Originally Posted by
GUWonder
The OP doesn't mean a real SWAT team -- but the OP is talking about the DHS agenda and practice that puts around more "heavy"-looking agents to put on a show of force like that many people get when seeing a SWAT team.
This is part of a concerted program by DHS to try to "scare the bad guys". It's a dog and pony show meant to intimidate -- intimidate whom, who knows
-- more than anything else nowadays.
Another example of security theater.
Either that, or the armor is an admission that DHS knows it cannot rely on itself to keep guns and knives out of airplanes, and that running into an armed individual is more likely than on the street, at immigration, etc.