Originally Posted by
ept0202
Thank GOD for TSA.
When the TSA took away my unopened jar of Peanut Butter at LAX, I felt a immense sense of relief that my plane ride would be that much safer. I can only imagine what kind of havoc would have been unleashed had that jar of peanut butter made onto the plane.
Exactly, that's the point. I don't know any other security agency that is so meticulous and careful. No one else has considered the possibility of peanut butter bombs, cupcake bombs, or Gatorade bombs but the TSA thinks about this, day in and day out. And the Light Saber cane. People mock and deride the TSA officer for taking it, but do you KNOW there are still no such things as Light Sabers?
And people complain about the fact that the TSA only detects 30% of prohibited items. But there hasn't been a successful attack on an aircraft since September 11, right? So the 30% that they stop includes 100% of the items presented at the checkpoint with nefarious intent; the other 70% that are passed through make it on and off board without incident.
What I understand from some of the remarks above is that the gate checks are redundant and a pointless waste of time. Is that right? Well that's worth thinking about. No organization is perfect. But the TSA's role is so important that it should be as nearly perfect as possible, so that either the officers who are not doing their jobs at the checkpoint should be fired, or the officers running the gate checks should be thanked for their service and laid off as superfluous, and I'll bring that up if selected for a gate check. As a part of the 20th layer of security, it's my responsibility to help the TSA be as nearly perfect as possible.
The weight of the TSA's responsibility shows in every aspect of the organization, down to the physique of many of the officers. And we passengers share the responsibility of protecting the country, and need to point out deficiencies or irregularities in the TSA or any particular operation of the TSA. If we see something, we should say something.