Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/10/touching-sensitive-areas.html
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Is it that a shitty job (by some accounts, working for the TSA is almost as soul crushing as going through their checkpoints) attracts shitty people?
Or does the job change people? Does it turn them into the sort of people that gets the agency sued?
Chicken and egg problem?
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No one has to become a TSA agent.
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TSA:
If you’ve seen this episode, you’ll get it. Not as much the gropey-feely, but the idea that “this is how we do things”.
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I mean, no one has to become an Amazon warehouse worker either, I guess.
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I fly out of Tulsa every other month or so for work. Our checkpoints are always filled with this kind of BS. Much larger airports like Dallas and Georgia always surprise me at how (comparatively) chill their TSA lines are. My guess is the tulsa TSA have some sort of ass hole running things, trying to find that mid-western ISIS agent.
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Sorry Granny, this is the price we have to pay for the illusion of airline security.
Drop em’ and spread em’!
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First thought, the TSA person considered “mother’s day” to be the edict for who to search that day. Second thought, not requiring a search of a mother on mother’s day is exactly what the terrorists are counting on, right?
(/s in case it isn’t obvious.)
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C’mon ladies we can do better than that. I bet Diva cups show up real neat on the porno scanner. I can just see em… Sure i can take that out for u. What do you mean you dont want to hold it? Oops spilled it on ya. Sorry about that.
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You’d be surprised how many adult depends users are al queada sympathizers. It’s like 30% according to some sources.
Don’t forget the infamous “panty liner bomber” Ricanda Reed.
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I ask that you ooops everyone on Planet Earth review the reddish-pinkish rectangles in the second, third, and fourth bar graph.
For those of you who do not have perfect vision, or a magnifying glass, I have enlarged the first bar graph detail for a parallel comparison:
So…
ETA: who indeed?
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Damn that’s a great chart. Saving it.
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The small airports are usually headed by some Barney Fife type character who takes their job way too seriously and directs his staff accordingly.
Much has been made of the fact that many of the 9/11 hijackers originally entered security at small regional airports so there’s a huge fear of these places being “weak links”.
I’ve been flying regularly for decades and I am absolutely fed up with the TSA security theater bullshit. As God as my witness, I vow to live long enough to see the end of this absurd and blatantly racist program.
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@doctorow See previously: Menstruating woman subjected to TSA grope because panty-liner obscured her vulva on pornoscanner | Boing Boing
@Rachel_Hall: FWIW, the body scanners are not capable of seeing anything that’s under skin, including menstrual cups. Both millimeter wave (current) & backscatter x-ray (not currently in use) either bounce off or are absorbed by skin. They can see things that dangle out (e.g. tampon strings) but not inside a body cavity.
So that’s (yet another) reason those of you who menstruate may want to switch to using a cup.
So far at least, I have not heard of TSA conducting a body cavity search, though I have heard multiple examples of them doing “patdowns” that involve labial penetration. See e.g.:
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/04/26/make_it_tough_t.html
I hope Jon makes 'em bleed. It seems only appropriate.
@j9c Seriously. 
(FWIW, I made a video about the psychology of that: Which are deadlier: sharks or horses? (availability heuristic) - YouTube .)
@anon81034786 Re TSA racial & religious profiling, you may be interested in this:
https://homeland.house.gov/hearings-and-markups/hearings/perspectives-tsas-policies-prevent-unlawful-profiling
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1972652-house-homeland-security-hearing-tsa-profiling-today.html
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See also these studies showing that TSA has, statistically, killed more people than 9/11:
Blalock et al, The Impact of 9/11 on Road Fatalities: The Other Lives Lost to Terrorism, SSRN Feb. 10, 2005
Blalock et al, The Impact of Post-9/11 Airport Security Measures on the Demand for Air Travel. 50 J. L. & Economics 4, 731–755
Nate Silver, The Hidden Costs of Extra Security, NY Times Nov. 18, 2010
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Our World in Data in general is great. Lots of very interesting graphs.
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I think that you are making the “got to make a living somehow” argument, but a key difference is that the Amazon workers are being exploited while the TSA agents are doing the exploitation.
(I don’t think that “exploit” is quite the right word, but I’m not coming up with a better one right now.)
Clearly this is evidence that TSA is so awesome at their job. /s
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