?Do I have the right to refuse this search??

[futurebeachbum]

As a very frequent flyer, it has been painfully obvious what a joke the TSA's secuiriy theatre at airports is.

This article is a qualified and detail analysis of just how useless and inept the TSA screening actually is....

The author is Deirdre Walker. She retired recently as the Assistant Chief of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Department of Police. She spent 24 years as a police officer.

If you travel often, it will sound dishearteningly familiar.

 

[sunspotbaby]

great article. I haven't traveled by air since 2002 . I went on a trip and decided to take along my snoopy (a toy that played shroeder piano music) . I thought it would be fun to take pictures of him wherever i journeyed. I was picked out of line to be searched as well. They wanted to cut my snoopy open!

 

[Here4Good]

What a great article.

It reminds me of the conversations I've had with my parents about their high school experience, back in the 40's. They went to a "Manual Training" school, and they think that the entire purpose was to train them to move to the bell and not to question anything, so that when they went to work in a factory when they graduated they would be "trained".

Sometimes TSA feels like that to me - it is "training" the frequent traveler - who, BTW, tends to be better educated and in a higher economic bracket - that the best course of action is to cooperate with any stupid request, because it's all about the common good. That's what the Patriot Act (the misnomer of the century) is all about, you give up a little and we all get security.

I watched them frisk my elderly mother in her wheelchair (she demanded a private screening before she would let them take off her chemo cap, and so tied up a screener, a supervisor and a private room for 10 minutes ) and seem to get singled out for extra screening every time. I thought perhaps they had some intelligence that predicted a terrorist attack by middle-aged women, but after reading this article I think I must just look like a "good citizen".

 

[LuciferSam]

One time the screener wanted to pat me down. He was already upset with me because I wasn't playing his little Simon says game very skillfully when I went through the metal detector. Anyhow he asks me to raise both hands in the air and I comply. My ticket was in my left hand. Then he wanted to see my ticket. My hands were still in the air. I told him he'd have to order me to lower my hands if he wanted to see it. He was pissed!

 

[Bob]

One time the screener wanted to pat me down. He was already upset with me because I wasn't playing his little Simon says game very skillfully when I went through the metal detector. Anyhow he asks me to raise both hands in the air and I comply. My ticket was in my left hand. Then he wanted to see my ticket. My hands were still in the air. I told him he'd have to order me to lower my hands if he wanted to see it. He was pissed!

from raising arizona bank scene...old guy answering robbers who told him to freeze, then drop..."if i freeze, i can't rightly drop, and if i drop i'm gonna be in motion". robber "shut up!"

 

[LuciferSam]

from raising arizona bank scene...old guy answering robbers who told him to freeze, then drop..."if i freeze, i can't rightly drop, and if i drop i'm gonna be in motion". robber "shut up!"

This guy was angry at me because when I went through the metal detector, I just happened to touch some widget on the side of it. I did it for no apparent reason, was vaguely aware I even did it. He got all bent out of shape about that and I guess it triggered the pat-down software application that was downloaded into his "brain" if you could call it that.

 

[scooterbug44]

I have found that the intelligence and politeness level of the TSA (or other) security screener is inversely proportional to the size of the airport.

Common sense and humor comes into play a lot more frequently when it's a small airport (which are better run anyway IMO).

 

[futurebeachbum]

I have found that the intelligence and politeness level of the TSA (or other) security screener is inversely proportional to the size of the airport.

Common sense and humor comes into play a lot more frequently when it's a small airport (which are better run anyway IMO).

The downside of the TSA in small airports is boredom. I've had flights out of a very small airport (Santa Barbara, CA) where there were about 6 bored TSA agents and our flight (with about 20 passengers) was the only one leaving for several hours.

They had nothing else to do, so they searched all of us and all of our carryons.

 

[Lynnie]

I think TSA has improved dramatically since its inception. Right after 9-11, I was pointed at and motioned out of line on every flight I took. Annoyed slightly, but didn't mind. Atlanta in particular has improved and is quite efficient with very polite officers.

If you know the drill and cooperate, there really shouldn't be any problems. I admit, I hate seeing my bag get stopped in the scan machine and scrutinized, while I stand there bare-footed and beltless. Air travel is certainly no longer glamourous.

I have a feeling that if there is cause for a search (strange object in my bag, which is usually a belt buckle) and I refuse the search, I will be denied progressing past security. I could try it next time, but just have no desire for that kind of altercation.

 

[futurebeachbum]

I guess that if there was any chance of the screening actually improving security in a meaningful way, I'd feel better about it. It is, in fact. all for show (hence the name 'security theatre'.) The days where a person could hijack a plane with a weapon smuggled thru security are pretty much over (much less with nail clippers or a screwdriver.)

People complain bitterly about discrimination when voters have to produce a valid government ID, yet as citizens, we can't fly on an airliner from Savannah to Atlanta (ie: not crossing even a state line, much less a national border) without having to produce a government issued ID ("Papers please".)

We were supposed to have a government of enumerated rights not one of unlimited rights.

The TSA represents one more step down the path of a government of unlimited rights and citizens with fewer and fewer rights. There's no possible interpretation of the Constitution that validates their existence.

The government is getting us used to existing with no rights by eroding them slowly over time.

The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. ​

Benjamin Franklin​