"security theater" at the airports and why I hate to fly

[goddess40]

The security farce is one of the two main reasons I HATE to fly. The other is that the airlines treat their customers like shit. They postponed a flight for hours because they didn't have a flight crew so they so graciously gave us worthless vouchers.

The Things He Carried by by Jeffrey Goldberg
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/airport-security

This is an excerpt from page 2
In Minneapolis, I littered my carry-on with many of my prohibited items, and also an Osama bin Laden, Hero of Islam T-shirt, which often gets a rise out of people who see it. This day, however, would feature a different sort of experiment, designed to prove not only that the TSA often cannot find anything on you or in your carry-on, but that it has no actual idea who you are, despite the government’s effort to build a comprehensive “no-fly” list. A no-fly list would be a good idea if it worked; Bruce Schnei­er’s homemade boarding passes were about to prove that it doesn’t. Schnei­er is the TSA’s most relentless, and effective, critic; the TSA director, Kip Hawley, told me he respects Schnei­er’s opinions, though Schnei­er quite clearly makes his life miserable.

“The whole system is designed to catch stupid terrorists,” Schnei­er told me. A smart terrorist, he says, won’t try to bring a knife aboard a plane, as I had been doing; he’ll make his own, in the airplane bathroom. Schnei­er told me the recipe: “Get some steel epoxy glue at a hardware store. It comes in two tubes, one with steel dust and then a hardener. You make the mold by folding a piece of cardboard in two, and then you mix the two tubes together. You can use a metal spoon for the handle. It hardens in 15 minutes.”

[Loge23]

1. TSA - Toiletry Security Administration

(apologies to a fellow DU'er that coined this after my rant about airport security some time ago)
The entire show is a farce of the most idiotic kind.
Here we are, lined up - shoeless on a disgusting floor - our pocket possessions and belts humbly presented in a tray for the inspection by "trained professionals".
Then there's the occasional, but seemingly regularly scheduled, wanding and pat-down of some unsuspecting poor schlump in full view of the rest of us - as if to serve as some kind of warning about us mouthing off about being treated like shit.
"Don't let the terrorists win!" - came the cries after 9/11. "Go about your business"!

Because the Bush administration failed to protect the U.S. from an attack that we had sufficient knowledge to prevent - we live like prisoners now.

[NeedleCast]

2. Airport Security is a Blanket for Stupid People

For the last three years I flew somewhere between 20 and 30 times a year. Going through security on a regular basis, it becomes evident pretty quickly that those security checkpoints aren't anything more than a window dressing. Short of catching the glarigly stupid, I doubt TSA could find a terrorist in a broom closet with a flashlight, map and native guide to assist them.

I was never really bothered by it, just a minor speed bump in getting between DC and wherever the heck I was going, but anyone who thinks TSA is making things more secure is fooling themselves.

And I have NO doubt that their people steal things out of luggage. Not things you'd miss usually, like something valuable, but shirts, jeans and other stuff you might not notice missing. As a veteran business traveler I'm pretty good about not leaving things in hotel rooms, but over the last three years I've had no less than a dozen shirts go missing.

Its kinda funny looking back over old pictures and seeing all the shirts I don't have anymore.

[goddess40]

4. my migraine medication went missing

at the time they were $23/pill (last month they went to $29/pill)and they come in this stupid cardboard dispenser. I unfortunately, didn't notice at the time they were taken - trying to get my shoes and other stuff off the conveyor belt and watch my mother's purse which they left on the belt as they took her off to pat search her. My mother ALWAYS gets pulled out to be patted down because of her surgeries, metal in her back and hip, she sets off the alarms.
My mother complained that her purse was sitting on the belt unattended and the searcher said "don't worry someone will get it" I did pick it up no one questioned me and my mother hadn't asked me to do it, if I had gotten pulled out to be search anyone could have taken it and been long gone with her stuff.

A friend had her purse with all her ID and money taken out of her hotel room in Vegas (while she was sleeping)she did get a note from the Vegas PD explaining why she had no ID. At the airport they made her strip to her underwear and then pat searched her. Had I done that when I was a correctional officer I would have been arrested. (the hotel acknowledged that the theft would have had to been done with someone with a pass card but that was as far as they would go - the room wasn't dead bolted because her roommates were still out partying)

[NV Whino]

3. Excellent article

Airport security is a joke. All it is doing is speeding up the demise of air travel.

[LeftCoast]

5. I can't agree more.

I absolutely hate to fly because of all the stupid security hoops. It would be different if they actually worked, but instead, it's a hellishly expensive, time-consuming boondoggle.

[wryter2000]

6. You've hit on the two exact reasons I refuse to fly

In September, I took Amtrak from Oakland to Las Vegas. 6 hours on the train and 5.5 hours on the bus. No way in hell am I giving the airlines any of my money or the idiotic "national security" types my toiletries.

[TahitiNut]

7. Security kabuki and travel masochism ... no thanks.

Slap a uniform (either TSA or airline) on an imbecile and you've got an autocrat acting out their latent sadism. Air travel is to be avoided at all costs, imho.

[LibertyLover]

8. I hate flying because of TSA (terminally silly assh#les)

Three years ago I was flying down to Florida with my then 3 year old daughter to attend a funeral. At the airport I got tagged for the random more inclusive search. So I humped my stuff over to the "secure" area. They told me to go through the metal screener. I did, and my daughter followed. The screener got pissed because he hadn't told her to do it yet. They ran my purse and carry-on through the x-ray and grabbed her stuffed animal out of her hand to run it through. She started to cry and the TSA screener glared at her. I glared at him. Then I was told to face the wall and put my hands on it for a pat down. Now this means I can't hold my daughter's hand. She happily took the opportunity to start walking away. None of the 4 or 5 TSA people hanging around the area did one thing to prevent her from leaving the area and walking into the terminal. I called her to come back, which she did. I kept turning my head to keep her in my sight. The stupid woman doing the pat down kept growling at me to keep my head facing the wall. My response was no way, I'm keeping my child in sight. It was not pleasant.

[Sparkly]

9. I'm flying today. Ugh.

:(