Originally Posted by
eyecue
The last two days at DEN have been very interesting in that respect. There has been a lot more LEO stand ups for patdowns. A lot more irate people. One person said that we need to be specific in our advisals and include the word balls. One today just said this is efing bs. So much so that he almost did not get to continue. It started at the AIT when his cold start met me head on and I asked if he wanted to opt out. I believe that it is only a matter of time before before this really escalates into something that no one wants.
Rolando is only the first -- at least the first public incident we know about. More cops will get involved, followed by the first passenger cold-cocking of a screener, followed by arrests, followed by taser attacks, followed by someone getting shot by a cop.
Pissy and/or Nappy will get on the news channels to remind us that compliance is
required and that protest will not be tolerated. The passenger who was shot by a cop at a checkpoint (and presumably killed) will be front & center as an example of what could happen to the rest of the citizenry. They will pit compliant citizen against protesting citizen as a means of population self-control, and those who assist the TSA will be rewarded.
I spent 4 days' leave in Berlin last week and visited a lot of the museums dealing with life in East Germany under the Stasi. (...a natural curiosity because of my long tenure in the "business" and a desire to confirm or deny what I had long been taught through our documents...). The above scenario is not too far removed from how the Stasi assured order and compliance.
Virtually all -- no,
absolutely zero -- of any of this has anything to do with securing the country's civil aviation transportation sector. The TSA has placed itself into the position of not protecting airports from terrorists. Officially as of today, the TSA is now in the position of protecting themselves from the citizenry.
The good news is that, eventually, even the Stasi couldn't hold the people back.