Others have already responded, but there's one point that hasn't been covered here.
Originally Posted by
TSORon
You can only see them as jack-booted thugs, intent on ruining your day, taking your personal property, and delaying your transit to the sterile area. You fail to see the humans behind the uniform. The men and women who get up at 1:30am to be on the checkpoint by 3am, who endure the continuous changes of policy and procedure, who were courageous enough to accept jobs on the front line of America’s Anti-Terrorism efforts, dangerous though it may be. They endure low pay, long and unusual hours, less than perfect working conditions, unidentified hazardous materials, the diseases and infections of those passengers they come into contact with, undeserved attitude and the occasional cussing out, and a whole host of other things that make the job less than pleasant at times.
And if TSA's policies are ineffective, or counterproductive, then all of that personal sacrifice on the part of these loyal TSOs is wasted.
When a passenger registers a public complaint here, it is often easy to assume that the complaint is being made against the TS
O who acted, rather than the TS
A who made the policy being enforced. It should be possible to criticize the TSA without automatically assuming that it is a criticism of all TSOs.
Of course, it's entirely possible that a given passenger's bad experience at a checkpoint is due to the fault of an individual TSO. But, as many have pointed out repeatedly, since TSA has declined to publish its procedures and rules in a codified fashion, there's no way for a passenger to distinguish between a rogue TSO and a good TSO enforcing a bad TSA policy.
But to return to my first point. Yes, many TSOs are serving their country at personal sacrifice by working for the TSA. But noble people executing flawed policies does not make for noble outcomes.