bhatnasx

I'm writing this from TYS right now. Just went through security (and filed a complaint).

I'm wearing a t-shirt, cargo shorts (very light material, not baggy or bulky), and flip-flops. As soon as I crossed through the metal detector (which didn't alarm), the TSO said "Hold up a second there" to me & stepped forward & proceeded to grab my short pockets and squeeze them without any sort of warning. I told the security supervisor (when I asked for the officer's name) about it.

His response was "Well, we do patdowns out there now.". I replied that that's fine, but I fly over 100k per year, and wear these shorts when I fly quite regularly & there were others in front of me who didn't get the pat down in similar clothing. And either way, from what I understand, a TSO is supposed to advise people when & how they will be touched during the pat down. My complaint isn't as much that I got pat downed (it happens, unfortunately), but the process & the lack of communication & that officer needs some retraining.

Anyways, long story short, they now claim that they can do a secondary patdown on cargo short wearing people without doing the full secondary.

I really hope this agency gets disbanded soon - total waste of my tax dollars...

FliesWay2Much

That's happened to me a couple of times. Once was at LAX, I had gone through the metal detector, and was waiting for my stuff to come out of the x-ray when a screener practically ran up to me and grabbed me. That got my old hockey player DNA going and I literally got in this guy's face and said, "Don't you EVER touch me or any other passenger again without warning! Don't you EVER touch me again without changing your gloves! Get your supervisor over here immediately!" So, the supervisor comes over here and he asked what was the problem. The screener says he was just patting me down. I told the supervisor what had happened and to make sure this guy was reprimanded and that he never do what he did to me again. Normally, I can fake it when confronting a screener. This time, it was real anger.

Somebody "jumping" me like that is tantamount to assault, especially when blindsided. I can't guarantee that I won't react as if someone is mugging me, and I suspect I'm not alone.

The next time was at GSP. The guy decides to pat me down so I start the routine: OK, change your gloves (really annoyed him), I'm going to be in constant visual contact with my stuff, and, if you touches me inappropriately, you will be the first to know. He says, "Are you threatening me?" I respond to his question with a question, "Why do consider my statement to be a threat?" He has no response. I tied him up for a good 5-6 minutes, which allowed probably 25-30 people to get through without harassment.

The third time was last year at IAD. I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt. As I approached the walk-through, the moat dragon on the other side told me to remove it. I was going upper-half commando underneath and knew I was going to have some fun if I removed it, so, I stated, "Did you just tell me to remove my sweatshirt?" When he said, "Yes" I took it off exposing my bare-chested runner's body. You would have thought that bin Laden himself had showed up at the checkpoint. The short story (reported a while ago in another thread) is that the moat dragon screener started trash-talking me when I said I was going to file a complaint and wanted his name. (I had read it off the nametag, so it didn't matter anyway.) I wrote up the complaint, followed up with an email, and contacted a well-placed individual in DHS. Bottom line is that the guy is no longer employed.

This seems to be a common tactic of theirs -- to just come up to you, grab you, and start doing a frisking. Make them stop and push back as best as you can -- gloves, line of sight, even a private screening if you've got time.

Scubatooth

FW2M - Im surprised you didnt just clean that idiots clock, as you have a lot more restraint then i do. thats one clerk that should have gone to jail on principle and to teach other clerks a lesson.

FliesWay2Much

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.138 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

That was my first thought and the main reason I was so livid at the guy and his supervisor. In the split second of his blindside attack on me, who knows? Someone trained in martial arts or a victim of an assault could have instinctively reacted and sent the screener into low earth orbit. I'm just an old hockey player, but I could have instinctively reacted with a clothesline or forearm.