El Jefe and I are back from a little weekend jaunt that involved air travel. Along the way, we observed some Transportation Safety Administration practices that seem, well, just plain foolish, mean, insensitive or inhumane.
Herewith a summary:
1. We were directed to go through what I assume is an experiemental detector at one airport. It's not like a metal detector. Instead of walking through it, you stop while jets of air puff around you. Then you wait for about 30 seconds before the door opens and you can move through it. This takes a significantly longer time to clear than the ordinary metal detector so it will doubtless increase waiting time to get through security if everyone has to go through it. There was no explanation offered, so I don't know what advantage it presumably offers over your ordinary metal detector.
2. While waiting to board, we got into a conversation with an attractive woman toting some pecan pies from a Houston restaurant to take home for Thanksgiving. She was still irate over her treatment by the TSA that morning. It seems that she called the agency in advance and asked if (or how) she could carry a couple of quarts of bourbon sauce that goes with the pies onboard. She said she was assured that would be ok if they were in marked containers from the restaurant. At the security checkpoint, however, the TSA agents confiscated them and teased her saying, "we're sure going to enjoy this!" El Jefe suggested that she should have poured it out rather than give it up to them. But hindsight is always 20/20.
3. We saw an elderly woman, head and spine bent almost double with arthritis, struggling to maintain her balance on a cane while undergoing a body search before being allowed to resume her seat in the wheelchair. The poor thing couldn't raise her head at all. Come on, people, this is stu-pid and seems inhumane.
4. Our flight was delayed for takeoff at one airport for about half an hour after we boarded. Finally the flight attendants announced that the TSA notified them that a passenger who had already boarded the plane must return to security for additional procedures. What? His wife and daughter and luggage were already on the plane. Time passed. The flight attendants, obviously frustrated, told us that the TSA refused to send an official to the gate (which was at the end of the terminal) and insisted that the passenger come all the way back to them. More time passed. Then a young Asian woman (Filipino or Malayasian would be my guess) and her toddler daughter came down the aisle with their luggage. Tears were streaming silently down her face. The flight attendants apologized for the delay and we took off. El Jefe and I assumed that because of other passengers' connecting flights, the young family was either given the choice of continuing without dad or getting off the plane.
Really, y'all, our country can do better than this! Another job for the Mom of Congress.
Herewith a summary:
1. We were directed to go through what I assume is an experiemental detector at one airport. It's not like a metal detector. Instead of walking through it, you stop while jets of air puff around you. Then you wait for about 30 seconds before the door opens and you can move through it. This takes a significantly longer time to clear than the ordinary metal detector so it will doubtless increase waiting time to get through security if everyone has to go through it. There was no explanation offered, so I don't know what advantage it presumably offers over your ordinary metal detector.
2. While waiting to board, we got into a conversation with an attractive woman toting some pecan pies from a Houston restaurant to take home for Thanksgiving. She was still irate over her treatment by the TSA that morning. It seems that she called the agency in advance and asked if (or how) she could carry a couple of quarts of bourbon sauce that goes with the pies onboard. She said she was assured that would be ok if they were in marked containers from the restaurant. At the security checkpoint, however, the TSA agents confiscated them and teased her saying, "we're sure going to enjoy this!" El Jefe suggested that she should have poured it out rather than give it up to them. But hindsight is always 20/20.
3. We saw an elderly woman, head and spine bent almost double with arthritis, struggling to maintain her balance on a cane while undergoing a body search before being allowed to resume her seat in the wheelchair. The poor thing couldn't raise her head at all. Come on, people, this is stu-pid and seems inhumane.
4. Our flight was delayed for takeoff at one airport for about half an hour after we boarded. Finally the flight attendants announced that the TSA notified them that a passenger who had already boarded the plane must return to security for additional procedures. What? His wife and daughter and luggage were already on the plane. Time passed. The flight attendants, obviously frustrated, told us that the TSA refused to send an official to the gate (which was at the end of the terminal) and insisted that the passenger come all the way back to them. More time passed. Then a young Asian woman (Filipino or Malayasian would be my guess) and her toddler daughter came down the aisle with their luggage. Tears were streaming silently down her face. The flight attendants apologized for the delay and we took off. El Jefe and I assumed that because of other passengers' connecting flights, the young family was either given the choice of continuing without dad or getting off the plane.
Really, y'all, our country can do better than this! Another job for the Mom of Congress.
I don't know what's up with #1, but 2 through 4 are particularly disgusting.
ReplyDeleteI can't give you the technical lingo, but essentially the machine in #1 sniffs the various particles that are on your skin and clothing to detect components used in explosives or other potentially destructive compounds.
ReplyDeleteThe examples you give are what happens when we operate out of a politics of fear rather than real safety. I've started wearing this shirt (http://shirt.woot.com/Friends.aspx?k=3630) when I fly as my personal protest to what passes for security. America is more scared than ever, but too many reports and tests (many conducted by the TSA) have shown that we really aren't that much safer when we fly compared to pre-9/11.
Most of what we are asked to do is theatrical. For example, The War on Moisture. If the government really believed that our water bottles and other liquids were potentially weapons of destruction would they ask you to dispose of them in an ordinary garbage can?
Your cartoon answers the problem, except we should lose the fig leaf! Everyone boards naked with no carry on and robes are issued by flight attendants.
ReplyDeleteYup 2 through 4 are an all time low.
I'm ready to march in your campaign parade QG!
I could be persuaded to vote Republican.....
ReplyDeleteExcept voting Republican is what got us here in the first place. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so sad about the family. :(
ReplyDeleteShawn,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explanation of the mysterious screening device.
You and GG don't have worry--Mom of Congress is a non-partisan position. Because Democrats, Republicans, minor parties, and independents all need adult supervision!
I don't suppose it helps but things are getting just as crazy in the UK! # 2 & 4 are totally inhumane.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that there is a 2-fold problem here. First, people are willing to accept degrading treatment and still fly. What if passengers decided to boycott? Really, if profitability were at stake, this would change - e.g. be handled more respectfully.
ReplyDeleteSecond, people forget who exactly they work FOR. I have noticed in some airports an inherent rudeness toward passengers in general - as if it were our fault they had to treat us in this way. It's backwards.
I don't know that people will reach a point that they refuse to accept bad treatment - though in theory, we all elect the people who put these policies in place. And I really don't expect people ever willingly to give up the 'insolence of office' - when people have petty power, they are often even worse.
I don't think this is so much a climate of fear as it is an exercise in group insanity. I have not really noticed passengers being afraid of anything except the horrible way they are treated as matter of course by security in some airports.
And all of this overlooks the utter lack of security at many public places which could create tremendous vulnerabilities. (Malls, subway systems in many cities, etc.)
I really doubt that any of the measures that are taken at airports make anyone appreciably safer. There will always be ways around any system to those determined to cause harm. I still haven't figured out how they decide when to make you take your shoes off ... sometimes they do, others they don't. It seems to depend on the news that week.