Originally Posted by
larry91403
I have to agree with Travis and also add that it really shouldn't matter what we think of TSA just like it shouldn't matter if we like the police or firefighters. Their popularity is not at issue. And lay people really aren't qualified to make gut judgements on effectiveness. What we might deem to be security theater might very well be something else.
I received a parking ticket the other day from a motorcycle cop. You bet I would rate motorcycle cops ineffective in a survey. But that's not really relevant.
We have to stop treating everything like a popularity contest. Not everything gets to have constant public condemnation just because it's inconvenient. I don't like going trough TSA anymore then anyone else. I've experiences inconsistencies just as much as anyone else. But think of it another way - if you are a criminal and TSA is always doing everything the same way every single time, then it would be very easy to beat the system.
Nothing is perfect. Let's gives these men and women and break and focus on the management.
This is not a popularity contest.
This has nothing to do with our likes or dislikes.
This has nothing to do with hassles or inconvenience.
Some of TSA's procedures are un-Constitutional. They are illegal. And they are morally and ethically repugnant.
"But think of it another way - if you are a criminal and TSA is always doing everything the same way every single time, then it would be very easy to beat the system."
Firstly, criminals are not what TSA is supposed to be looking for, fighting against, protecting us against, or even paying any attention to. Threats to the plane are what TSA is tasked with keeping off the plane. I couldn't care less whether criminals - smugglers, theives, whatever - can get past TSA. They are law enforcement's problem.
Secondly, the argument that consistency is key to security is also BS. Just because a "Bad Guy" knows what security is in place doesn't mean he can automatically defeat it; if security is good enough, it can be exactly the same 24/7/365, all around the country, and the Bad Guys won't get through.
Besides, the "inconsistency is a layer" argument is a load of fertilizer that TSA throws out like a soundbite specifically to cover up the fact that their training programs are so incompetent that no airport in the US does the same thing the same way twice. Their own people
don't even know the rules, and when called on their lack of knowledge, they pull the childish trick of saying, "Well, we do it differently here," or, "We do it differently now."
And as far as giving these men and women a break - phooey. These men and woman have as much responsibility as their management does to know their jobs and do their jobs correctly and consitently. Not only that, but if the rules they follow are wrong, or their agency is violating the law, they have the same responsibility as anyone else to report violations up their respective chains of command. And they are failing.