Has Airport Security Become Totally Insane?

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   thaivalentineposted 12 years ago

   When I read about an elderly cancer patient in a wheel chair having to remove her diaper because of security procedures at US airports, I think the requirement to follow procedure and not common sense has truly gotten out of hand.  It just seems TSA is void of any logic or intelligence, am I wrong?  Also, please share shocking airport experiences.

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      Ms Deeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think TSA provides us and the government an illusion of security. Other layers of security are MUCH more effective that what TSA does, in my humble opinion. It is such a waste of time and resources to go after grandma and little six year olds!

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      qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thai:
      
      When I decide to fly a commercial jet to somewhere, I want to know I'm gonna get there safe and sound.
      
      If they want to pat me down, take an x-ray shot of my entire body, want me  to bend over, spread 'em and take a picture of 'em with my "brownie," so be it as long as it's done to everyone.
      
      I just want to arrive alive.
      
      I'll only fly tho, if the "stick" is in my hand.
      
      Qwark

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   wildernessposted 12 years ago

   Is it insane to think that Al Quaida would fake a cancer treatment and put a bomb in a diaper? 
   
   An article I skimmed in our local paper (threw the paper away) indicated that they are seriously considering and working on putting them inside the body - if they will do that certainly a diaper isn't out of the question.
   
   And that would certainly include the diaper of a small child or infant - there isn't much these madmen won't do.

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   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   I have heard mixed experiences of Airport security. Good and bad. I haven't been on a plane in years, many many years. So, I don't have first hand knowledge.

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   tony0724posted 12 years ago

   , I think the requirement to follow procedure and not common sense has truly gotten out of hand.
   
   The insanity that you speak of is the result of political correctness gone crazy. The reason that children and Grandma now get groped and molested by Government agents at your local airport is so that they can give the illusion that they are not discriminating and profiling. I mean obviously little 6 year old Johnny from Broken Arrow Oklahoma fits the profile of your basic suicide bomber right ? Or for that matter a baby who seriously and I am not making this up got patted down a few weeks back ! You are right common sense has been replaced by the illusion that everybody is a potential suicide bomber now, and we will not discriminate to find them. I wrote a hub about that like 9 months ago. We used to go on the concept of innocent until proven guilty in this country. But now we are all guilty until proven innocent by the TSA and the IRS in this country.
   
   This is the result of failed political correctness here !
   
   http://youtu.be/iGGfRBcfr1g

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      Doug Hughesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Tony, there have been two failed attempts on commercial airplanes in the air over the US or bound for the US since 9-11.  In both cases, the bomber WAS able to smuggle explosives on the plane, but wasn't able to detonate.
      
      This isn't speculation. It's fact. There are still people who will kill themselves to make a political statement by killing Americans in a spectacular way. I fly - not often, but occasionally. I know I will never carry a bomb on board, but I am willing to undergo a search, if everyone else will undergo a search, so I can fly with relative confidence.
      
      'Common Sense' exemptions are lapses in security which nuts are searching for to exploit.

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         tony0724posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         But Doug if memory serves me correct they were Muslims not a Grandma or a 6 year old or an infant. Get real !

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            Doug Hughesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I expect airport security to check me - and I am not a Muslim - and everyone else on the plane - plus everything loaded on the plane in luggage to the greatest degree possible.
            
            Both of the would-be bombers were Americans.

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               tony0724posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Uhhh no. The panty bomber came from Africa . Get the story straight Doug. Does that little girl in the video I posted have the look of your basic suicide bomber or do you just like getting groped ?

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                  Doug Hughesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Tony, if you don't want to submit to airport security, don't fly.
                  
                  Or buy your own plane.
                  
                  If you want to fly on the same plane s me, go through the same security checks as me.

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                     tony0724posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Spoken like a true overreaching BIG GOVERNMENT apologist.

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   TLMinutposted 12 years ago

   I used to fly often, not anymore because of the security measures. They're invasive and should be illegal. HOWEVER, I also don't see an alternative. The only thing that should really happen is that people shouldn't be bombing planes. What can the airlines do? Sick and evil people use children and other innocents to carry out their plans and the airlines don't want to miss something and be sued for lax security. Passengers don't want to be on a plane with a psycho. Passengers don't want smarmy or even non-smarmy security agents being obscene with them. Airlines going out of business and countries becoming isolationist is the only choice apparently.

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   gracenotesposted 12 years ago

   Well, I volunteer each week at a very large airport.  I staff an information desk, airside (secured area).  My airport's TSA agents are probably a cut above those in other locations in this country, but you have to remember that they are not, in any case, the highest paid or even the smartest employees we could find.
   
   To make intelligent, perceptive observations about suspicious behavior in humans requires lots of training -- training that is probably very expensive, and that our government may not be willing to fund.  Customs agents, for instance, are very good at spotting unusual or suspicious body language and other behaviors, and they wave through the vast majority of people coming back through the country.
   
   The fact that the TSA cannot employ good common sense in screening people is just their institutional mentality showing.  They are operating in worker drone mode.
   
   A few months ago, passengers at our airport were severely inconvenienced by bad weather -- flights being canceled, people being stranded.  I got approached by a man who was about 65 years old, and who was travelling with his dog, which I thought might be an Italian greyhound.  He asked me if there was a relief station for dogs to go potty, and I said yes, and told him where it was.  But unfortunately for him, the station was outside on a patch of grass at the end of the terminal.  I told him he would have to come back through security, and he said no thanks, that where he came from that morning, the TSA detained him for 45 minutes, all because he had a metal joint replacement in his hip.  I'm a dog lover, and if I could have done it, I would have personally walked his little dog outside.
   
   But 45 minutes of detainment?  For an elderly gentleman with a steel hip?  It's just insane.
   
   Another thing I watch with interest is the cigarette smokers.  There is no smoking in our terminals, so to get in a smoke, you have to go outside.  About half of smokers will go outside and come back through security.  The rest just bite their lip and tough it out, I guess.  I also feel sorry for them.
   
   I may volunteer at an airport, but I avoid flying.

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      tony0724posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Gracie you have kind of said it all.

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   secularist10posted 12 years ago

   Has airport security become totally insane? Of course. Because both liberals and conservatives have (as usual) completely missed the boat.
   
   Terrorists and criminals started out using knives and guns (remember those good old days?), so airports installed metal detectors.
   
   Then they put a bomb in a shoe, so now they make everyone take off their shoes.
   
   Then they started using liquids to make bombs, so now they don't allow liquids on the plane.
   
   Then they put the bomb in their underwear, so now they make everyone go through a quasi sexual molestation or take a nude image of them under their clothes.
   
   Now they are saying the terrorists may implant bombs under the skin, which would render the body scans, nude images and gropings useless. This means the airports will have to perform an actual X-ray on all passengers.
   
   Does anybody else see a pattern here? It's called reactionism--wait for the bad guys to innovate, and then react to their innovation.
   
   How about we just try to cut off the terrorist threat right at the source? You know, economic underdevelopment, lack of opportunities for young men, political oppression, flawed foreign policy over many decades, cultural issues with TV and movies, religious fundamentalism, etc?
   
   The fact is that no matter what the airports do, the terrorists will always find a way around it. As they have EVERY SINGLE TIME so far. Ultimately, in the absence of actually addressing the CAUSES of terrorism, the only answer is to make air travel (and other comparable forms of travel such as trains) what it once was--the exclusive luxury of a tiny rich, safe elite, which would have severe consequences for global commerce.
   
   That is the direction it is headed already, with the liberals (who only talk about civil rights) and conservatives (who only talk about political correctness) in charge.
   
   You can station a police officer on every block in the city, but crime will continue to be a problem until you address the root causes of it.

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   Judi Burtonposted 12 years ago

   Were doing exactly what the terrorists want. We install millions of dollars of equipment because of a few people. That's some pretty effective terror. They also make it easier for us to relinquish our american rights such as privacy all because of them. I for one refuse to play their game. You won't catch me on a plane.

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   Evan G Rogersposted 12 years ago

   If you agree that Airport security has gotten out of hand, call or write your Congressional Representative (the house), and tell them to support Ron Paul's "American Traveler Dignity Act"
   
   http://www.thestatecolumn.com/capitol/r … ifference/
   
   Ron Paul 2012!

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    Jonathan Jancoposted 12 years ago

    It's the illusion of safety and security that has been the status quo in this country since the National Security Act of 1947. The authorities know they cant terror-proof a plane. So they make it look like they do too much for our safety to distract you from the fact that what they're doing amounts to nothing at all.

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    IzzyMposted 12 years ago

    I'm a regular flyer and I don't think security has "gotten out of hand" as some have put it.
    
    First of all, it is not just America. The whole world has tightened up security.
    
    When you are in that tin box in the sky, you need the tightest security going.
    
    So, they could profile the travellers? Everyone with a dubiously non-white color should be checked, but no-one else?
    
    Not only is that prejudiced in the extreme, it would miss converts and sympathisers, not to mention those forced into acting this way.
    
    To the little old grandmother...carry this bomb in your wheelchair or your entire family dies. Little old grandmothers would - their life is nearly over anyway, and they'd lay it down for their family.
    
    Or to say to a child in the airport who is perhaps visiting the loo, "Here, son, put this down your pants (or in your shoes) and you'll get sweeties in return".
    
    I hate that they have to be so strict. I hate that all bottles of liquid have to go in the suitcase where it may get broken because airport handlers are rough with luggage. That was the last bottle of expensive red wine I took home for my mother. I'm still trying to get it out of my clothes.
    
    I hate having to take my shoes off, and my belt off, at the airport security terminal when I am already nervous about the flight and remembering everything.
    
    I hate when I get asked to walk through their latest machine, or when something bleeps and I get patted down, when all I am doing is going about my business.
    
    But I much prefer that to being on a plane with a suicide bomber.

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       wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you, Izzy, for the voice of reason.
       
       It isn't the dark skinned 20-something male in a turban that will have a bomb in his briefcase.  Rather it is the Grandma that we would never think of and/or be too embarrassed to check her diaper.

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    Eaglekiwiposted 12 years ago

    Yet how many years now has it been since the USA put a man on the moon and they dont have the technology to scan bodies effectively?...yea right.

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    Paul Wingertposted 12 years ago

    I went through airport security and was patted down. I was hoping it would be the nice looking blonde TSA lady. No, I ended up with the fat guy who smelled like tobacco. Two weeks later I'm still tramatized and pissed.

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       Eaglekiwiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Like that advertisement lol..did you call him Lisa

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       You are joking, right? "Traumatized and pissed" for being patted down at an airport??

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    KK Trainorposted 12 years ago

    I have been patted down while wearing all my Disney stuff because we were on our way there. The nice (yeah right) lady went through my entire bag and touched everything with her little detection pads and then touched every crevice of my body. I was just impatient because checking our bag had taken forever, so kept sighing. My husband meantime kept giving my eyes, knowing that if I kept sighing the nice lady would take even longer, which she did. Oh well, we made it and I'm ok.
    
    Shoot, my 80 something uncle travels internationally several times a year and he had his entire wallet emptied and inspected in Copenhagen, so it's not just us.
    
    Either get used to it or take Amtrak and waste 2 extra days on travel time.

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    Judi Burtonposted 12 years ago

    They thought my tub of colon cleanse was explosive material. Heeheehee. That was awkward.

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       Eaglekiwiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Hmm..ya might have been better to pack the kid (Goat in yer pic) instead j/k

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       wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       A few years ago my son went into the army and my wife packed for him.  For whatever reason she decided he might need some hemorrhoid cream, so took a box with a tube of Preparation H from my bedside table and tossed it into his carry on.
       
       I wasn't there, but I guess there was a wee bit of ruckus when it went through the X-Ray - the box actually contained my pistol clip loaded with live ammo.  I'm surprised they weren't both jailed on the spot.

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    Eaglekiwiposted 12 years ago

    Cant be all that pleasant for security either doing all that patting down...

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