More TSA Excesses
They’re nicely summarized in this article.
We’d already heard about the woman with nipple piercings, but now we can add a teenage cancer survivor with a prosthestic leg, a wheel-chair bound senior citizen, and a woman standing up for her rights.
Here’s a nice statistic:
A spokesman said that out of 2 billion passengers screened nationwide since 9-11, there have been only 110,000 abuse complaints.
I’m sure that the Gestapo TSA is proud of this one. After all, as a percentage, it’s much less than one percent. But let’s look at it from a slightly different perspective. That’s the same number as the entire population of Abilene, TX filing official complaints about the treatment they’re receiving at security checkpoints. How many more don’t file complaints?
My recommendation is to make life as difficult as possible for those who interdict our right of free movement guard our nation’s airports. If you have a laptop in the bag, leave it in. Make them ask you to take your shoes off. Respond lethargically to directions. Give them your driver’s license bottom side up. Make sure that your boarding pass is folded in half so that they have to unfold it. If they wand you, give them a lecture about Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, or Patrick Henry in a polite but firm voice. Everytime you’re given directions, look at them like you don’t know what they’re talking about. Don’t be hostile, just be as unyielding and as slow as possible. Ask them if they’re excited about using the new X-ray machine, then elbow them and say: “I bet you’ll get to see lots of boobies!”
It’s about planting seeds. Make people around you see them as unreasonable as possible while going about your business in a polite manner. Most people will sigh at you, some will grumble under their breath, but those with subtlety and intelligence will be heartened by your little attempts at civil disobedience. My Thomas Paine/Patrick Henry/Thomas Jefferson lecture usually gets a few favorable comments from fellow travelers once we’re through the line. In Boston Logan airport it actually got some scattered applause. (It turns out my shampoo was 3.8 ounces and not 3.4 ournces. That made me a prime suspect for causing undue harm to our transportation infrastructure. Who knew?) Eventually, everyone will have enough.
Pete on July 23rd 2008 in Random Ramblings
durmiun/jason responded on 23 Jul 2008 at 6:46 pm #
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/5/10/
Penny Arcades reason on why you should be careful when dealing with airport security
Damian responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 7:55 am #
I’m all for relaxing the tight security in our country these days and going back to a wild west approach while the pansies who put these restrictions in effect cower in fear in a corner, BUT you have to remember that people working for the TSA are just that. People.
Joe with the wand could care less that you want to make a difference. In fact, you’re just pissing him off while he goes through his day trying to make enough scratch to buy a steak for dinner. Pissing him off enough so that he starts to pass the buck and make life hell for other passengers by delaying them for have .4oz too much in a shampoo bottle.
If you really want to change things (and you should), complain to the people that make the decisions and the money. Too often in this country the people in positions that make those stupid decisions shield themselves behind closed doors, and secretaries that sift calls. They don’t have to live with the effects of the decisions they make. And that my dear friends, is why our country is so backwards these days.
Vince responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 9:34 am #
Here’s my TSA story. A friend of mine and I were flying out of Minneapolis to Austin, TX to go to a music convention. All his ID had been stolen, and getting it replaced was taking a long time, so he got an ID from work and the paperwork saying his official IDs had been stolen and were being replaced. Needless to say, this got him pulled aside at the airport. But not for long.
After a quick wanding, the gentleman doing the extra checking asked him if he had a cigarette. He did, and gave the TSA guy one. That ended the extra checking.
I couldn’t believe it. Total time out of the line - maybe two minutes.
GK responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 11:27 am #
So let me get this straight.. the TSA guy pulls your buddy out of the line, wands him, and asks to bum a cig?
Vince responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 3:17 pm #
That’s correct.
Foxbat responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 4:13 pm #
Cigarettes, the currency of prisons and airport security around the nation…
Foxbat responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 4:20 pm #
Damian, I don’t think Pete’s all that interested in convincing the TSA workers of the folly of their impingement of our freedoms. I think he’s trying to get others that suffer with him in line to rise up and overthrow the men and women with bat-like wands, tasers, and the occasional bang-bang.
Good luck Pete! I don’t travel much, but I guess if I do, I better bring some Marlboroughs or Kools with me…
In the meantime, I’ll read the instructions given by the TSA (and maybe even follow them…) and then be on my way.
Pete responded on 24 Jul 2008 at 9:41 pm #
Honestly, making that time as difficult as possible for everyone involved does two things:
1. It convinces everyone that YOU are a dumbass.
2. Everyone begins to think you wouldn’t have the opportunity to be a dumbass if the TSA wasn’t stuffed full of dumbassery at the highest levels.
As for the intrepid TSA agent looking for the tell-tale bulge of a pack of cigarettes, then using the “extra screening” as a means to bum his nicotine fix, I suppose it’s better than folding a twenty or a hundred dollar bill into your boarding pass.
And unfortunately, I will be flying three times in the next two months. Once on business, once to Dragoncon, and once to Viable Paradise.