Originally published at: "They missed a whole bomb in my bag," says woman as she's patted down by TSA | Boing Boing
…
6 Likes
Yeah, it’s best to have more sense than that on the passengers part, however I wager we’ve all said dumb stuff.
Taking away all semblance of discretion from security personnel does not help outcomes imho. If anything, it makes the security holes that remain safer for the transgressor, for having blinkered personnel that way.
Then again, I don’t have any faith at all in the hiring/training practices of authoritarians and their agencies, so I sure as hell don’t want their personnel to have any kind of free hand.
Probably putting the tsa in a big pile of kindling with fatherland security or whatever you call it and any other spawn of shrub you see is best. Anyone got a light?
19 Likes
Did they steal her jewelry though?
11 Likes
This is why I always repeat, “Their sense of humor is not my sense of humor” to myself while going through security.
26 Likes
This is not the first time an airline customer has made a joke about a bomb and been arrested. This will not be the last time. Please stop making foolish jokes about bombs, you numpties.
24 Likes
I remember wearing the Video Coat to the Detroit airport after wearing it at the Maker Faire in 2011. It looks like a bomb (lab coat with wires), so the police asked me to pack it and then my family got SSSS written on our boarding passes. My son, who had the actual bomb in his backpack, skated through the bag check. The actual bomb was eight 11V 5AH 30C LiPo packs with backwards-mating connectors and no protection circuits. I’m still amazed at how thoroughly they searched us while allowing the bomb on the airplane.
17 Likes
26 Likes
15 Likes
Even before the TSA existed as a thing, telling a ‘joke’ like that to airport security would likely get you taken to a little room you didn’t want to be in.
24 Likes
Man, and I thought I was clueless, tone-deaf and unable to read the room! 
18 Likes
There’s saying dumb stuff, and then there’s a history of planes being blown up, being hijacked, being crashed by the pilot’s kid, and other horrible incidents that kill scores of people. One of these things is not like the others.
While I am no fan of security theater, this is one law I can get behind.
11 Likes
No, and the “no jokes” rule goes back way farther than the establishment of TSA. I remember when I first noticed the sign about it, as a kid – that was way back when Carter was POTUS. (Maybe with all the other things one has to do to get thru security, “no jokes” has since been visibly omitted?)
EDIT: what @ Ceran_Swicegood said
10 Likes
I was traveling through one of the DC airports after thanksgiving and had a dessert delight known as a chocolate salami in my carryon. The TSA made me unwrap it, and when I refused to give them a sample called me “Mr. Grumpypants”. But I did not make any jokes about it’s contents.
9 Likes
I remember being told as a child not to even say the word “bomb” at the airport for any reason, and assumed it was one of those things all parents tell their children.
I have been so wrong.
6 Likes
Of course not. Your sense of humor is da bomb.
5 Likes
5 Likes
Is there any evidence other than the cops’ statement?
As a rule, unless I see independent evidence I assume all police statements are lies.
Just saying, if TSA arrests a Black woman and claims she said there was a bomb in her bag, maybe we shouldn’t take their word for it
12 Likes
5 Likes
But what about when you need to say gate “C-4”?
9 Likes
Bit unfair to call them “numpties”. Many neurodivergent people use humour – often inappropriate humour – to disguise fear or anxiety. As someone with ADHD I have often blurted out wildly inappropriate stuff for an entirely different reason: the dopamine hit. I don’t intend to shock or offend, but sometimes my brain just needs the hit.
