The Transportation Security Administration is among the least-liked federal government agencies, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
Conducted December 17-19, the poll found that 25 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the TSA, putting it on par with the Internal Revenue Service, while 53 percent reported a favorable opinion. And the most frequent complaint, from 31 percent of respondents, was about the security screening process.
Why is no surprise: Passengers say that screeners are all too often rude and hostile, and many don’t even bother complaining because they think it would be useless.
“I am so frustrated with TSA that I am ready to stop flying,” one traveler wrote in a Sept. 7 complaint filed with the agency. “I’m sure this doesn’t matter to you because my tax dollars are already paying you.”
A review of complaints the traveling public lodged with TSA in September helps explain the low standing. While passengers generally understand TSA’s mission, they could do without certain parts of the pre-boarding experience.
Take, for example, a mother and daughter traveling out of the Dallas/Fort Worth airport on Sept. 4. In an e-mailed complaint to TSA, the mother said the TSA screener was rude and inconsiderate. While she was in secondary screening, the mother was made to face away from her daughter. “Someone could have taken my daughter,” the woman wrote. “I understand you have to have security, but your people don’t need to be rude!!!”
On Sept. 3, a man leaving Orlando, Fla., filed a lengthy complaint because he said a screener touched him “like no man ever has – not even my doctor.” ”This type of bodily inspection, privately or publicly, is undignified,” he wrote. “Have terrorists succeeded in making us that scared of each other?” — Associated Press
And that’s not even news. Everybody knows the TSA sucks and Kip Hawley is an idiot. What’s news is just how idiotic he still is. The day after the AP reported its poll results, Hawley wrote this internal TSA memo (courtesy Annie Jacobsen):
Date: December 21, 2007
To: All TSA Employees
Subject: 100.0 – Message from Leadership Regarding AP PollThe Grinch must have gotten loose a little early this year.
In a poll reported by the AP, they showed us down at the bottom of the public’s satisfaction, hanging in there with FEMA and the IRS. The AP further reported on some of the complaints we get at our Contact Center, quoted a few disgruntled passengers, amateur security experts, and wrapped a headline around it to greet the millions of travelers flying home this weekend. Kind of sounds like Thanksgiving.
This morning, my first meeting was with Secretary Chertoff. As soon as he sat down, he expressed his frustration that today, the anniversary of the attack on Pan Am 103 and the height of the holiday travel season, the news coverage is an undeserved poke in the eye given the great work again over Thanksgiving. (Ironically the day also started with a great piece on Good Morning America, live from the TSOC. www.tsa.gov )
Skip ahead to my last meeting of today, a TSOC bridge call about a suspicious incident in Detroit this evening. We had a TSAR in Europe (who had been up all last night on another matter), FAMs, bomb experts, our FSD in Detroit, and high level people from around the Department and TSA. A checked baggage TSO in Detroit identified a truly suspicious item and the situation was immediately contained and resolved with the FBI, CBP, ICE, and TSA working together. Not a ripple for the flying public. No poll numbers on that.
This does not compute: we’re in a high threat environment, the peak travel season, consistent good flow at our checkpoints, and doing the tough job of security on the ground and in the air, around the world – but the news reports on an impromptu popularity poll in which we appear to be unloved. Huh?
Fortunately, people who live for poll ratings don’t work for TSA. — The Aviation Nation
Oh, where to start? How about with that tough job of security? Here’s something else everybody knows. There is exactly one reason we haven’t had another terrorist attack on planes in the U.S. And it has nothing to do with the TSA. It’s simply this: The terrorists aren’t really trying. When they do try, they botch it up so badly that even London’s Metropolitan Police can catch them (when they aren’t out shooting innocent people on the Underground).
Couple this with the fact that you can get just about anything you want through airport security if you try, even real bombs, you have a recipe for disaster. When the bad guys eventually begin using people with IQs warmer than Siberia in January, then we’re going to have another attack on our hands.
What you see in the airport now is called security theater. It’s meant to make you feel safe, even though its actual effect on security is minimal. It’s enough to stop the truly stupid, and the people who merely forget to take off their guns before they go to the airport, but a truly determined, resourceful and smart attacker will get on your plane with anything he wants. Good for us that the terrorists, so far, are only determined. When will that change?
As for the suspicious item, just why isn’t TSA calling a press conference every time they find some “truly suspicious item” in someone’s checked baggage? Could it be that embarrassing? Which one of you left your vibrator turned on when you packed it in your suitcase?
Finally, Kip, that wasn’t the Grinch. It was Santa, bringing you the lump of coal you so richly deserve.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked last in the poll, with 41% holding an unfavorable opinion.
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Ray
Jan 02, 2008
One factor we keep forgetting is that this very problem with the TSA agents and their behavior greatly reduces their effectiveness.
A key tool of a true security or law enforcement officers is the ability to detect people who are in some way up to no good. Generally the behavior of people who are doing something they should not be doing gives them away, and then the officer can act to find out what they are up to. This ability to detect such people through their behavior predicates itself largely upon the “innocent” general populous they are dealing with regarding them with a positive or at least not negative view.
The fact that the TSA agents treat everyone with such huge disdain and outright hostility means that they have sacrificed this huge advantage. I had the TSA insist upon a pat down search. All well and good. But they insisted that I have a woman do it (I am a man). I pointed out that there were several male TSA agents in the area, and was informed that they were assigned to other tasks, and that this woman was the one assigned to pat downs. That if I insisted upon a male doing it that they would have to call someone in from off duty and that would take a couple of hours. (Obviously I would miss my plane) It was also implied that I might be charged for this expense. Now when I approach a TSA security point I am sure I look like someone up to no good, because I am always wondering if I will have to be “felt up” by another woman. How would the TSA then, based on behavior, separate this reaction from one of someone who is afraid that being patted down will find something that the TSA should be finding.
Bob
Jan 02, 2008
What airport was this Ray? Was she good lookin”? Just curious, no reason.
Paco
Jan 02, 2008
why didnt you ask for a supervisor??
maybe you didnt want to pop a boner in her face? haha
Umaga Limty
Jan 02, 2008
The TSA are nothing but a bunch of scumbags. Not only is Kip Hawley an idiot, he’s fucking dickhead who should have gotten a good asskicking for the holidays. Fuck him and his fucked up TSAholes
SOBS
Jan 02, 2008
Those SOBS need a good ass kicking!!! There day is coming and there number will be up!!!
Ray
Jan 03, 2008
Lets say the mid west.
She was actually kind of cute. But that is a separate issue.
I did ask for a supervisor and the person who arrived and identified themselves as a supervisor was the one who informed me about the scheduling and the fact that they would have to call someone in from off duty.
The sad part is that this all comes from the fact that my arm “beeps”. Thanks to an accident where the other party was uninsured I have a brand new metal elbow. This beeps for the metal detectors. Now I make sure this is the only place I beep, and frankly at court houses (I work on systems in court houses as a part of my job) this is not a problem. I make sure I only “beep” at my arm. They wand me, and find this out and send me on my way. But can the TSA do this. —— NO
The TSA is sure that after wanding me they still need to pat me down.
They are definite idiots.
Al Perkins
Jan 03, 2008
I believe there are several reasons for the problem at airports. (1) The personnel being hired are off of the street in most cases. The layman does not have the training or experience from the begining to know how to deal with the public. As a former law enforcement officer it took time for me to learn the ropes. Training and schoolin is just a tool as it takes time to develope the skills necessary to obtain results and good standing with the public. (2) The blame lies with the supervisors of all divisions down to the shift supervisor. It is no different then failures in the military (service of which I have 33 years)and their failures along with corporations. Egos and Empire building have no part in what TSA is suppose to be doing but there are to many “Yes” men and women back slapping to gain stature and position. Somewhere in this they are missing the point that they are handling their own safety and the safety of the US and should have that formost in their minds. Thirdly you can do your job but do it courteously and thoroughly and be more apt to catch fowl play by making the “BAD” guy complacent and more relaxed when he is going about his task.
Mr. Secretary you need to go down the chain of command and really look into what the day to day tasks are accomplishing. Take someone to task if they are not doing their job and throw away the glitz. This is our nation that so many have sacrificed for. There needs to be the national spirit shown in WWII from top to bottom to keep us safe and a free nation.
SOBS
Jan 04, 2008
hot asian mamas that work for TSA turn me on!!
James
Jan 04, 2008
Hi. I am a recent new hire with the TSA. I am a junior at a large research university, and I assure you I am not an idiot. At my airport we follow the SOP and we are all at least courteous. The story above sounds terrible–mixed gender screening should never happen, only under the most extraordinary conditions. We take all complaints seriously, and we make every effort to return lost property. I have the opportunity to make a good impression on passengers every day, and I understand that responsibility.
Bob
Jan 05, 2008
James. Do a good job for your own satisfaction and let the rest take care of itself. Somebody will appreciate it someday……maybe. Don’t ever assure people that you are not an idiot. The first thing they will think of, is “why did he say that? What did he do?” If you’re not an idiot, they’ll figure it out.
I didn’t think Ray’s story was “horrible”, really. When you look at the big picture, there are a lot worse things that could happen to a man than being frisked by a cute woman. Sometimes I lay awake at night dreaming of being frisked by a cute woman. But if he didn’t like it, well, I guess he has the right to complain about it.
Good luck with the TSA. You’re young and you have a job. Keep up the good work.
Icann
Jan 06, 2008
james, do yourself a favor and quit. your job is a threat to the american way of life and is one of the sickest things to ever happen in america. i hope the tsa is replaced with argenbright and that the kip hawleys of the world are locked up for life. tsa = american nazi party.
James
Jan 07, 2008
Well, I don’t intend to make it a career..but even so I will do my best. As for threats, I think the largest threat we face is our out of control military-industrial complex–as Eisenhower predicted. I understand that “Homeland Security” is a bit (very) rediculous sometimes, but isn’t the idea essentially good? This administration is so aweful and dysfunctional, and we seem to function relatively well, considering we were created by Bush & Co. Homeland Security is only 5 years old, and some of the idiots left from the beginning are still helping to facilitate our negative image. A new administration will be in office soon-hopefully they will decide to shake things up a bit and refine the idea of what homeland security should be. I understand that this is a comedy site, so I will stop my rant and go to bed–school starts tomorrow and after that I have to go to work–or else someone might get batteries through a checkpoint
Yes, someday I will quit–but not until I find a higher paying job with equal or greater benefits. Please remember– we are human to, and some (most?) of us are good people just trying to inconveniance the both of us as little as possible.
PS–thanks for the kind words bob. I intend to stay young forever.
teflonboi
Jan 18, 2008
I am a former tsa screener. I hated that job with a passion. It was just a paycheck until I could manage to find something much better. Yes, there is a wonderful life after tsa!!
teflonboi
Jan 18, 2008
I had to laugh OUT LOUD when I read this article. In the public opinion arena they are below the IRS.
Stop and think about it, of all the federal government agencies they have the highest attrition rate. People don’t leave government jobs. Most people who take a job with the city, county, state or somewhere else in the federal government will stay with those jobs until they die or retire. That is not the case with TSA. Something is wrong when you have so many people quit this job , and they can proclaim to the world that they are hiring now! After all, it is not a civil service job as all of us know, and the Bush admin denies the tsa screeners collective bargaining rights.
As I said it was job and a paycheck. I am happy to say that I have a much better job now. When I got hired in 2002, the national economy was weak. Consequently, the job market was not good at the time. So, those of us who were college educated( I happen to have two college degrees) had to take jobs we were overqualified for in a very tight labor market.
tsue
Jan 19, 2008
Does anyone remember 9-11? Have we forgotten what we felt that day? Like everyone reading this page, I sat in front of my television that day in disbelief. I wondered how in the world someone could do such a thing. Then I realized something…terrorism is very real. But what’s worse, terrorism has “no face”. When I say “no face”, I mean no one knows who a terrorist is or what they look like. They could be someone from another country, like the Middle East or someone or some organization within our own boarders. Remember Oklahoma City? Remember those innocent men, woman and children who lost their lives that day. They didn’t deserve to die and neither did those who parished on 9-11.
As a nation, we MAY have a pretty good idea who a terrorist is, but we really don’t know.
I currently work for TSA and I am extremely proud of my job. Everyday I go to work and, believe it or not, I am thanked by total strangers for protecting them. Two of my relatives served in Iraq and received words and letters of thanks for doing their part to protect our freedoms. They are also known as “heroes”. I don’t want to be a hero, I just want to keep people safe in the skies. I have family that travels twice a year, and I trust TSA enough to put my family’s lives in their hands. Do we have rules and regulations that are ridiclous? I don’t think so. It really disapoints me to hear passangers worry more about their tube of toothpaste (which is oversized) than the quality of human life. We have become such a materialistic nation, that we have forgoten about life around us.
While sitting at home tonight, think back on everything you have accomplished in your life. Maybe you got married, had children, received a promotion at work, whatever. How would your family react if you never came home to those accomplishments after flying on a plane because I allowed someone to break the rules? What if I allowed someone to take on board components to make a bomb? Since when has it become only our government’s job to look out for us? What about our responsibility as U.S. citizens to protect ourselves? Our forefathers gave us a wonderful gift….freedom. That freedom includes getting on a plane and traveling into the great blue younder.
Now, how would you feel if you found yourself on a plane and someone, out of nowhere, started running for the cockpit. What would you do? Would you duck for cover? Would you start praying to God? Would you take a stand? Remember, your life and the lives of eveyone on the plane is at stake. Not only that, but between your butt in that seat and the ground is about 35,000 feet of air. If I take away all the guns, knives and other weapons that people could bring on that airplane, would you have anything to worry about?
Our society is not perfect. No one ever said it was. But, why can’t we just be a little more apreciatve about the good things in life. We live in a country that is a democracy. A lot of nations around the world do not. That we all know of as Communism. Do we want that? Are we ready to handle walking into a public place and seeing a solider in camouflage standing in the corner with a machine gun ready to shoot first and ask questions later? Maybe you are, but I’m not. I have a lot to live for. And so do a lot of people in our country.
I really think it’s time we as a nation stood up to terrorism. If other nations don’t want to, oh well. I don’t live there. But, I also hope they realize that what happened on 9-11 could happen to them as well. The 4th of July should not be the only day we celebrate our indepence. We should celebrate everyday. We shouldn’t have to live in fear. Our country is only as good as its citizens. If all we decide to do is bitch about every little detail, then what is the sense of having freedom at all?
At TSA we take every precaution we can to ensure that you arrive safely at your destination. Security is our #1 concern. All we ask is that if you don’t need an oversized bottle of liquids, gels,aresoles,creams,pastes or lotions, please put them in your checked luggage with your airline. If you do so, there will be no problem. As for additional screening, it only happens if you set off the metal detector, cannot go through the metal dector because of medical implants or have been selected by your airline (airlines do this on their own…just ask them). Any questions, plese do not hesistate to ask us. We are ready and willing to help.
Not every airport accross this nation does everything they are suppose to. That is obvious. If they are not catching prohibited items, then bitch at them, not TSA. Yes, your tax dollars do pay my salary, so don’t you expect me to do my job and do it right the first time? After all, if a tragic event like 9-11 happens again, I would bet you would be the first person to bitch at everyone involved with government because I didn’t do my job. So, if you want to get your money’s worth, just follow the rules and remember 9-11. If you can’t be part of the solution, then your part of the problem. If still dissatisified, may I suggest Amtrak or Greyhound.
Another James
Jan 19, 2008
Well First James: It is good you do not intend to make TSA a career. I encourage you to find something else quickly, and it would be good if all the other TSAers would quit. Every tyrannical government gained its power through the cooperation of those who do the DIRTY work. Honestly James, or any other “security” worker…do you truly believe you are making air travel safer?
I flew in the 1970s when the metal detectors were the only thing between the ticket counter and gate. It was more than sufficient then. I would be 100% comfortable flying on an airplane without any of this “security” nonsense. If, in an extreeeeeeeeeemly rare case a problem should arise [a hijacker??], the others on-board would stop his ass from seizing control.
So, James. I appreciate your comments but it is not my intention to demean you but…you ARE contributing to the tyrannical police state.
This is why I have refused ANY “government” jobs.
Take care and blessings on finding a real job!
teflonboi
Jan 19, 2008
TSA was one of the worst jobs of my adult life. I know why they have a low attrition rate. It is because they treat people worse than dirt on the ground. I can honestly say that the people I was working with was much worse than dealing with the general public.
I recently started a new career. At least where I work now it is so much better, the people are nicer .Last summer when I went through training in my new job, at least they treated us like adults not like we are two years old.
Bob
Jan 20, 2008
Tsue. That was nice. Good to hear from some one who believes in what they do and tries with sincerity to do a good job, whatever it is.
Thanks.
Teflonboi. Those screeners that you worked with who treated people like dirt are probably still there, because as individuals they probably enjoy the power. They weren’t the TSA, they were just buttholes who worked for the TSA.
Did you make a difference or try to change what you saw was wrong?
The individual makes the difference when enforcing the laws of the land.
teflonboi
Jan 21, 2008
I wish things could of got better. But, unfortunately it was a really hopeless situation. I noticed at TSA you had people that were really drunk on power.
The way some of those managers and sups were, they would talk down at you like you were nobody.They were petty dictators. I never had anyone talk to me that way in years and it has been more than 16 years since I got out of high school.
Then the screeners, needless to say there were plenty that were not really nice at all to say the least. So, that is why I thought it was worse than dealing with the general public with all those aspiring Barney Fifes’.
So, I felt it was better to have a master plan for the future. As I said it was a paycheck until I could manage to find a better job which I might add that I actually succeeded in getting a much better job than work for TSA.
I knew it was hopeless trying to get promoted at TSA because favoritism was the order of the day. There were plenty of us with a college education and have had professional work experience who were best qualified for lead, sup, and manager positions that got passed over all because favoritism was the order of the day. I guess it depends which butt you have been kissing to get granted special privileges. Isn’t favoritism in the Federal Government illegal ?Therefore, I realistically knew that trying to get promoted there was hopeless. I knew it was the right choice to spend all my time and effort looking for a better job.
teflonboi
Jan 21, 2008
The people that got promoted at TSA were imbeciles. I got more education than they will get in a lifetime. Some of these people that got promoted were illiterate, they couldn’t talk right. I don’t think that there are any of these people who could form a three word sentence.
As I said, it was just a paycheck until I could get a better job. I was not the only one there with an education . I knew others who had masters degrees, but they are not there anymore. Hopefully, they have a better job now. Life after TSA is wonderful.
At TSA there was cronyism, favoritism, and nepotism. Yes, there was nepotism; people there got their cousins and brother in laws jobs. Isn’t nopotism illegal in the Federal Government?
Bob
Jan 21, 2008
Nopotism? You should be on the Barry Cooper thread.
Ray
Jan 23, 2008
We also keep forgetting that 911 didn’t show a need for better screening at airports. After all that was the claimed reason for the TSA was that the screeners had failed. We don’t know if the screeners at the time found the box cutters or not. But they very well could have and then let them right on through because at the time they were legal.
One also has to wonder why we even worry about people getting box cutters —- and nail files and etc onto airplanes. If someone tried today to hijack an airplane with a box cutter they would probably be the only casualty, and certainly would not be successful.
Bob
Jan 23, 2008
I’m not too sure about the failure of another boxcutter hijacking, Ray. I haven’t noticed an improvement in the backbones of the North American population. A terrorist could probably hijack a plane with a dirty toothpick nowadays. Jab it in some fat lady’s eye and the rest of the passengers would be on the floor begging for their lives.
Pitiful.
Bob
Jan 23, 2008
We all want somebody else to do the Steven Segal so we can sue him(or her) if it doesn’t turn out the way we want.
Even more pitiful.
LightBringer
Jan 26, 2008
Bob, I suspect I must be a psycho or something because I want to have the opportunity to defend myself rather than counting on some steroid laden “Air Marshall” with the I.Q. of a rutabaga. I believe I would be better motivated to succeed than ranger rick.
Teflonboi: Congratulations on finding honest work.
Tsue: You, Sir (Or Ma’am, as the case may be), are the perfect tool of the communist gooberment because you honestly believe what you are doing is right. Just like the average cop on the street, you don’t even realize that you are being ordered to trample the allegedly supreme law of the land. I would strongly reccomend you give a listen to Michael Badnareck on WTPRN mornings. You might learn something. In the mean time, may God have mercy on your soul for I shall not.
Also, Tsue, for your information, all ten planks of the communist manifesto have been enacted in America since 1933. It distresses me that so very few of us are aware enough to see it. Georgegordon.org has an excellent essay on the subject. So, Tsue, for your information, YOU serve a COMMUNIST gooberment.
God bless this Republic.
Death to the New World Order and those who worship that beast.
We shall prevail.
LightBringer
Jan 26, 2008
Oh, by the way, don’t fly commercial. Drive. Or charter.
I haven’t found any commercial airlines to be worth my time or money in decades.
God bless this Republic.
Death to the New World Order and those who worship that beast.
We shall prevail.
B-Boy
Jan 29, 2008
I can’t stand the TSA’s security to get on a plane. STOP confiscating our toothpaste and hair gel!!
Someone wrote that he’d be happy just to go through the metal detectors like in the 70′s. I would too. I think the thing that’s made us more safe than anything is the security doors that don’t allow anyone into the cockpit. That, with metal detectors and that air puff thing that detects explosive material should be just fine. Everything else is useless window dressing, a show, theater, to make us FEEL safer.
I don’t care about FEELing safer, I want to actually BE safer. And to tell the truth, the chances of being on a plane hijacked by terrorists are so low, that I’d much prefer to take my chances than to be incovenienced and harrassed the way we are with the current system in place.
That’s just my two cents.
tsa
Jan 31, 2008
Some TSA employees work very hard at thier jobs and others do not like any other organization. There are always two sides to every story. I work for TSa and do my best to complete my job in the most efficient and polite way I can. Like any other job this to can be done with courtesy, but it works both ways. Sometimes people do not understand the rules set by the organization and the employees are just trying to follow them. It would be great if people could work together!
Bob
Jan 31, 2008
I remember a line from an old Robert E. Howard novel.
“The more civilized we become, the less civil we are to each other.”
When you are living amongst uncivilized people, you must treat everyone with respect because you never know who or what you are dealing with and if you should rub someone the wrong way, it could cost you your life.
When you live in a civilized environment, you assume that the other person won’t harm you in any way so you feel free to beak off and act like a butthole because you feel protected by the laws of society.
Could this be what you are referring to, TSA person? A general lack of civility on behalf of the passengers and TSA workers?
We are quite civilized. At an individual level, we are almost useless in fact but we all have the attitude of spoiled little kids.
Bob
Jan 31, 2008
I remember watching a clip on TV that was an interview with some tattooed young punk who looked like he had shoved his face in a tackle box. He was a self proclaimed anarchist.
“No one has the right to tell me what to do or deny me anything that I want. If I am in a store and I see something I want I should be able to just take it because no one has the right to stop me.”
I laughed. In a true state of anarchy, that little twit wouldn’t last five minutes. He would be lying in a ditch somewhere, bleeding profusely. People like that seem to forget that anarchy means all other people can do what they want too, including the store owner with the 12 guage.
Civilization makes us weak, selfish, arrogant and stupid and that’s why everybody is griping and nobody can get along.
And just like Forrest Gump, that’s all I have to say about that.
YAJ (Yet another Jam
Feb 07, 2008
To the one who suggested Amtrak or Greyhound.
You find the same attitude there as in the airport.
I hate flying because of the Security Theatre, and that same mindset is invading Amtrak. It isn’t as bad, but if you are different, or stand out, you are a target.
sonofapeach
Feb 10, 2008
Have you noticed that when you’re pulled aside for extra screening they have these new “cattle” shutes with a big locking gate on the end? The psychological intent is just so obvious!
My leg is amputated and since 9/11 I cannot fly out of US airports without being pulled aside, made to stand on those rubber mats with legs & arms spread in front of everyone while a wand is waved over me & I’m patted down. In the last year or so they’ve added the extra fondling between and under the breast area, and pulling up one’s shirt and turning the waist of one’s pants out. Then I head for a private screening room so they can view my leg with the pants lifted, my palms & prosthesis are swiped and the swipe-pads run through some sort of detection machine. Then I sit and wait to be cleared.
Pre-9/11 in the US, and still now in any other country I’ve flown out of it’s a simple pat down along my leg. The TSA’s policies are insane!
Bob
Feb 10, 2008
Wheelchairs, canes and prosthetic limbs are good hiding spots for weapons and bombs. Sorry about that, but if you were a suicidal, crazy mother with the desire to kill as many of the people you hated as you possibly could in the process of expending yourself, the rest of the passengers would be glad that the TSA checked out your leg.
Did you hear about the bombing in Irag a couple of weeks ago?
They wired up two women with Downs syndrome and blew them up by remote control in the middle of the marketplace. Why not wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs? They might load your leg up at night when you’re sleeping and you wouldn’t even know it. Pets would be another way to get a bomb on board. Open them up and shove them full of remote control explosives. Ever think of that? Fanatical killers are nasty people.
There is logic and reason behind the TSA security policies even if they are carried out and enforced at times by average, petty people with a chip on their shoulders. If we run to or blame the government everytime we need something or have a problem, then we are going to have to accept their interference in our lives. It’s all one package.
Sorry to ask this, but it’s something to think about. Did government programs help you out with your leg?
If we want the government to play such a big part in our lives, then we have to take the good with the bad. I’m not trying to pick on you, but we need to wake up over here. Things are going downhill fast and very few people are ready or even see the danger.
Bob
Feb 10, 2008
Blowing up those two women in Baghdad was actually an evolution of an older plan. A few years ago, they wired up another “mentally challenged” young Palestinian man and sent him to an Israeli checkpoint with orders to blow himself up. At the last minute, he changed his mind, threw his arms in the air and surrendered. Makes you wonder who the mentally challenged really are.
You just can’t depend on the mentally disabled. You can talk them into taping bombs to their bodies but you just can’t tell if they will be stupid enough to set them off. So you see, they set them off by remote control now.
I can’t understand what the western governments have against these Moslem terrorists. They seem so nice. Some of us have even referred to them as “poor, innocent people”.
Ray
Feb 10, 2008
Bob:
One important point here. If the policy is the do a private search of a person with a prosthetic limb, why require that they submit to all of the other searches first. I know that with my implant they first generally run me through the metal detector a bunch of times.
“I have a big piece of metal in my arm see”.
“Just go back and try again”
beep
“see it will beep every time”
“No just go through with your arms up”
beep
“try it with your arms in front of you”
beep
“try it with one arm behind you and one arm in front”
“hey I only have metal in one arm”
“are you sure, lets try that anyway”
beep”
“try it slower”
beep
“lets try even slower”
beep
“how about going faster”
beep
“are you sure you can’t remove it”
“it is implanted in my arm”
“I take it that is a no. Have you asked your doctor about if you can remove it for security points. Lets see try slow with your arms out”
beep
Oh well go over there —->
“Hey what are you doing you are a woman.”
“I am the one assigned at this time for pat downs”
“BUT YOU ARE A WOMAN I WANT A MAN”
“I am a supervisor is there a problem here”
“This is a woman, the rules say that I can request a man to frisk me.”
“Where did you get a copy of our rules. I beleive that that is supposed to be restricted material. Did you break our security procedures.”
“It is on your web site”
“Are you authorized to be access our web site?”
“Its on your public web site”
“I suppose that means you think you are authorized. I don’t have any men available.”
“But you have a bunch of them here”
“But they are assigned to different positions”
“Switch them”
“that is not how it works. If you want to be obstructionist, then I guess I could get someone to come in from off duty, or maybe we could fly someone in from another airport. But that would mean that I would have to fill a report on your disruption of our security procedures. Yo might end up listed that way”
…
Wonder if they treat congressmen with new limb parts that way????
Bob
Feb 10, 2008
Hey, like I said, some of them are probably just not nice or smart human beings. I’m not going to defend that.
I don’t know what their training is either but it is possible that they intentionally keep the stress levels a little higher just to freak out someone who is doing something wrong. Make them easier to spot.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all got the Royal treatment, but congressmen get treated like congressmen and a guy with a piece of steel in his arm gets treated like a guy with a piece of steel in his arm. The masses never get respect from authority but lately we all seem to think we deserve it. That’s why I say we’re acting kind of spoiled.
Once in a while you will see a commoner get respect. Some people just have an air about them and they are usually always right when they demand service. Ask names and write them down, that always puts fear in the heart of a public servant.
I don’t know what to say Ray, the world isn’t nice to everybody. Never was and never will be. Sometimes you get treated like a piece of crap. You either refuse to tolerate it on the spot or you have to let it go.
Ray
Feb 10, 2008
Actually my experience and my training in security (another area but I think the same thing applies) says just the inverse.
If you stress everyone and create an environment where security is the enemy of all that they are dealing with, then it is hard to tell those who are stressed by the contact with security, and those who are stressed by trying to get something by security. While if security is more friendly then those who are stressed for reasons that security needs to look at will stand out more.
sonofapeach
Feb 11, 2008
I agree. Why all the other invasive stuff when it’s a simple medical appliance? They know where the metal is as soon as you go through the detector. Why are my breasts being touched? The waist of my pants turned down? My palms swiped for chemicals? It’s overkill. A simple question on the part of the screener & a pat down the leg should be sufficient to confirm that it is in fact a prosthetic leg, not the “mad leg-bomber” wired up like one of Bob’s poor Down’s Syndrome ladies.
Bob
Feb 11, 2008
I don’t know how I got stuck on this side of the argument. All I’m trying to do is get people to appreciate that there is in fact a threat to the safety of air traffic. I don’t think there is anything that can be done to make it completely safe but the government( because they get blamed for everything when it does happen), is trying to make it a little safer by beefing up security. I’ve mentioned before, that it obviously must be having some effect, simply because there hasn’t been a plane blown out of the sky since 9/11. Who knows how long that will last.
However, to make security tighter, they hired a lot of average people complete with all their emotional baggage and gave them the power to control people like sheep. Equal employment at work. Can’t say no to somebody who wants a government job or you might get sued. I’m sure there are good people there too but if they reflect normal society, they are probably vastly outnumbered.
All I ask is that you consider their position before you criticize them too harshly. They see all the training videos and are probably scared stupid about all the stuff that could get by them. They know that it will be their fault if it does. They run you through the metal detector twenty times because they just want the problem to go away. When it doesn’t, they are mad because you are making their job harder so they punish you for it. That’s just what stupid people do. As long as you can say that you wouldn’t do the same thing if you had their responsibility, then my work here is done.
Ray
Feb 11, 2008
One does have to wonder about the breasts, and the pants. Frankly given the nature and size of artificial limbs I would think that some additional precautions are in order. But I would think that those precautions should be set.
In your case I certainly do see every reason to look at the leg. Frankly a leg could contain a lot of material that goes bang. So a visual inspection and swipe it with the explosives detection cloth would certainly be in order. Also, any time one is checking any part of a person and their things for explosives one would assume that checking the hands would be a good additional process. The rest of this sounds less necessary. But at least it sounds like they provided a same sex person to do this. The attitude I experience seems to be that I am a guy, and if I am normal getting felt up by a woman should not bother me.
I do have to wonder who after they find out you have an artificial leg, they have you go through all of the other intermediary steps.
JPC
Apr 20, 2010
Just got the call today to star orientation on May 10t-15th for san diego, then they said i will be going up to LA on May 17th-22nd for more training before i start OJT on May 24th, i just hope that they will be willing to work with me on my school schedule for college
shelia
May 02, 2010
doe TSA disqualify you for speeding tickets?
guy
Jul 22, 2010
what an idiot
guy
Jul 22, 2010
i refer to those bashing tsa for no good reason, not the original poster of course.
joe
Oct 27, 2010
Hate them now? just wait until you see their “October surprise”