petaluma1

petaluma1

chollie

This seems to make it clear that this is coming from HQ and probably being taught at the 'academy'.

GUWonder

This has been going on for years and years now. Ever since the government's war on water and other generally harmless liquids and gels was launched at US airports, I've been seeing this take place. It's part of the TSA's taught and instituted ways.

Diarrhea/feces-filled diapers on babies seem to get a pass from the TSA in a way that baby food doesn't.

petaluma1

Read more at: http://www.johnnyjet.com/tsa-called-explosives-unit/

FliesWay2Much

This is why it's a hard fight to reign in the TSA. This guy bought the lies hook, line and sinker:

chollie

Sickening.

30 minute retaliatory search. Sadly, if this fellow thinks being polite to these TSOs is going to mean they'll pay it forward to other pax, he's wrong. They won't. Nor will the other TSOs, LTSOs and STSOs participating in this cr*p or standing around watching it and not saying anything.

BTW - they paid for Precheck but didn't get it because it was closed.

It looks to me like TSA has now made it mandatory to 'punish' pax who insist on taking things like medical LGAs > 3.4 oz. or breast milk or baby food. The new policy appears to be: "We don't like dealing with breast milk and medical LGAs, so we will confiscate items that we publicly say are allowed unless you submit to a genital- and butt-crack probe".

Loren Pechtel

That certainly would explain my encounter with them last November with medical liquids. Until then it had been handled reasonably--identify them as medical, wave their strip (it wasn't sterile stuff, opening it wasn't a problem) and that was that. November I got a full search of the bag and a grope besides.

GUWonder

Being rude or aggressive toward someone increases the chances of the target of such rudeness or aggression having increased stress levels and directing that stress at others thereafter too.

I am a very firm believer in challenging what should be challenged but doing so in a way where pointing the finger of blame at me for the challenge just speaks to those peddling bad approaches and to those providing cover for those peddling bad approaches. Ratcheting up the stress level of others generally does have negative downstream consequences that include "passing it forward", and I'm really not interested in being part of that when it's ineffective. So this kind of thinking does inform my actions when dealing with situations of this sort.

I've been around plenty of "security" screening incidents involving breast milk and other nourishment needs for infants/toddlers and had to deal with some ridiculous approaches from airport "security" screeners in the US and UK -- nowhere else in the developed world is as bad as the US and LHR in this regard -- but have never seen a need to lower myself to the level of stupidity and aggressiveness that I encounter from some of these screeners. Some of these screeners -- with or without children in their own lives -- have little to no experience of frequently traveling long distances by air and yet try to determine how much nourishment a child needs for a trip, even so much as to try to mess up the passengers' trip. And yet even in those situations, I have found ways to make the issue the screeners' actions rather than my own too.

chollie

This is extraordinarily stupid, but TSA HQ will defend the practice.

A screener checks meds or breast milk and decides they are conditionally 'safe'.

If they are 'safe', then what the h*ll difference does quantity make?

It's flat out bullying and abuse of power, but so many TSOs at so many airports do it that I can only conclude it is part of TSA training. The odds of so many TSOs being so incredibly stupid about this one point are just too small to believe they all make it up on their own.

Boggie Dog

I have no trouble believing the screeners make it up on their own.

I believe the evidence is clear that TSA is bankrupt professionally, ethically, and morally. I have no respect for such.

chollie

I'm guessing there have been recent incidents of TSOs using their 'final say' and recent exercises as an excuse to steal pax snacks. There have been reports of pax being forced to remove all snacks and food at the checkpoint, granola bars and other dry goods confiscated.

Then all of a sudden, AskTSA starts fielding a lot of questions asking 1) if snacks are allowed and 2) what QUANTITY of snacks are allowed.

Usually, AskTSA is a good indicator of what TSA is doing even when TSA is denying it. (This is not the only forum where TSA is discussed) Why do women keep asking about knitting needles? Because knitters talk to each other, and TSOs do confiscate knitting needles and crochet hooks if they feel like it. People ask about cupcakes and light sabers and Harry Potter wands because all of those items are regularly confiscated and have made the news.

This tells me that there are multiple screeners out there harassing people not only on the amount of breast milk and baby food they are taking, but also the amount of snacks. Perhaps this is coming from the 'academy' training.

FliesWay2Much

The author even gives the TSA a pass over ExtortionCheck being closed:

FliesWay2Much

That's a good point. I'm really surprised they don't censor half of the posts people make. It could be that:

1. They rely upon the short-term nature of Twitter and simply know that the problems will go away in just a few hours;

2. They are conditioning the public that all of this is "normal" and that the public should expect to be harassed and have things confiscated because it's about terrorists.

Remember how West, Blogdad Bob and the other <deleted> used to go out of their way to correct somebody who accused the TSA of "confiscating" something? They used to regularly roll out the "voluntarily surrender" line. When was the last time anybody read this rebuke? They no longer state that they don't "confiscate."

chollie

Yeah, they have been doing a lot of word-smithing.

They no longer refer to TSA-approved locks. It's pretty clear that screeners have the 'final say' on how your bag will be opened. If they don't feel like using the keys, they cut the locks.

So now TSA refers to them as 'TSA-recognized', no longer tries to blame baggage handling machines and openly warns pax: "you want to lock your bags and we want to get into them, we'll do whatever damage we want, whether or not we 'recognize' your lock. That will teach you not to lock your bags in the US the way you do in the entire rest of the world".

Not to go OT, but I also notice regular queries about meds, both on AskTSA and other sites. It's pretty clear that I am not the only one who has been challenged about meds and the way TSOs treat them at checkpoints. One of the reasons so many people ask if pill-keepers are OK or if they need copies of their prescriptions is because TSOs have been aggressively challenging pax who don't have meds in labeled prescription bottles.

"Final say".