I've accepted that there are bad people out there who will steal. The thing to do is to find ways to deal with them.

And the way the TSA is behaving is, as you said, condinging the behaviour instead of curbing the behavior. I'm hoping some TSO will explain why the passengers / fares / victims / probable terrorists are separated from their belongings AND the belongings aren't secure.

Aren't the TSOs afraid that the water will explode? Shouldn't they seek to immediately secure the items? You don't need a bomb squad if you have a metal container with inch thick walls that you can put the bin of the dangerous terrorist grandmother inside of.