Originally Posted by whirledtraveler
"Tit for tat." When screeners stop being insulting at the checkpoint, then they can talk about insulting behavior.
I just came back from England for the second time in a month and it's like night and day. Screeners are polite over there; they are solicitous and they act like the civil servants they are. In fact, one apologized for looking in my bag today. Over here, they just a bunch of disgruntled ex-military/police/security types who, apparently, have more frustration than they can vent off the job.
It's a vicious circle! Who threw the first stone? We will never know. You are dealing with human nature here. There is a HUGE difference in the way that British flight crews act over here! Now tell me why ANY security agency should have to apologize for doing their job? This last line is likely to start a flame war. I can say that it could be polite to tell a passenger that security is sorry for the inconvenience. However, people know the rules and there are signs all over the place about what you cannot bring in your carry on. So if some passenger brings a prohibted item into the CP, we are obligated to apologize WHY?