Remember, resources for dealing with reported suspicions aren’t unlimited. The more reports of irrational or ill-informed suspicions the DHS has to wade through, the less time and resources they have for coping with reports of rational and reasonable suspicions.
A paranoid and ignorant public is not more conducive to safety than a reasonable and well-informed public.
And I repeat, for the fourth time: do you agree that if the reporting passenger in question reported her fellow passenger merely for writing mathematical equations, then she made a stupid mistake?
I intend to wait until I hear the woman’s side of this incident BEFORE deciding if she’s a moron, or afraid, or stupid, or not sober enough, or related to you.
In the mean time, perhaps you could explain to the class exactly what terrorists are supposed to do while they are waiting for their bomb to explode. Are they forbidden from doing mathematical equations? What page of the terrorist handbook lists the forbidden acts of waiting terrorists?
Which proves the system works. Any system that relies on an untrained public is going to have problems. Terrorist know that there are passengers who WILL say something if they see something. Terrorist also know that there are people who are trying their damnedest to shame passengers into staying silent.
Are you the economist? Which economist are YOU referring to?
But I didn’t ask anything about those characteristics of the woman as a person. What I asked was whether you would agree that that particular action (reporting so-called “suspicious activity” that consisted merely of doing math equations) would be a stupid mistake.
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In the mean time, perhaps you could explain to the class exactly what terrorists are supposed to do while they are waiting for their bomb to explode. Are they forbidden from doing mathematical equations?
[/QUOTE]
Wait, so you’re saying that you consider it reasonable to report as suspicious any activity that might conceivably be engaged in by a terrorist while taking a break from their actual terrorist machinations?? :dubious:
Terrorists probably enjoy having a cup of coffee during their downtime, too. Please tell me that you would consider it a stupid mistake to report a fellow passenger to security services merely for having a cup of coffee.
Because otherwise, ISTM that the single most effective individual action we could take to promote travel security would be to put you on the No-Fly list immediately. I mean, suggesting that a random passenger could reasonably be reported as suspicious merely for working on some math or having a cup of coffee or similar trivial actions is some weapons-grade stupid.
I notice you conveniently ignored my direct question to you in that post. But, hey, that’s your forte, now, isn’t it, conveniently ignoring things?
At any rate, there is no “her side of the story” that could possibly be different than the narrative that has appeared unless she lies about the event. There is no reason at all for the airline or the government authorities involved to lie about what happened. You are still doing a rather lame job of JAQing off.
Why can’t you get it through your own thick head that being afraid of mathematical notes is moronic?
I think I shall continue to use Amtrak. Yes, it takes a lot longer, and there always seem to be troublesome delays, but at least if the train has door hinges as fucked up as this one, no one dies.
