Caradoc

I expect the TSA union members' Astroturfing campaign is responsible for the 5% lower disapproval rating.

It'd probably be even higher if more of them were literate.

Ronlap

I'm guessing that they get a lot of false positives. What's strange is that I have never had a false positive on leaving SFO even though I go shooting just about every week and probably have all sorts of interesting residue on my hands.

Ronlap

Funny you should say that. I was going through LHR and got selected for not taking my iPad out of my bag along with my laptop. After waiting 30 minutes for them to finish searching 2 people ahead of me, they finally got to my carry on. I asked the UK agent to change his gloves because he had been pawing through a diaper bag and cosmetics case. He started yelling at me about the fact that he searches hundreds of bags a day and couldn't possibly afford to change his gloves for every search.

When I insisted, he said that he would use sanitizer but would NOT change his gloves. I left it at that but wonder if I should file a claim with the UK on this guy.

sethb

Yes, you should. (Since it's too late to call his supervisor.)

Tika1505

Sometimes I think that the ability of this folly to continue unabated is a direct result of people who are willing to surrender their fundamental rights under the envelope of convenience. They are not willing to push back because they want to get where they are going in the shortest time with the least expense and it does not register that this whole security theater that resulted from an emotional response to the 9/11 tragedy significantly has eroded our protections and freedoms in ways that are utterly incalculable. Those who write here are such a small minority of the people who simply find it easier just to complain than to take action.

Those of us who are so few, and so dedicated are pushing back against this problem. I am sure that there are many TSA employees who are like me, just trying to do their job to the best of their ability under seriously adverse circumstances. I am a tax collector who works for one of the largest state taxing authorities in the USA and I deal with people from those who just want a correction to a minor posting error to someone who would like to slit my throat because they do not agree with a particular tax law.

The reflection that I make daily is that taxes are as old as civilization. What is not old is the experiment of only these past 3 centuries that the presumption of innocence is the law of the land. This is really new in the grand scheme of things, and it is something that we have come to absolutely cherish. TSA, NSA and other encroachments onto that fundamental conditioning is the tinder that makes the way that we are treated at the airports so utterly inflammatory. It's happening at the train stations and soon, we won't even be able to use the subway without being invaded.

I am going to have to fly again soon, and I have to ask myself, even though my Senators and Representatives hear from me at least 2 times each month for various issues, am I going to fight my battle at the airport with these people who literally have no political or social power or am I going to save my time, talent and treasure for fighting this battle where it will be much more effective? True, I am not going to put up for a moment with someone on a power trip abusing me at the airport, but I am going to pick my battles with a little more discernment. I will take only my passport, my boarding pass and a $20.00 bill through the gauntlet, and check all my stuff in my luggage. Even though it costs me additional money, I think that the annoyance factor is worth it. I will wear my tai-chi uniform under a weather appropriate outer wear for going through their machine. (I did do my share about these machines in that I wrote over 300 letters and researched approximately 60 hours into these machines especially the radiation machines.) I have raised the issue that even though the machine presents a cartoon to the screeners that the nude pictures are still taken. According to them, the image is not stored, but if you believe that....

I do not know how this will go. I think that the balance between protecting from another 9/11 event and this expensive "everyone is a terrorist until proven otherwise" has got to reach a realistic resolution. I hope everyone on this blog site is writing their officials as often as they post here. And surely there is a resolution of this that does not drive someone to killing another innocent man or woman in a blue uniform. I do not have the answer, but I will can say to the screener, "you have handled (my count) other documents which gives me a 2 to the power of...probability of contamination. I am unwilling to take that risk. Please change your gloves." I have the right to tell the ones at the machines: "Sir the person before me put their shoes in that container. I am unwilling to be exposed to any pathogens on those shoes. Please sanitize this bin and give me sterile paper." As I walk toward the scaner: "There a people before me that have walked through this scanner. I am unwilling to take the risk of disease exposure. Please sanitize this walk way and the area I am expected to put my hands." "I have walked through this scanner and I would like to have Sanitizing gel for my feet and hands before I put my clothing back on." If they give me any blowback, I will say "I have a right under ADA to these de minimus accommodations which are also written into your operating procedures. As you have encroached my personal space, and exposed me by direct skin contact to pathogens, I have the right under law to amelioriate such threats to my health and you have the duty under law to provide me with the means." Ones does not have to have a disability diagnosis to invoke the law.

If they approach me and intend to touch me, I have the right to raise my hand in a warding gesture and demand at least 7 actions that a screener must execute before touching a citizen. If they can't name at least 7 (offering privacy, change of gloves, warning that they are going to be touched, where and how...there are about 20 such actions listed on their operations manual and if that person can't name at least 7, then say that you question their competence and you will cooperate with someone else.)

The problem as I see it is that too many people are willing to put up with too much until it is too late.

Thanks for letting me vent.