I had the pleasure of going through one of her checkpoints the last time I traveled.
“Alright people, get your laptops out and lay them on top of the cases! You, sir! Get those shoes off right now or risk missing your plane! What does that sign back there say about carrying liquids onto the plane? Three ounces! Does this look like 3 ounces to you? Into the trash it goes! And what did I just say about the laptops?”
She owned the place.
Personally I’m pissed off at the woman and the people in the line that witnessed it. Why didn’t they demand to see this punks supervisor immediately? His ass should have been toast right then.
No she goes running off crying.
Why do I never hear about people winding up dead as a result of these pranks? Why are they never pulled on the wrong mentally unballanced individual who, in an “I’m not going to prison!” burst of panic steals a guard’s gun and starts shooting up the place?
My faith in the ultimate check on authority that those crazies represent continues to erode. Have we somehow managed to cow them all? Or have these dicks just been getting lucky?
Depends. What exactly do you think I’m going to disclaim, given a time limit? And what, given the posts of mine that you’ve read, do you think my position is on this issue? I just want to make sure you’re actually reading what I’m posting instead of just looking for someone to pick on.
Just because I’m not full of righteous outrage doesn’t mean I approve of the agent’s actions.
TSA agents go through two fifty hour weeks of training, after passing a fairly rigorous exam as part of the application process. They are regularly retrained, and constantly spot trained, after they are hired.
I think what really freaked the girl out was that the plane was going to Singapore, where she would have been hanged for drug trafficking.
Personally, I think the joke would have been funnier if the TSA agent said the substance was anthrax, and made a (fake) call to Homeland Security to apprehend a “terrorist.”
Put yourself in this woman’s shoes for a minute. She knows she didn’t put any bag of white powder in her luggage. Yet there it is, in the hands of a security screener with a very poor sense of humor. She does not have an option to fight back at the airport. She could literally be killed for doing so. Lest you accuse me of being hyperbolic, did you ever hear of this guy:
Now I know that is Canada and we don’t have a TSA but the fact remains that this man was tasered to death by FOUR police officers because he was upset and no one could understand him.
Let’s say this gal got really upset and decided to lay hands on the security officer. His co-workers aren’t about to think to themselves “Oh, he’s just messing around again! Isn’t it funny when these dumb broads overreact!” They would have seen a TSA official being assaulted and they would have responded as such.
This prank could have easily resulted in her death if she reacted the wrong way. The armed and armored soldiers standing post at airports are not for decoration. You expect us to take comfort in the fact that TSA agents don’t have as much power as we think they have? That the supervisor is supposed to somehow be on the side of someone who has been unjustly accused of drug smuggling but has absolutely no way of proving it? If this agent had kept his mouth shut about his prank do you really think she’d be free and clear after a few additional minutes of inconvenience?
Where did you hear that the plane was going to Singapore?
In this gentleman’s case make that two hours of training 50 times.
Still adds up to the same total time, but the total knowledge gained is somewhat less…
To train someone, you have to start with someone that is trainable. they have to bring a certain minimum amount of skills to the party.
If they don’t have the required minimum skills (knowledge, judgement, etc) you are wasting your time as in instructor.
to them you sound just like the adults in a Peanuts cartoon
Waaa-Wa-wah-waaa-wuh.
I found another article:
Would it have been a funny, harmless prank if he’d pulled a gun on her for 20 seconds?
Where I live that’s a felony known as “criminal threatening”, even if the gun is unloaded and thus the victim was not really going to get shot. (Much like the passenger in this case was not really going to get sent to prison.)
If that had happened to me I’d definitely have been arrested.
For punching that fuckwit in the face for thinking it was a funny joke. The blood gushing from his nose would have made it worth it. I know it sounds like I’m going Internet Tough Guy but I have a very small fuse when it comes to bullies.
I feel you should live by the same standards you apply to others. Airport security arrests passengers for making jokes about security at checkpoints, so the same level of response should apply to the security people.
Thanks. (that was pretty cheesy ‘new’ site in the first one.
The fact that the other witnesses were afraid of reprisals from the TSA should be a HUGE RED FLAG that something is desperately wrong.
I wonder if anything happened to the other TSA agents that must have witnessed this guys ‘prank’ and didn’t do anything about it.
Exactly.
Put yourself in the socks of a pretty 22-year-old woman. While I’m not suggesting that 22-year-old women do or should walk around scared all the time, they’re well aware that situations could turn ugly pretty quickly. They know that most people will treat them properly, but that if they run into a bad apple, they could be in trouble.
I think most law-abiding citizens follow a policy of being cooperative when confronted with law enforcement officials because we know that is generally the best way to avoid escalating any situation. And we mostly trust that even if officers screw up, they are just making a good-faith effort to do their jobs, and that there’s a good chance that misunderstandings can be cleared up later. And besides, if we get arrested, we know that we can call for a lawyer at any time.
But people know that TSA officers have lots of power to give you a really hard time, and they’re also considered loose cannons. In addition, most people don’t exactly know what their rights are and what the procedures are supposed to be.* People also know that saying or doing the wrong thing can get you into much bigger trouble than you would have expected. Zebra and DWMarch both make good points about this.
So I can imagine what the young woman was thinking. Probably that she was in deep shit and had no earthly clue what to do about it. She was probably terrified.
So during that 20 seconds, what went through her head? I imagine something like this (in no particular order): “Oh my God! That’s not mine! How can I prove that? I don’t know what to do. What’s going to happen? Am I going to get arrested? Am I going to be strip searched? How do I know that it will be a woman doing the strip search? If I object to any of this, I’ll get in more trouble! Can I lawyer up? I don’t think so. I’m so scared!”
Okay, so all of this could be true for anybody. So why is it particularly potent for a pretty 22-year-old woman? Compare her to Dinsdale, who describes himself above.
She knows that people will try to push her around and take advantage of her more than Dinsdale. She knows she’s more likely to receive unwanted attention from horny males than Dinsdale is. She knows that she’s more likely to be forced into a strip search by those horny males than Dinsdale. She knows that her objections won’t be taken as seriously as Dinsdale’s. Cases like this remind us that “white male privilege” can be very real.
ETA: I’m not suggesting that the punishment for the TSA guy should be more severe because she was a pretty 22-year-old woman. I’m addressing the people who said “So she was scared for 20 seconds. So what?”
I definitely accuse you of being hyperbolic. When was the last time you saw an armed soldier in an airport? I have yet to ever see one. And seriously, one guy getting tased to death translates, to you, as “could have easily resulted in her death”?
And had this guy persisted, yes, I do think she would have been cleared after a few more minutes. Because I know that the TSA isn’t full of jerkish cowboys shooting from the hip. I know there are rules and procedures that, when broken, get people fired. And while I believe that the TSA is full of good people, I believe stronger that people hate getting fired.
One threatens you with “I could kill you right now if I wanted to”, the other with “I could take you in for additional screening, if I wanted to, and if my boss agrees to go along with this, and the procedures break down, and you have a crappy lawyer, and you get an unlucky jury, then maybe you’d go to jail.” You could claim that a cop makes that threat every single time she pulls someone over.
Worlds of difference.
I don’t think anyone’s saying “So what? She shouldn’t care.” We’re saying “So what? We shouldn’t care.” Because the situation is over. The girl is healed. The guy is fired. There’s no lasting damage. There aren’t any adjustments in the system that need to be argued for. I care about this woman’s ‘plight’ as much as I care about every single kid in school that gets picked on once, and then the bully gets suspended. What’s left to say about it?
Like I’m gonna get ANY work done, now that you have me picturing myself …
Oh, that’s NOT what you meant? 
I remember an incident only a year or 2 after 9/11, that really set me on edge WRT so much security theater. My family was visiting DC, and were going to the Washington Monument. Security was RIDICULOUSLY strict (I won’t waste space on all the specifics unless asked.) When we were at the third checkpoint, after emptying our pockets, doffing our jackets, stepping through the magnetometer, and lining up to be summoned for frisking and wanding, I asked in my most polite and non-threatening manner possible something along the lines of, “Exactly what are you searching for that requires such an intensive search?”
Yeah, I knew the question had some risks, but the process really pissed me off - not only the folks administering it, but also at my fellow citizens who so sheepishly complied without question. But I was quite surprised at how quickly and intimidatingly the armed officer got in my face, asking forcefully if I was going to “cause trouble” and whether I “wanted to be arrested.” For asking a question, in front of my family, in one of my countries monuments to freedom.
Turns out they were using every other window at the top of the monument for surveillance. Now why couldn’t they have simply told us? Or limited themselves to measures reasonably likely to eliminate threats to their surveillance efforts? Or closed the damned monument, instead of training citizens to be treated like terrorists.
And I did not see a chain of supervisors nearby to whom I could appeal and expect reasonable recourse as this very large cop got to within a foot of my face.
Yeah - I guess I’m some kind of unAmerican troublemaker! :rolleyes:
I’m not reading anything into your position that you haven’t stated. The agent was an ass and well deserved being terminated. But that the resulting outrage is not warranted, at least not to the degree being displayed.
I believe that a measure of vocal public outrage is appropriate in this case. Let’s consider two possible responses to this incident.
First. Minimal public notice. The agent is quietly fired and a memo goes out to all managers to instruct their employees about what is not acceptable behavior.
Second. The current situation. People demanding action. All TSA personnel are on notice that they are under constant public scrutiny and actions have consequences. The memo still goes out, but in this case people pay attention to it. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that all employees get another mandatory training class.
The TSA is a business and will use a least cost solution for any given problem. Without having a PR debacle to counter, a memo that would be forgotten in a week definately comes in as the cheap solution. And IMHO, the agent would not have gotten fired based solely on the filed complaints. A letter of reprimand in his file maybe. Transferred to another position at the worst.
Not armed soldiers, but at O’Hare I have often seen Chicago cops dressed in their black riot gear - pants tucked into combat boots, holding what in my ignorance I will describe as automatic rifles. Was sort of surprised to see a couple the last time I was through there, a couple of months ago.
I guess I am unusual, but I do not feel more secure the more openly displayed automatic firearms I see.
Some of us have long considered much of the TSA security theater to be unnecessary and undesireable. If the situation has become such that a TSA trainer feels it appropriate to play jokes on travellers, then perhaps that is an indication that the entire system could be re-evaluated. Firing one wrongdoer who was caught does little to reform what I consider to be a horribly flawed process.