Archive for the 'TSA Ineptitude' Category

Reddit/Firearms.

I took 2 trips where I traveled with a firearm. 1 from Philadelphia to Wisconsin. The other from Philadelphia to Arizona. My trip to Wisconsin was smooth no issues. On the way back from Arizona. They ripped my bag apart, because they “didn’t” have a X-ray scanner. Then as I arrive in Philadelphia. I go to the area where they’re supposed to bring me my bag. My friend looks over at the baggage claim where the bags fall for.people to grab their luggage. There’s my bag clearly labeled that there’s a firearm in it just spinning around freely. The airport got mad at me because I was trying to report the incident and refused to talk to me on the premise. They even went as far as having me escorted out by the police when I wasn’t even raising my voice or causing a scene.

Reddit/Firearms.

I just flew with my concealed carry (packed correctly, ammo in a box, blablabla) in it’s own hard case and checked under my boarding pass. It should be noted that my wife and I shared a large check luggage for our clothes, checked in under HER boarding pass. That bag is what got searched, I know this because they placed a placard inside our bag saying they opened and searched it, this happened twice, flying to destination as well as flying home. If it only happened once I wouldn’t be nearly as creeped out, possibly just a random search, but both flights?? Feels more like I’ve just volunteered my name onto a special list for being treated like a problem. Even though my ccw means I am “background checked” literally everyday, I should be the least profiled type of person ever. Anyone share my experience? This was the first time flying with my firearm, so I’m wondering if this is the perverbial “new normal” I’ve heard so much about.

I don’t know anything about a “new normal.” But the old normal is bad enough, and I’ve experienced the stupidity for years now.

There are those who say to avoid flying by air. It’s true enough that this is good advice, but it cannot always be followed. Some of us still have to travel by air for business purposes.

I have flown out of Charlotte many times before, and almost always have a good experience there. They seem knowledgeable and quite accustomed to dealing with firearms.

The same can’t be said at many other places. Denver is a bad place. They take luggage to a separate room and x-ray the entire piece of luggage, as if that’s going to prove anything.

Phoenix is even worse. A woman once took my luggage to a room, with me watching, and unpacked the entire contents of the luggage, clothes and all, looking for God only knows what, completely ignoring the firearm while showing no interest in whether it was truly unloaded (as if that makes thing safer anyway), then threw everything back into the luggage unfolded, gave it back to me, and walked away.

It’s the zaniest thing I’ve ever witnessed. It varies by airport, and while the TSA may tell you that the rules are understood and followed everywhere, they are lying to you. They are not, and they are not.

None of this adds to anyone’s safety. It’s all Kabuki security theater for the purpose of providing a jobs program to people too stupid or lazy to find good work doing anything else.

The only real advice I can give is to ensure that your firearm is inside a locked container where someone’s hands or a tool could be used to pry it open. Also, I like the boxes that have a cable that will attach to a structural member of the luggage. If you ever drop it off where it may be located outside (Denver is like that), watch it until it goes behind the wall.

Beyond that, it’s a crapshoot.

Quite obviously, the real reason for all of this is to prevent theft by airport employees and contractors, some of whom are being paid by your tax dollars.

News from Louisiana.

A Metairie man who worked for a company contracted to maintain the baggage handling system at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport is accused looting items from travelers’ luggage on the job, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Karl Brown Jr., 20, was arrested and booked with three counts of possession of stolen property, two counts of theft and possession of marijuana, said Capt. Jason Rivarde, spokesman for the department.

“They stole cash, guns, electronics and other property from the baggage,” Rivarde said, noting that the woman will face similar charges once she is brought to Jefferson parish.

Brown and his alleged co-conspirator are accused of stealing from passengers’ bags between December 2019 and May 2020, according to Sheriff’s Office records. Searches of Brown’s Metairie apartment turned up property that had been reported missing by travelers, including:

– A $10,000 Rolex watch, a $1,300 Gucci purse, a $900 Prada purse and jewelry, all taken from an El Paso woman’s suitcase when she flew home from a trip to New Orleans on March 2.

– A 9mm pistol, ammunition and magazines and a knife, all inside a locked gun box, stolen from a man’s luggage during an April 27 trip from New Orleans to Tampa.

– An iPod, a tripod, two suits and other clothing stolen from a man’s suitcase during his March 12 trip from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

Investigators stressed that Brown and the other suspect were not baggage handlers, airline employees or Transportation Safety Administration agents. They worked for company that repairs the baggage system within the airport, Rivarde said.

Anyone who has access to the airport behind the wall can pull this off, at least until they’re caught.  This is a risk when we fly with firearms.

Remember when I said this?  “Let’s face it, folks.  Since we are dropping off the luggage and we are picking it up, the only necessity for the luggage to be locked up is what happens behind the wall.  The only good of locking up the gun is theft by airport employees.  We know it, the TSA knows it, and the airlines know it.  It’s the truth.  None of this has anything to do with security.  It’s all about airport theft by airline or airport employees.”

Yea.  I’m straight up with you.  And data most often proves me correct on these things.  Having said that, this isn’t much to be proud of.  Anyone with two brain cells already knew this.

From reddit/firearms.

I was called over the intercom ~2 minutes before people started boarding. I was asked to hand over my key so they could bring it to TSA as they needed to get into my bag. I was not allowed to accompany the key. I made it clear that I am not comfortable with their systematic way of committing felonies; however, this is common practice at Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport, please see this inquiry which I sent to TSA as both a Security Issue and a Request for Information on November 22nd (anticipating they may ask for the key again).*

A person from Southwest brought the key to TSA and ~10 minutes later another man from Southwest came back with both my spare locks and the key to my original locks. He asked me if I could unlock the spares so they could put them on the case as TSA had cut my other locks. He also stated, “They thought there was a gun in there.” To which I replied, “There are… that’s why I declared them.”

In my opinion the TSA at this airport is guilty of a felony. It is against the law to turn over access to a firearm to someone you don’t know and who is not under your control.

It also disagrees with the TSA’s own rules, where the only person who is allowed to have a key to the lock is the firearm owner.

As I’ve said before, the TSA is an irredeemable, unmitigated clown show.  The TSA can trot employees out all day long (and I see this especially before heavy holiday flying) telling people that it’s really simple and here are the rules, follow the rules and you’ll be okay, blah, blah, blah.

I’ve had the TSA ask me to open my case in the ticket line (Charlotte), take me back behind walls and try to pry my case open (Charlotte), take me back behind walls and ask me to open my luggage, after which she threw my clothing asunder, literally unpacking my luggage and stuffing the clothing back inside the luggage in wads, and never once even showing interest in the firearm case (Phoenix), take me to an X-ray machine and take pictures of my luggage, never once showing interest in opening the luggage and examining the firearm case (Denver), force me to drop my luggage on a conveyor that started at an outside, unsecured location (Denver), ask me to open my firearm case and swab my firearm with a patch (for God only knows what reason), etc.  I could go on.  This isn’t the entire laundry list.

I am tired to death of hearing that it’s the fault of the airline company since the rules vary with each company.  No … they … don’t.  Airlines don’t do firearm or case inspections.  That’s just a pathetic excuse.

Here’s a tip for the TSA.  As long as you act like uneducated goobers and ignore your own laws, you have no right to complain if passengers don’t take them seriously either.

Houston.com:

I’ve traveled through airports in Charlotte, Jackson Hole, Dallas, Phoenix and Albuquerque in the past year with firearms.  Virtually everything he said is wrong.

Or at least, if it isn’t wrong, it’s inconsistent with the way TSA dealt with me, and the TSA representatives with whom I dealt all did things differently.  No kidding, they are completely out of control and don’t know what they’re doing, not just at one or two airports, but nationally.

So let’s begin at the beginning.  First of all, lock your case while transporting your gun in the checked luggage, no matter what he said.  Declare your firearm at the ticket counter.  The airline will call for TSA.  From here things get confused, like Barney Fife is doing the work.

I’ve had TSA agents ask me to open my case (which is why I keep the keys to the lock handy).  I’ve had TSA agents look at the weapon, look at the form I completed asserting that the firearm was unloaded, ask me to lock my case, and then (almost always) throw the form down on top of the case, NOT inside it (the airlines insist that your form be visible inside the luggage but not inside the gun case, and they usually request that I simply place it on top of the gun case).  Luggage handlers and TSA agents need to be able to see that there is such a form, and if it’s inside the case, they can’t.  I have always had TSA and the airlines insist that ammunition be inside the luggage, but not inside the gun case.

I’ve also had TSA agents swipe the inside of the case (as if looking for residue of some sort, and there will always be residue inside my gun cases), and then ask me to lock my case.  Not once have I ever had an agent verify that my firearm was unloaded.  Not that I think that’s important anyway, and not that it’s important for transport (or carry through the airport, given the presence of a concealed handgun permit).

Once (Denver) the TSA sent my checked luggage through an X ray machine (for what reason I don’t know), and not do another single thing with it.  Once I had TSA stop me at the door to a room, never request that I open the case and never verify that I even signed the form testifying that the firearm was unloaded, and yet open the rest of the luggage and remove items (toiletries, clothing, etc.), look at them, fondle them, and then stuff all of the items back into the luggage in chaotic fashion (Phoenix).  The form I signed got stuffed in with the rest of the clothing.  She never looked at the firearm and didn’t seem to care that I had one.

I could go on about other experiences.  They don’t know what they’re doing.  There is no consistent procedure, or they aren’t trained on it, or both, or some other combination of failures.  It is the most random, confusing, nonsensical thing I’ve ever witnessed and would be amusing if it wasn’t so sad.  Commercial businesses would shut down if we operated that way.

I’m not trying to tell you what to do, but this counsel above is not really very wise, and I don’t do what he said.  Your experience may vary depending upon the airport, time of day, and whether the TSA agent had an argument with their spouse that morning or too much to drink the night before.

But I’m not really surprised by any of this.

CafeMom:

My DH suffers from OAB (Overactive Bladder) due to past problems with prostate cancer. (He is only 36 by the way and has been done with it for 3 years) We fly frequently and to be safe he usually wears a disposable brief (an adult diaper). He has been screened many times with the full body scanner and patted down many other times. On a few occasions, if he was being patted down, he has mentioned his “protection” and passed without further scrutiny.

Never an issue until last week. While waiting in the security line he had a strong bladder spasm and and a large release of urine into the diaper. After he emerged from the scanner the TSA officer (a female) asked if he was carrying liquids in his clothing. He explained his condition and what had happened. In the past, it was embarrassing enough for him to just tell a TSA employee that I was wearing an adult incontinence garment but now he was also announcing that he had wet himself.) She called over to another (male) officer (the boss, I guess) and  explained the situation to him out loud in front of everyone else still going through the line. The problem was he did not understand what an “incontinence product” was when she told him.

You’re not surprised, are you?  I’ve told you so before.  The TSA is full of ignorant goobers and child molesters.  It’s a federal jobs program for idiots who cannot find productive work.  It is nothing more than Kabuki theater to make the morons among us feel safe.

Washington Times:

Transportation Security Administration inspectors forced a wounded Marine who lost both of his legs in an IED blast and who was in a wheelchair to remove his prosthetic legs at one point, and at another point to stand painfully on his legs while his wheelchair was examined, according to a complaint a congressman has registered with the TSA.

Rep. Duncan Hunter said in his letter Monday that the Marine, who is still on active duty and showed TSA agents his military identification, was still forced to undergo that scrutiny.

“A TSA office asked the Marine to stand and walk to an alternate area, despite the fact that he physically could not stand or walk on his own. With numerous TSA officers sitting and unwilling to assist, an officer then made him remove his legs, then put them back on, only to advance to a secondary screening location where he was asked again to stand, with extraordinary difficult, while his wheelchair was examined for explosives,” Mr. Hunter said.

He also said TSA officers initially directed the Marine to the wrong line, then made him move lines but made no effort to help him. The incident occurred at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport last week, as a group of Marines was returning to San Diego.

Mr. Hunter included two photos of the inspection in his letter that appear to show a TSA agent patting down the Marine’s arm and examining the prosthetic leg.

The congressman asked TSA to detail its procedures to inspecting wounded U.S. troops at airports, and to consider whether agents should show “situational awareness.”

Situational awareness?  Mr. Hunter’s sentiments are well placed and appropriate, but here is the point being missed in all of this.  The TSA is now and always has been a jobs program for morons who couldn’t find work doing anything else.  On top of that, the conceptual framework upon which the organization and its procedures were built doesn’t lend itself to situational awareness.  It is a statist, totalitarian concept from the outset, crafted to give morons a paycheck and something to do.

I’m sorry for the Marine, but who’s stupid enough to have expected anything else from all of this bureaucratic apoplexia?

More heartwarming stories from the TSA:

A Defense Department employee was stopped at Newark Airport yesterday after inspectors found inert land mines in her luggage.

Roxan Hatcher, 32, of Union Township, was headed for an early-morning flight to San Francisco with two unarmed Claymore mines she planned to use in a Special Forces training exercise, law-enforcement sources said.

Hatcher, a mechanical engineer at the Army’s Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County, told cops that a co-worker headed for the same destination had an inert mine in her checked baggage that TSA inspectors did not detect.

Now, it is utterly irrelevant for our consideration that the mines, which were claymores, were “inert.”  The point is that the chosen method for detection missed mines just like it earlier.

As I have pointed out before, if we really cared about security, we would install explosive trace detection portals, just like those in use at the access portals to nuclear power plants in the U.S. (explosives trace materials are sniffed with machines, rather than people being watched with cameras and groped with hands)  This, combined with abolishing the TSA and sending the work to private contractors, would actually benefit security and save money to boot.

But we don’t want that.  We would rather have ignorant goobers gawk at cute figures and have random violations of our fourth amendment rights.  And speaking of ignorant goobers violating our rights, Jeffrey Goldberg gives us this distasteful example of airport security from personal experience.

She entered the machine and struck the humiliating pose one is forced to strike — hands up, as in an armed robbery — and then walked out, when she was asked by a TSA agent, in a voice loud enough for several people to hear, “Are you wearing a sanitary napkin?”

Remember, she’s 79.

My mother-in-law answered, “No. Why do you ask?”
 
The TSA agent responded: “Well, are you wearing anything else down there?”

Yes, “down there.”

She said no, at which point, the friend with whom she was traveling, also a not-young volunteer library advocate, came over and asked if there was a problem.

The TSA agent said, again, in full voice, “There’s an anomaly in the crotch area.”

This is, of course, a painful post for me to write. Like most normal American men, I don’t want to see the words “my mother-in-law” and “crotch area” in the same paragraph. But let me go on anyway.

My mother-in-law said, “As far as I know I don’t have any anomalies in the crotch area.”

The TSA agent told her she would have to go through the scanner again. She demurred, saying she didn’t like the machine very much. The agent told her she could opt for a pat-down. My mother-in-law refused to be frisked, figuring, correctly, that “they were going to pat-down my crotch area. I mean, there wasn’t an anomaly in the chest area.”

So she went through the scanner again. Of course, this time — one minute later — the TSA found no “anomalies,” and she was free to go.

The experience left her flummoxed, however. “What did they think I was, a lady underpants bomber?”

I asked her if she felt  embarrassed by the manner in which the TSA treated her.

“I’m not embarrassed,” she said. “I just think they’re stupid and their machinery is defective and they should learn to whisper when they’re talking about my crotch, or anyone’s crotch.” 

There you have it.  That’s what happens with you cloak a federal jobs program in national security garb.  And statists far and wide are willing to give up their rights and the rights of others under the guise of being safer than we were before.

Prior: More TSA Follies, TSA Category. TSA Ineptitude Category

First comes this:

The Transportation Security Administration is once again the subject of national scrutiny, this time after aggressively screening a 7-year-old female passenger with cerebral palsy which caused her family to miss their flight.

The girl, identified as Dina Frank in a report by The Daily, was waiting with her family on Monday to board a flight departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York headed to Florida.

Since Dina walks with the aid of leg braces and crutches, she cannot pass through airport metal detectors, and must instead submit to a pat-down by TSA agents.

Dina, who is also reportedly developmentally disabled, is usually frightened by the procedure. Her family reportedly requests that agents on hand take the time to introduce themselves to her.

However, the agents on duty at the time began to handle her aggressively instead.

Then this:

A Transportation Security Administration baggage inspector at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport is facing two to 10 years in prison for stealing Apple iPads from luggage over eight months, according to reports.

Clayton Keith Dovel, 36, of Bedford, Tex., was arrested Feb. 1 and indicted by the Tarrant County grand jury last week on charges of theft by a public servant of items valued up to $20,000, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported. Dovel is free on $5,000 bail and has been suspended indefinitely by the TSA.

Speaking of illegalities, there’s this:

A TSA agent arrested, accused of being involved in a massive oxycodone trafficking operation between Connecticut, New York and Florida, pleaded guilty on Thursday in court in New Haven.

Twenty people were arrested, including three Transportation Security Administration officers based at airports in Florida and New York, a Westchester County police officer and a Florida State Trooper, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice.said.

Brigitte Jones, 48, a TSA officer at Westchester County Airport, pleaded guilty on Thursday in court in New Haven. She is the third TSA agent to plead guilty to taking cash to help move the Oxycodone through airport security without being detected.

There’s also this:

The Transportation Security Administration is once again under fire after news leaked of how the agency threatened to close an entire airport because a 4-year-old girl hugged her grandmother.

The girl’s mother, Michelle Brademeyer, posted a harrowing account of the incident on her Facebook page, saying officers implied a gun was passed during the brief embrace.

Brademeyer’s daughter, Isabella, ran over to her grandma after the older woman had triggered alarms as she went through security at Wichita Airport in Kansas, she wrote. The family was on its way home to Montana after a family wedding.

Michelle Brademeyer said she and her two daughters passed through the screening with no incident, but her mother set off the alarm and was asked to take a seat and wait to be patted down.

It was then that the little girl ran over to her grandmother to give her a hug, said Brademeyer. “They made very brief contact, no longer than a few seconds. The Transportation Security Officers [TSO] who were present responded to this very simple action in the worst way imaginable,” she wrote.

“First, a TSO began yelling at my child, and demanded she too must sit down and await a full body pat-down. I was prevented from coming any closer, explaining the situation to her, or consoling her in any way. My daughter, who was dressed in tight leggings, a short sleeve shirt and mary jane shoes, had no pockets, no jacket and nothing in her hands. The TSO refused to let my daughter pass through the scanners once more, to see if she too would set off the alarm.

“It was implied, several times, that my Mother, in their brief two-second embrace, had passed a handgun to my daughter,” wrote Brademeyer.

And now from the illegal to the absurd:

“She should switch to decaf.”

That’s from the New York Post, which reports a Transportation Security Administration screener was arrested at New York JFK for allegedly “hurling a cup of hot coffee at an American Airlines pilot who told her and some colleagues to tone down a profanity- laced conversation in a terminal … .”

The Post cited unnamed sources in reporting the incident, which is said to have occurred March 28. The newspaper apparently first learned of it this week.

The spat apparently began when 54-year-old American Airlines pilot Steven Trivett was leaving JFK’s Terminal 8 and overheard the screeners’ conversation.

The Post’s sources say Trivett admonished the screeners, suggesting they behave more professionally while in uniform. Trivett also told the screeners he thought they should “not use profanity or the n-word” while on the job, one of the Post’s sources said.

That’s when things escalated, according to the Post. One screener allegedly cursed at the pilot and told him to “mind his own business.” When the pilot tried to grab at the ID badge of 30-year-old TSA officer Lateisha El, she pushed him and threw a full cup of hot coffee on him, according to the Post’s unnamed sources.

And finally this:

The lines and pointless interference at Logan Airport were no worse than usual yesterday, but one TSA employee did manage to add a new wrinkle of misery to the experience. As we all stood in line like obedient sheep, he recited the usual litany about removing belts, shoes, liquids, emptying pockets, etc. At the same time, he also kept up a loud, non-stop monologue of unfunny, mildly sexist, and occasionally offensive jokes, to an entirely captive audience of travelers. No doubt he thought he was providing an amusing diversion, but he didn’t seem to notice that no one was laughing. And given the ever-present threat of a strip-search, nobody was going to tell this loudmouth in a uniform to just zip it. So in addition to the degrading inconvenience of the security checkpoints themselves, they’ve now added noise pollution.

As I have pointed out before, if we really cared about security, we would install explosive trace detection portals, just like those in use at the access portals to nuclear power plants in the U.S.  This, combined with abolishing the TSA and sending the work to private contractors, would actually benefit security and save money to boot.

But we don’t want that.  We would rather have ignorant goobers gawk at cute figures and have random violations of our fourth amendment rights.  What a strange world.

The TSA is a federal jobs program for incompetent people.  Nothing more.

From Forbes:

Believe it or not, only 7 years ago, TSOs went by a more deserving title, “airport security screeners.” At the time, their title and on the job appearance consisted of a white shirt and black pants. This was fitting because airport security screening is exactly what’s required of the position. However, this is no longer the case.

In the dead of night, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) administratively reclassified airport security screeners as Transportation Security Officers. The TSA then moved to administratively upgrade TSOs uniforms to resemble those of a federal law enforcement officer. They further completed the makeover with metal law enforcement badges. Not surprisingly, government bureaucrats at the TSA left out one crucial component during the artificial makeover – actual federal law enforcement training as is required of Federal Air Marshalls.

While TSOs may have the appearance of a federal law enforcement officer they have neither the authority nor the power. If a passenger brings a loaded gun or an explosive device into an airport screening area there is nothing a TSO can do until the local police step in to save the day.

If TSOs are truly our nation’s last line of defense in stopping an act of terrorism, then the TSA should immediately end the practice of placing hiring notices for available TSO positions on pizza boxes and at discount gas stations as theyhave done in our nation’s capital. Surely, this is not where our federal government is going to find our brightest and sharpest Americans committed to keeping our traveling public safe. I would contend that we can surely strive for a higher standard and may want to look first to our veterans returning home from the battlefield.

Interestingly enough, as TSA officials like to routinely point out, their agency’s acronym stands for Transportation Security Administration, not the Airport Security Administration. This fact has extended the TSA’s reach has far beyond the confines of our nation’s airports. Many of my constituents discovered this first hand this past fall as those familiar blue uniforms and badges appeared on Tennessee highways. In October Tennessee became the first state to conduct a statewide Department of Homeland Security Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) team operation which randomly inspected Tennessee truck drivers and cars.

VIPR teams which count TSOs among their ranks, conduct searches and screenings at train stations, subways, ferry terminals and every other mass transit location around the country. In fact, as the Los Angeles Times has detailed, VIPR teams conducted 9,300 unannounced checkpoints and other search operations in the last year alone. The very thought of federal employees with zero law enforcement training roaming across our nation’s transportation infrastructure with the hope of randomly thwarting a domestic terrorist attack makes about as much sense as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s Environmental Justice tour.

I have seen this.  Its scary.  No, not the look of the “officers” or the demeanor they exude, but the belief that these people are law enforcement officers.  I saw a gaggle of them a few months ago walking the light rail in Charlotte, N.C.  They were sporting body armor, drop holsters, Tru-spec pants and other tactical gear, and ‘TSA’ in huge letters across their chests.  Swaggering, they were.

It occurred to me that if they had wished to seek out or prevent some perpetrator from harming the transit system or those who frequent the same, then hiding their identity would be the best bet (no gear, IWB holsters).  The existence of TSA screeners swaggering down the sidewalk for the light rail wouldn’t have prevented me from doing harm to the system if I had chosen to do so.  It wouldn’t be hard.  Dress in a suit, carry a gym bag full of C4, slide it under a seat when you exit, and then watch the explosion from a safe distance.  It sounds so cold, and yet it would be this easy to pull off.  And again, the existence of TSA screeners walking down the rail line wouldn’t have made a bit of difference in this scenario.  They need to think outside the box to ensure safety.  Strutting around in this garb won’t cut it.

My son spent a combat tour in Fallujah, Iraq, and I asked him about all of this tactical gear.  He reported to me something like the following:

The body armor is heavy (of course, he wore the SAPI plates too), and it makes you sweat, it constrains your breathing, it constrains your movements and motions, and the other gear is equally terrible.  I carried a SAW as you know, and so I routinely had enough stuff on my vest, including SAW drums.  I would do everything I could to minimize my PPEs and move things about to keep them from getting in my way.  When your CO dictates your PPEs there was only so much you could do.  As a SAW gunner I carried a handgun, and there wasn’t any place left for it on my vest.  I had to wear a drop holster.  It got in my way.  Go around a couch when clearing a room, it got caught.  Go through a doorway, it got caught on the doorjamb.  It flopped around endlessly like some loose appendage to your body that had been damaged and was barely hanging on.  Drop pouches are the same way, except worse.  If you ran in all that stuff, it banged around and beat you up without mercy.

No one in their right mind would voluntarily wear that crap.  There is nothing going on in Charlotte, or any other major American city for that matter, that requires a peace officer to wear that stuff.  If you see someone wearing it, whether TSA or Charlotte Police, they want to look tacti-cool.  There is no other reason.

Yea, and I won’t have one ounce of respect for a TSA luggage screener stopping me on the road wanting to know what’s in my car or where I am going.  If they want to legitimize their role, then get training, stop molesting children and old women, stop looking at cute figures in the body scanners, and perform their jobs like everyone else has to in America.  Or better yet, install explosive trace detection portals in airports, negating the need for groping children and old women, just like we have in nuclear power plants around the country.  Then, contract airport security out to private contractors.

Either way, simply declaring yourselves to have legitimacy doesn’t change the fact that you’re a laughingstock and nuisance.  Legitimacy comes with service and skills, not oafishness and bullying.

Some TSA employess are using body scanners to get their game on.

Female passengers say they are being targeted by TSA screeners for sexual harassment, with one Texas woman being forced to pass through a naked body scanner three times so chuckling male TSA workers in a back room could get a good look at her “cute” figure.

The incident occurred at DFW International Airport earlier this month. Wife and mother Ellen Terrell was asked by a female TSA screener “Do you play tennis?” When Terrell asked why, the screener responded, “You just have such a cute figure.”

Terrell was then told to go through the naked body scanner not once but a second time. She then heard the TSA screener talking into her microphone saying, “Come on guys, alright, alright, one more time.”

After Terrell was forced to undergo a third blast of radiation from the body scanner, the male TSA agents in the back room who were obviously enjoying the show tried to send her through yet again to see more images of her naked body.

“Guys, it is not blurry, I’m letting her go. Come on out,” the female TSA screener said, finally ending the ordeal.

“I feel like I was totally exposed,” Terrell told CBS 11. “They wanted a nice good look.”

So in addition to feeling up old women and groping the genitals of young children, some TSA employess use the body scanners to get their daily porn fix.  It is this way because the TSA is a jobs program, and nothing more – oftentimes for ignorant, incompetent goobers who cannot get a job any other way.

As I have pointed out before, if we really cared about security, we would install explosive trace detection portals, just like those in use at the access portals to nuclear power plants in the U.S.  This, combined with abolishing the TSA and sending the work to private contractors, would actually benefit security and save money to boot.

But we don’t want that.  We would rather have ignorant goobers gawk at cute figures and have random violations of our fourth amendment rights.  What a strange world.

Prior: Category TSA Ineptitude