TSA's BDOs are either useful or useless, but can't be both. If TSA believes they're useful for picking out bad guys (including drug users, cash users, and illegal aliens, none of which are a threat to aviation ), then TSA should also give BDOs some weight in analyzing the response of someone asked "what's the funny looking electronic device in your carry-on?"

It's about the totality of the situation, not if someone "looks like a terrorist." Where's the positive ETD swab on the bag to back up the assumption that it contains explosives? How credible is their explanation about the item?

I can give TSA a pass on freaking out at the replica grenades, but not on the golf-ball trackers or laptops. That TSA and the bomb squads were working together to destroy the private property of passengers after it had been cleared, but out of the ever-important "abundance of caution" is absurd. That they then refused to compensate the victims is even more absurd.