Originally Posted by
ralfp
Exactly; I automatically reach in to be helpful before I consciously stop myself. It's what a polite person would do in most similar situations.
All it would take is one TSO having a bad day to call a LEO and tell him/her I was impeding the screening process. I would become very nervous and defensive. Instead of immediately obeying the LEOs order to leave, I might try to explain the situation (i.e. argue, obstruct the TSO & LEO, fail to obey a lawful order).
The idea that such a series of events is plausible scares me, as I could see myself reacting in that way. Can the TSOs and/or LEOs here tell me if this is a realistic situation?
Note that I'm not saying that the original case in question went down like this.
There is a difference between someone instinctively reaching into their bag, and a person actually interfering with the process. People will reach into their bag and say "I know what your looking for" and start digging. They will be told to not touch their items please. Usually that person says "Oh, I am sorry. But my curling iron is in that pocket. (It is never the curling iron that we are looking for, but whatever).Someone interfering will ignore the requests to keep their hands out of their bags, they will not step back when requested, and they try many times to get their hands in their bags. Huffing and Puffing the whole time, making it impossible to do the bag check. You can tell the difference between the ones trying to be helpful, and the ones trying to be a PITA.