Ah narrow minds! The groping is a dead issue. You arent groped either anymore. As far as profile goes, it is a JUDGEMENT call.

Retaliation is something that is done to get back at someone. TSA isnt getting back at anyone. IF your shoes are deemed through interpretation or judgement, necessary of additional screening, then you get sent for the screening.

IF that is what you believe then so be it, that is why you are not in the TSA and I am.
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I don't know about anyone else here, but I'm not in the TSA because I can't take the pay cut and I have a lot better things to do with my time than provide flaccid window dressing to a problem that you are doing nothing to solve.
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Just ask the infamous shoe bomber why he thought it would work, just ask the EOD people that took the shoes for examination. I have seen the videos on it, it would have worked had he had time to light it.[/QUOTE]

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Come on, sonny. Let's all grow up and get ourselves into the real world here. The TSA screeners, when "suggesting" or "recommending" that you take off your shoes and you don't, you're going to be deliberately inconveniencced because you did not follow the dictums of the reichstag.

I was at the shoe carnival at DEN and was told that I had a choice between taking my shoes off in the main line, or taking them off at secondary. THERE IS A MUCH PUBLICIZED STATEMENT FROM NORMAN MINETA STATING VERY CLEARLY THAT SHOE REMOVAL IS VOLUNTARY, so are you now going to sit there and defend a screener making up his own policy, causing someone with signed medical documentation of a back injury so severe it requires schedule 3 narcotics to manage pain to writhe in pain taking his shoes off?

It's retaliatory. Some (not all, but some) screeners are running their own little fiefdom. And unless you have a lot of time (which no one does at DEN) you'll miss your flight. Now that my back is cleared up, I make a big damn deal about taking them off and take up as much time and space as I can putting them back on. One mouth-breathing screener at EWR told me "Move down, you're holding up the line" and I looked right at her and told this gum-cracking reprobate "If we weren't forced to disrobe, this wouldn't be anissue, you want the shoes off, deal with it, lady."

If other flyers want to be ordered around like cattle, that's their choice. America was founded ont he concept of freedoms and rights, and the TSA is violating both on a regular basis.

"I have seen the videos". Wow, is that what you folks do behind the doors of the training rooms? WATCH VIDEOS? Perhaps they could show you videos on:

1) Not cracking gum in front of passengers
2) Getting all TSA screeners to learn to close their mouths all the way when not speaking. Honestly, some of you look like you're missing a chromosome.
3) STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT WHEN YOUR NEXT BREAK IS. If you were REALLY all that concerned abotu security, you'd pay attention to what you are doing and stop obsessing over your next break. I have not gone throguh ONE TSA check point in the last year and a half where I did not hear at least one of you fine, fine, highly trained "professionals" grousing about breaks, schedules, or supervisors. And by the say, let's look at the term "professioanal" here. A DOCTOR is a professional. An ATTORNEY is a professional. When was the last time you ears your physician or your lawyer complain that they were late for break, or cracked gum in your face?

Reality stinks. You may in fact be the one person in the TSA that follows the rules and acts in a truly professional manner, but the rest of the crew of a 5 billion dollar joke. If this is the case, I hope your high standards of safety and comportment rub off on everyone else with the white shirts and sewn-on badges, becasue there is a LOT of work to do.

Just curious, if the TSA crew is so incredibly professional, why did we hear about felons having to be fired from the ranks, and I wonder how many people now protecting us from our shoes were on public assistance before this giant jobs program got launched?