Six TSOs "randomly" Checking IDs at Gate this morning at ATL
 

TSA sent six (6) uniformed employees to my ATL gate this morning, to "randomly" check the IDs of all passengers boarding my domestic flight (a Delta 757-200). The unformed ID checkers were present when I arrived at the gate, which was about 25 minutes before the start of boarding.

I boarded in an early group but, as far as I can tell, they checked every passengers' ID and did not perform any searches at the gate.

I presume this bit of security theater is their reaction to MH370.

File a complaint and ask the GA why this harassment is permitted.

I'm guessing it's more a function of being over staffed by (at least) six people.

Mike

God! Please no more ID checker! They had enough already. I'm tired of them.

STOP WASTING THE TIME. Leave the passengers alone! Mind your own business.

So I have a passable fake I/D and the photo on the I/D is my picture and the name on the I/D and the BP are both the same and a TSO asks me to state my name and I say the name that is on the I/D & BP. "Thank you sir, have a nice flight" and I think to myself, "I feel so much safer now" :rolleyes:

Such stupidity.

I have not, as yet, been subjected to the warm/fuzzy feeling generated by a gate ID check, but when it finally happens, I am sorely tempted to hand over my Sam's Club membership card.

Secondary inspections of one kind or another are not uncommon. Sometimes random ID checks, sometimes random carry-on checks and sometimes both.

You also don't know that it was random just because that is what the GA announced or you saw.

Filing a complaint is useless because DHS' authority clearly extends to secondary at the gate.

I'm not sure how "clear" that is. Nonetheless, no-one has successfully challenged DHS's claim of authority up to and including the gate, and DHS will continue to assert that claim until given a reason to act differently.

It's not useless at all. Airlines will hear the message that passengers don't support this unnecessary harassment and pressure Congress to do something. Complaints to elected representatives may result in Congress reigning in/kicking in the yarbles/shutting down DHS/firing the scumbags "in charge" of DHS.

Useless is standing by idly while this unnecessary, disgusting harassment takes place.

It's both random and useless. Walk fast and don't make eye contact and you can avoid these checks easily. None of these checks have been clearly challenged in court. Most likely since they have yet to catch anybody so as to have standing in court.

That happened to me a couple of months ago in ATL. They put a little sign up on one of the posts in the gate area, and the Ga made an announcement that the
TSA would be conducting bag searches. I waited until the end of F to board, but
I didn't see them actually do anything.

They never actually do anything except harass, annoy, waste money, scrub oxygen, and commit serious, often violent crimes.

They did that at RDU about 2 years ago. But only to males. No females.
I thought that was weird.

I am incapable of trying to avoid a gate check. If they try to gate check me, the only way I can respond will be to enthusiastically submit but then question them about why this is needed, what dangerous things are they looking for, were the bags not properly screened at the gate, and why aren't they doing a terminal dump.

Remember. The September 11 attacks happened because there was no bag screening at the gate...didn't they???

Yeah! Yeah! If only there had been an ID check at the gate, all 19 hijackers would have been... allowed to board anyway, because they all had IDs that matched their boarding passes.

But wait! If only there had been AIT scanners! All 19 hijackers would have been... allowed to board anyway, because none of them were carrying explosives. Or drugs.

Hold on, hold on. If only there had been a secondary bag search at the gate! The box cutters would have been found! And then all 19 hijackers would have been... allowed to board anyway, because box cutters were not prohibited prior to 9/11.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. How about SPOT? If only there had been BDOs working on 9/11, all 19 hijackers... would have been allowed to board anyway, because SPOT's effectiveness is equal to random chance.

Now, if the cockpit doors had been locked and reinforced, and the passengers aboard the planes had refused to cooperate, THEN all 19 hijackers would have been subdued and beaten within an inch of their lives by a panicked lynch mob of pax, and all four aircraft would have landed safely. But hey, let's not let reality intrude on a perfectly good multi-billion-dollar Security Fantasy Camp!