Originally Posted by
cornfrontation
I almost never have a problem, and often have very pleasant (for TSA) officers doing my pat-down. But last week in FLL, they were downright rude. When I opted out, the officer told me to stand where I was (which was blocking the way of people who were not opting out) and then he did not say that he needed a female assist. So another officer yelled at me for blocking the way, and I still had to wait. When someone finally came, I indicated that I was who she came for, and got yelled at again. I don't go through FLL that often, but it wasn't my first time, and I have never experienced anything like this.
I ran into a pair of power-tripping TSA employees at JAX this morning. They did not like me asking questions about the blue cards that JAX uses for PreCheck pax who end up in the non-PreCheck lane or questions about their system (if it is such) for letting random people use the WTMD instead of the NOS. This somehow led to a very unexpected display of power-tripping--unexpected because the TSA staff I have encountered have been largely pleasant and professional for at least the past year.
After my questions about the WTMD and blue cards, the one-striper in the pair of power-trippers decided to not call for my female assist. Nor did she call for one when I told her that I would not be sending my stuff through the baggage x-ray (as she ordered me to do) until my TSA escort was present. She was happy to call for a female assist for another pax several minutes later, however. That was a poor decision, as I had decided to start filming the checkpoint and I captured on film her retaliatory attempt to make me late for my flight. Before I started filming, the three-striper in the pair of power-trippers, perhaps set off by a conversation he had with the one-striper a few feet from me, employed
all of the pax intimidation techniques to punish me for questioning authority: "Do you want to fly today?" "Do you want to get through security today?" "Do you want me to call the police?" "Would you rather have no security at all?" "Don't you remember 9/11?" He didn't care for my answers; he stomped off to the secure side. I later captured him on film chatting with a LEO (to intimidate me?) and then radioing his supervisor when he realized I was filming him. His supervisor was reasonable and professional, though he mentioned my filming of the checkpoint as something that had drawn his attention. He got a female assist for me right away, and he also arranged for me to talk to the checkpoint director (?) on the secure side. The checkpoint director was very apologetic about the whole incident.