Originally Posted by
SATTSO
Last year when I suggested Opt-Out Day was a failure, people on this site insist that it was not a failure. Odd.
People did hand out, or try to hand out, pamphlets. Or at least at my airport. But they found passengers to be less than receptive. I can honestly tell you (though most here will decide not to believe me, I suspect) that most passengers when talking to me and other TSOs had negative comments to say about the protesters. But you should see there is some truth to this...as you and many on this site have noted that very few opt-out of AIT screening. Even if they do not like the use of AIT, most passengers have accepted it (this says nothing about my opinion of the use of AIT).
You may believe and opt-out day is a just cause, and worth doing (as do the Occupy Protesters), but how will the public perceive you? Will you disrupt their travel plans? Cause them to miss their flights? Or cause them to arrive early at the airports?
I specifically had people tell me they arrived HOURS early because they were afraid of missing their flights on Opt-Out Day. And these people were not mad at TSA. They were mad at the protesters.
I hate to admit it, but I agree - National Opt-Out Day was a dismal failure. And I pretty much figured it would be from the beginning, because people were A) had too much money/time/vital family commitments riding on their flights to risk missing it, B) hadn't heard of the protest, C) thought the protest was the act of a wacko fringe group, D) "9/11! 9/11! 9/11! People out there are TRYING TO KILL US! ANYTHING TO KEEP US SAFE!"
However, who arrived hours early just because of the protests? Exactly how many "people" told you that, SAT? Could it have been maybe just one person, one couple, one family? Or did multiple traveling parties tell you that?
I can believe that a few people would be nervous about the protest causing delays, but the majority of the people who arrived hours early did so because, ahem, National Opt-Out Day was Wednesday, Nov 24 - the day before Thanksgiving, the heaviest air travel day of the year in the US, when the word "delays" is considered a laughable understatement.
I don't expect there to ever be widespread protests of draconian, un-Constitutional airport security measures which violate the civil rights of millions of people per year. But the more TSA deploys those measures to buses, trains, and most especially mass transit modes, the more people will wake up to their abusive nature and protest against them.
Getting into subways will sign TSA's death warrant.