Some of the âincidentsâ reported there are nothing less than psychological (and sometimes physical) torture. Is being a sadist a requirement of TSA employment?
Part of their training should include experiencing the âmistakesâ of prior screeners, including humiliating, frightening and painful circumstances in front of strangers. Then they might understand the importance of being sensitive to others.
Yes. Why wouldnât it be?
You get to enjoy and inflict bodily humiliation on innocent people for the sake of it. What is that but not sadism?
I wouldnât say itâs a requirement, but I do agree that youâd find a higher percentage of people in those positions (along with things like being a police officer) where they can wield power and abuse others.
I think a lot of TSA workers do it just because itâs a job, just like there are police officers who truly want to help their communityâŚitâs just the bad ones that get the most attention.
Do dentures wearers have to remove their dentures?
How about people with glass eyes? Or metal securing their bones? What about artificial heart valves? Or clothes!
Okay, so maybe too broad of a brush stroke, on my part. Still the attention to the TSA is appropriate, given the very inhumane treatment of people versus the valiant life-risking to save lives that good police officers partake in. I suppose you could proffer that the TSA is there to save lives, but itâs not an equal comparison, in terms of daily risk and sometime heroics.
When people fly in Europe (from one Schengen Zone country to another, although it may apply to the entire EU - I canât remember for sure), we donât go through porno scanners, we donât get groped, hell we donât even have to take our shoes off when going through the metal detectors.
Here in Vancoouver, they have a couple of porno scanners at the security for US-bound flights. They were used somewhat randomly for a couple of years, but it seems like they hardly use them at all now. Not sure why.
Yesterday, I had to clear security in Dallas for a flight to Vancouver and they were using them for 100% of passengers. I wasnât even offered a free fondle as an alternative.
These guys have to go. Get rid of them. Fire them all. They provide no security at all! The government critters are complaining about the budget? Cut the TSA! Cut the DHS! Enough!
Iâve found, at least at SeaTac, they usually donât make you go through the pornoscanner if youâre traveling with kids. LAX made us all go through it though.
Each airport seems to implement its own variations on the procedures. Thereâs also a local work culture among the TSA employees that will vary between locations. In Nashville, Iâve gotten the impression that theyâre friendlier than average. At SeaTac, they they seem to focus on getting people through efficiently. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, they tend to be grumpy. Maybe it has something to do with the large number of clueless infrequent travelers they have to deal with. Or maybe old people are less willing to take crap from young punks with badges.
I always take the TSA Body Massage option (although I might reconsider with the millimeter-wave scanners) and I have NEVER not been offered a pat-down in private. What this TSA officer did, as far as I know, is completely against protocol (even putting aside the âshut upâ comment). She should be investigated and fired. I have my own problems with the TSA, but this woman was out of bounds even according to their standards.
Also, while cops can often be horrible, nasty, and murderous, there have certainly been documented cases where they have been helpful or saved lives. The TSA has not saved any lives in their years of security-theater traveler abuse.
Not entirely true⌠I have flown to Portugal from Atlanta many times. This involves changing planes, usually in Frankfurt, and once in Lisbon (to distinguish that these were inter-EU flights), and every time, except for the scanners, itâs been the same as in the US. Take off shoes, put computer in separate bin, etc.
Very true.
Yeah, itâs entirely the weary travelerâs fault, and certainly not borne of contempt for the public in general or a power trip.
The article makes reference to agents drawing their guns in one incident. Do TSA agents really have guns? The only armed law enforcement Iâve ever encountered at US airports have been local police and on the rare occasion national guards.
I had a rather surprising experience with the TSA at Sky Harbor. Iâm an Englishman who flew to the US often before the âglory yearsâ of the TSA. I have my horror stories from American airports anyway (a 90 day trip to travel the country warranted a lot of rude treatment and I even wrote an article about the security guard who was convinced I was smuggling drugs in a large Tasmanian Devil plush toy that filled a suitcase and felt the urge to massage it in public).
I moved over in 2004 and married a Phoenix lady, but settling down meant no air travel, so I got to read about the TSAâs long list of objectable behaviour without ever having to experience it myself. I knew Iâd travel with my lass back to England at some point, though. I wasnât looking forward to the airport experience but, as I have a stubborn streak, I was half looking forward to objecting to whatever they tried to make me do.
And something was likely. You see, I still look different and nowadays I also wear a Utilikilt, which has a large number of metal rivets that set off metal detectors. Sure enough, it set them off at Sky Harbor and the TSA pulled me aside to do a patdown. That wasnât surprising. What was surprising was how I was treated, which was rather well, even after I offered to take off the kilt. They even let my lass take photos while they were doing so.
I realise that this appears to be unusual behaviour for the TSA, especially at Sky Harbor, which Iâve seen mentioned in the usual TSA stories more than once, but itâs what I experienced. The trip went well, but it was on our return, flying out of Manchester, that my stepson and I found odd treatment, suckered through a pornoscanner before we realised what was happening.
Iâm not blaming the victims of TSA abuse, or excusing the TSA employees who act inappropriately. Iâm simply observing that anyone might get grumpy after telling a few hundred people a day why they canât just walk through with their hubcap-sized belt buckles, even if it is their job and theyâre supposed to be âprofessionalsâ. In the better-run airports, the front line employees seem to get rotated through different positions frequently, so maybe they have good supervisors who recognize this.
Yeah. I guess, initially, it rubbed me the wrong way within the context of the article, although I did realize that you werenât referencing it. Your explanation in the new comment makes much more sense. As much as the people at the bottom (in general) bear the burden of blame, it is always the climate of the higher-ups that creates the group, whether it be in sloppy hiring, poor training or mismanagement of staff (of course, barring the occasional bad apple who slips through).
