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SQLGeek wrote:I Heaven help you if you get a false positive on a swab.

E.Marquez wrote:

SQLGeek wrote:I Heaven help you if you get a false positive on a swab.

Every time I travel i get a True positive on a swab.... and it has not caused much more than a small comedy of Q&A...

JSThane wrote:

Cedar Park Dad wrote:Regardless, thats not going to happen here, so we're back to searches.

And right back to violations of the Fourth Amendment, with reference to "unreasonable searches and seizures." I would say that intrusive searches not based upon Probable Cause, with an efficacy rate of 0% at preventing/apprehending what they're supposed to apprehend and prevent, sound pretty unreasonable.

I'm a law enforcement officer. If I treated people in the course of my job the way TSA routinely treats airline passengers, I would be in jail, and my department would be facing (and losing) a massive civil rights lawsuit.

And the simple matter is, if you're attempting to simply kill large numbers of the travelling public, the inspection queues have replaced the planes themselves as primary soft targets. Often the queues have -more- people lined up than any one plane has aboard. It is only when the goal is -takeover- and usage of the plane itself as a weapon that any sort of measures become all that effective, and the only real effective measure there is legally armed passengers (at the moment, a slot sometimes filled by Air Marshals and other LEO). Attacking the plane with explosives serves no purpose that attacking the queue wouldn't.

The underwear bomber got his explosives on the plane undetected. He was stopped by passengers and crew, as well as his own incompetence. TSA had nothing to do with him until after he was stopped.

The shoe bomber got his explosives on the plane undetected. He too was stopped by passengers and crew, as well as his own incompetence. TSA also had nothing to do with him until after the fact.

IIRC, it was the Time Square bomber that boarded a plane with an active "Be On the LookOut" order for him, sent to ALL law enforcement AND airports in the region, including the TSA. They let him board anyway, and the plane was taxiing to the runway before they realized their error.

To date, I do not know of one single instance where TSA has stopped, intercepted, or prevented a terrorist attack.

However, I do know of TSA agents who have stolen Mont Blanc pens, money, iPads, flashlights, and more. I know of TSA agents who made South Park's "officer Cartman" and his "respect my authority" spiel seem reasonable and polite. I know of TSA agents who have groped and fondled infants, elderly, and clergy, sometimes for their own sick kicks, and sometimes for the express purpose of "teaching a lesson." I know of cases where TSA agents have accused people of money laundering, check kiting, theft, and many many more alleged crimes, usually based upon spurious and specious "evidence" for which the TSA had no authority or cause to look for (and which always gets thrown out, and often results in another lawsuit). They are incompetent, ineffective, and infringing. The "good" TSA employees are usually hampered by regulation and corruption, the many bad ones are protected by the same.

They serve one purpose: to accustom the American public to arbitrary searches, groping, and embarrassment. As an LEO myself, I find I have absolutely -zero- respect for them, their job, their efficacy, their stated purpose, or their unstated purpose. I have too much respect for the Constitution and the oath I swore to accord the TSA anything but scorn.

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PS, to whichever NSA or CIA spook that may or may not read this because I twigged your filters with words like "terrorist," "TSA," "plane," and "incompetent," you know where to find me; come and chat. I'll make coffee.

92f-fan wrote:Im diabetic on an insulin pump. I also have a glucose sensor that I often wear that's attached on my arm. So when I fly I plan to be probed EVERY TIME. The pump is pretty common and most TSA agents have seen one. The sensor on my arm gets them every time. The whole body scanner flags it every time.
Sometimes I get decent TSA people sometimes I dont. Sometimes they get all excited and I get delayed, while they talk about it, sometimes I dont. BUT Im prepared for it and not surprised by it. I know that my experiences aren't the same as a child in a wheel chair. But in this case the child is upset mostly because her bear was taken. Wheel chair or not, that was going to happen. The parents should have prepared the child for it...

By the way Ill be traveling 3500 miles later this year and Im driving....

mamabearCali wrote:The TSA makes me very . They mostly prey on people and force them to go through intrusive degrading searches with no cause whatsoever. I don't fly anymore because I refuse to be separated from my child for any reason whatsoever. I doubt she started crying when they x-rayed the animal....she probably started crying when they would not let her mom be beside her during this search. Those who terrorize children for their own pleasure are the worst of the worst.

This is security theater performed by thugs upon common americans who have done nothing wrong but try to secure air transport to a destination. It does not make us one iota safer. It is abusive and illegal, but permitted because we allow it to be so.

VMI77 wrote:And you shouldn't be subjected to the treatment you describe either. I don't agree to be subjected to it and I don't fly. Now I either drive, or if it's too far to be practical, use the telephone.