Okay folks, I'm back. I don't post here on these topics regularly because I honestly just get mad if I think too much about what the TSA is doing. I'll even confess that I found some of the terms used here to describe the TSA (thug, nazi, jackboot, etc.) to be a bit extreme. No more. I have to share a recent experience @ SEA with you all, because it crossed several red lines. The story is long, so if you don't have time to read it all just read the summary I'm putting first.

Summary:

* More inconsistent shoe policies
* I don't have a problem with secondary search if I set off the magnometer. I think it's fair game at that point. But if I don't alarm, leave me the hell alone
* Don't threaten to deny me boarding!
* Don't deny my right to express my opinion of your asinine procedures!


Coming through to finish off my 35 segments (AS promo) this past Friday night, I set my stuff on the belt, having already divested myself of anything and everything metallic. I passed through the magnometer and did not alarm, so I made for the x-ray belt to collect my laptop before it careened down the rollers (which I hate to see happen). I was blocked by an agent, who informed me that I had another chance to "remove articles" and walk through again. Puzzled (since I didn't beep) I asked why, and he repeated himself, his vagueness not helping my puzzlement. As I continued to express my confusion, he finally clarified what he wanted: the removal of my shoes. At this point, I'm calm and cooperative, and really trying to understand what he wants. Now that I do understand, I remind him that I did not set off the magnometer, and this is when he calls his supervisor.

The supervisor comes over and asks what the problem is, and responds to my protestations about having cleared by saying that a secondary screening can be triggered by visuals as well (knew that, but ). I'm wearing cargo pants, a long-sleeve t-shirt and sneakers, for the record. At this point I expressed to her my frustration that every TSA checkpoint is different and that there is no standard. Her response was that she was only concerned with SEA (a cop-out when confronted with logic, IMO). Now, I'm not acrimonious but I am frustrated.

Here's where it gets interesting: the supervisor goes away, and I am given the wand treatment by another agent (who I haven't said a word to thus far). I say to him (politely) if he would like a small suggestion from a traveler standpoint. He responds very hatefully that no, he would not like one (nice customer service attitude) and calls the same supervisor back over. She asks what the problem is, and I explain that I was merely offering a suggestion, to which she also responds hatefully. The secondary screener mumbles something about how I must not want to fly tonight, and the supervisor then asks me directly if I want to fly. Needless to say, I'm a bit taken aback and after a few seconds have to supress the urge to scream at them (and yes, I did supress it). The supervisor starts talking to the secondary about me not being cooperative in the search (a total lie) and asks him several times if he is comfortable continuing (she asked it like I had threatened the guy's life or something). She also makes a comment to me about calling the Port Authority Police.

The supervisor then tells me to "be quiet and let him finish the screening". Now I've really had it, and tell her forcefully that I have every right to express my opinion. I am almost shaking with rage at this point, but don't dare ask for their names to report them, because I'm sure that she'll call the Port Police and have me miss my flight, so I get my stuff and head off to my gate.

I am going to get their names when I go back through this Friday, and I am going to write them up. I will write to my Congressman, and I will write to the editor of my local paper. Before, I was willing to sit back and b*tch about the TSA on forums like these. Now, I will actively work toward their end. These people are drunk with power, and clearly enjoyed dangling the threat of denying me boarding when I challenged their procedures.

This is obviously a one-sided perspective of the incident. Even if I was perceived to be verbally combative, I never intimated any sort of threat and cooperated fully with the search, only dissenting verbally. These people are un-American, they are a threat to civil liberties, and they must be stopped.


[This message has been edited by ender83 (edited Dec 16, 2003).]