remain)

Post 9/11, no one will ever hi-jack an airplane again… Passengers won’t permit it to happen again. Check out how many people have been subdued by their fellow passengers for being “disruptive.”

“They who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Words this country was built on, and will be broken with.

You can still file a customer service complaint about that incident by contacting TSA at TSA.gov.

Recently, my husband had just gone through airport security and was putting on his belt. Obviously this irritated some young woman that was trying to get through the line. She was slamming her stuff around. My husband told her to calm down. She shoved him. My husband called her a bitch, which she was. Suddenly a security officer jumps all over my husband, while this woman strolls on by. We tried to explain to the TSA guy what had happened and he begin shouting at us to leave the security area. Everyone was looking at us. I felt humiliated and we didn’t even do anything wrong.

There should be a big sign at the Airport. “You will lose all your rights as an American when you pass through these doors.” Do not speak. Take off your glasses, clothes, shoes, etc as instructed. Do not question anything. Do not raise your voice. Do not eat or drink. Do not laugh. Do not protest or you will be shoved to the ground and handcuffed.

It is out of control! I commend David for having the balls to take a stand.

You must have some personal experience being frisked frequently, perhaps by corrections officers?

No need to worry about TSA, you’ll be lucky if fellow passengers around you don’t subdue, secure, gag, and anesthetize you for either being a potential threat or just obnoxiously ignorant! Case in point-Richard Reid.

3 years after 9-11 I brought on all the ingredients for not one, but two moltov **** tails on board with me and a friend (we sat next to each other) – not to blow anything up, we actually didn’t realize it till we we’re on the flight. the next year I traveled with enough gun powder in my checkin to seriously cause some damage, not only did they lose that bag. They found it and left it at the airport till i could pick it up (oh yeah nothing was missing).

In addition I’ve freely and openly have discussed various explosive / incendiary devices, homemade explosives, etc. right in front of tsa personal – they did nothing, and didn’t have a clue what was going on.

I call the tsa the illusion guard, only there to give the general public the illusion of safety.

Those people are mindless sheep..no, wait, animals without a spine…Those people are invertebrates!

TSA is a total and complete joke, and it is the duty of every Patriot to throw a wrench in the goverments criminal buffoonery.

Jim

This “security system” is seriously flawed if it will harass someone for wearing sunglasses and carrying an unopened bottle of water, but still let that person onto a flight with several knives. Stop blindly defending the TSA and actually read what the author is saying.

Also, in other walks of life, my law abiding behavior usually exempts me from being roughed up by security goons. Maybe it’s naive, but I have travelled the world over (including South and Central America, Africa and Southeast Asia) and I have had so very few negative experiences that I have come to think that I move in a bubble of good will. I had a better customer service flying through Kano airport in Nigeria than I had at SeaTac.

You would rightly respond that I was much, much safer leaving Seattle than flying in Nigeria, and I’m sure that’s true, but I fail to understand why I can’t have a minimum level of courtesy at the same time. If I were alone in this, you could just say that I am an overly sensitive princess always wanting my own way – but if you reflect on the general rage and the number of these postings, I am not alone.

And, of course I don’t understand the screening process. First off, it’s never, never the same two times in a row, so I can’t learn from experience. (And, no, I am not a person who tries in any way to challenge the TSA by bringing along anything in my carry on that they may find upsetting – I can be parted from my cosmetics and my drinks and all of my pointy objects for the duration of a trip.) Also, see comment #48, please. Since I am not allowed to actually read the regulations controlling the screening process, I am likely to make mistakes (although, I should say here, other than the mistake with bringing along an extra tweezer, I have never carried anything that was prohibited; I don’t have an ax to grind or anything to prove.)

I believe that I stated that I ended up on this blog because I am a writer and working on a related newspaper article. I am not a glutton for punishment, nor am I ignorant. I have two masters’ degrees and a background in law. As a writer, I am very interested in getting out of my little box and understanding a broader viewpoint. No one is going to respect my writing if it’s just one long complaint

So, enlighten me. What sort of people make up the workforce of the TSA? How long is the training; what is the education level of the average worker? Does anyone think that there’s an underlying class struggle going on here? Travelers with disposable income going off for business or vacations to Hawaii facing off aganist poorly paid TSA employees whose jobs give them a little bit of authority over a more monied class? Am I way off?

I, also, went through security at the Burbank airport. The first TSA person I encountered at 5:00 in the morning was uniformed, polite, professional and direct with his instructions. He wasn’t all snuggly and smiley and didn’t want to have coffee with me; he just behaved in a manner consistent with a person doing a good job (and he didn’t yell at me, which wa a bonus). I wanted to kiss him.

Am I embellishing my story to attract attention and more readership? No, no. I haven’t added any fictional wrinkles or hyperbole and I don’t need to do so. Reality, in this case, is story enough.

There is a very appropriate quote by Thomas Jefferson having to do with governance relying on the respect of the ordinary people. When I find it, I will post it here.

While the hustle-bustle conditions of being squeezed through the security lines don’t make it easy to pause and copy down a TSA workers ID (and I suspect that my particular run in with the trog that confronted me would have led to my missing my flight with two young kids in tow), I am gratified to learn that the public does have some sort of recourse re: complaints.

Since you seem to have the insider track, however, what do think of response #48? Mr. Harlos also seems to have some insight into the broader issues.

I empathize with you, Ingrid, especially since I can remember the times when air travel was something fun and exciting to look forward to. It has become more of a task than anything pleasant, but I don’t know of any simple solution. I DO know that positive attitudes, empathy, understanding, fairness, and understanding can either prevent or help resolve most unpleasant encounters. You could do your part to help TSA identify “problem employees” by lodging a complaint when you witness innappropriate actions of TSA employees. Like any workforce, there ARE those who “fly under the radar” and tarnish the image of the many hard-working and well-intentioned men and women there. Should you have any future experiences with TSA like what you have described, I hope you will heed my words. The world is shrinking and we must all do what we can to help one another!

(NOTE: As much as David unnerves me, I respect him for acknowledging the uniqueness of our society, views, opinions, rants, etc, AND having the integrity and fairness to post comments from ALL sides.)

Warmest Regards, Lauren

Since Federal Air Marshalls work for the U.S. Govt. and the current administration is not keen on constructive criticism or full disclosure, it’s not likely that they are going to say, “Look, security on U.S. planes is really marginal. Better buy that in-flight insurance.” Of course they are going to say, “Air travel in the U.S. is safer than any where in the entire galaxy.” What else would you anticipate? Without this reassurance, travel will stagnate and airlines will tank. Not to mention that someone will be blamed and held accountable, and we can’t have that.

Furthermore, if you believe that security and respect are mutually exclusive (that is, security can only be enforced by belligerent bullies threatening mothers and children), you have a lot of career opportunities available.

I guess you would rather TSA be replaced with non-uniformed employees, all smily, happy with an “anything goes” attitude, restricting nothing or no one.

You do not understand the details of the screening process, and therefore the necessity of actions taken by the TSA. You blame TSA for all things negative, much akin to “throwing out the baby with the dirty bath water”. It was TSA who removed the ban on small scissors, tools, etc last year, all for the cause of customer service and focusing more on IED’s, a move which was vehmonently opposed by the air crew unions.

If the extent of your resolution to all the negative experiences you have described is a blog comment to this website, I would surmise you are a glutton for punishment, ignorant, or both.

Climb out of your little box, step back, and look at the big picture. there’s much more to the safety and security of the airline industry here than the rantings a few disgruntled air travlers who are likely more rude and inconsiderate than anyone they encounter.