Clerk West, did Stacey Armato have a right to present herself at the checkpoint and show the TSA clerks the rules regarding breast milk without being locked in a cage and ignored until she was forced to miss her flight? Did she have a right to present herself at the checkpoint on a later occasion without being harassed until the TSA employee assigned to shadow her identified herself and demanded that the checkpoint clerks do their jobs?

Did Roger Vanderklok have a right to pass through the checkpoint without having a TSA clerk file a false police report against him and then commit perjury at his trial?

Did the rights of these passengers protect them from abuse by TSA clerks? Were any of the TSA clerks who abused these passengers fired?

TSA considers all travelers to be potential terrorist. I don't see the harm in considering all of them to be inanimate until proven otherwise.

Oh, you mean like TSA employees who can't tell the difference between ounces used to measure mass and ounces used to measure volume?

Or TSA employees who can't seem to distinguish between "3 oz", "3.0 oz", "3.4 oz", and "100 ml"?

Regrettably, there's no lack of innumeracy among us. As I tell my students, there are three types of people: those who can count and those who can't.

(wait for it ...)

Wow, this resembles a typical transit through the "checkpoint".

My experience is that, if I assume the guy I'm dealing with is pretty much like me (a guy who wants to be a nice guy and get through the day with minimal hassles), and treat the guy well and respectfully, things go well. If I assume the guy to have a priority in scamming me, hassling me, demonstrating his "superiority" or otherwise being a d*ck, then things go south.

I've had excellent dealings with TSA, having flown on numerous occasions. Think about that for a minute, then do as you please.

I feel that there is some truth to that, but at the same time your sample size nor mine nor for that matter any bodies is large enough to determine the why and wherefores of what causes a TSA Employee to be rude or disrespectful or power tripping, etc.

I have dealt with some good to even great TSA Employees and likewise I have dealt with some really awful ones and I do not go in with a mindset, more I just want to get through a quickly and easily as possible.

Yeah, a lot of us fly a lot. I've had the �bermenschen lane for over three years now, so I don't have a lot of contact. But I've had 2 occasions where the clerks didn't know what a NEXUS card is and were too lazy to look it up. I had four clerks, including a supervisor trying to figure out what my NEXUS card was and telling me it wasn't a valid ID. The last time I went through the regular lane was at JFK T1 (an international terminal) and the clerk kept telling me she had to see my passport and I kept asking her why. Lots and lots of TSA clerks are too lazy to learn and do their jobs, and my encounters are trivial by comparison to what's happened to many many people.

I try to come correct, to be pleasant to the TSOs, to greet them cheerfully, and cooperate as best I can with the screening process (and when opting out, doing so politely.) I don't believe in harassing TSOs, as it's the system I despise and I see little gain in being rude to individuals.

However:
--that doesn't mean that one HAS to do these things. TSOs and people in positions of power should realize that pax shouldn't have to be having a great day in order to get through the checkpoint. Likewise, making "jokes", particularly about security threats or barring one's ability to travel, is an implicit threat given the power imbalance between pax and TSOs and the utter lack of recourse afforded to pax;
--I am a white cis male, a native English speaker with an American accent, and I don't look threatening in any stereotypical way (tattoos, dress, etc.) I realize that this affords me privilege in how I am treated. Because I certainly witness hostile behavior by TSOs directed at people who don't enjoy those essentially random characteristics that I do, and bad behavior not directed at me is still bad behavior. It's unprofessional and is emblematic of an attitude that I believe ultimately leads to less secure air travel;
--I also witness hostile behavior, power-tripping, yelling, and other bad behavior by TSOs that doesn't seem to be directed at anyone in general, whether or not the passengers in question are nice to TSOs. Whether it's TSOs barking in loud angry English to pax who don't speak the language at JFK T4, or the snarled "What's your destination?" at MSY, or not letting people maintain visual contact with their carryon luggage while clearing the MMW at RDU, it's still unprofessional choices from TSOs that don't comport with the TSA's mission statement;

And, I've noticed a marked improvement in TSO behavior over the last 2-3 years or so. I'm not a terribly representative sample, as I fly less than some (and a whole lot less than most FTers), but I see much less barking or other hostile behavior from TSOs than I used to. But! It still happens, and I see it maybe 15-20% of the time, as opposed to 80% of the time, and that's still unacceptable.

I would have thought that no special training was required to make TSOs understand that it is unprofessional to make sick jokes when their hands are inside someone's waistband or they are kneeling eye-level with their hands fumbling between a pax's legs. It is unprofessional to hold up personal items and make distasteful comments while they are rifling a bag.

My doctor gets it - I wonder if he figured it out all by himself or if he had to be trained.

Your doctor probably didn't get to medical school from an ad on a pizza box.

As a Physician, I have to mentally remind myself time and time again that while it is second nature to me, being poked and prodded is not a common experience for the patient. A few times I have caught myself talking to the patient, making small talk till I see the look of dread on their face and then I have to snap my mind back to remembering that the patient is not used to what I am doing to them. It does take some amount of thought (at least I need to think about it) to remember what is wrought process for one person is not for another.

It is not an excuse for any person (TSA/Police/Physicians/Nurses/etc.) but maybe more of an explanation.

So true. We are all different. I see red when a stranger touches me. If I go to a MD. then it is different. I might not like but I made an appointment.plus that MD ( I hope) has an education.
TSA is hired a lot of times from a pizza box???!!! And they THINK they are going to touch my "privates" without" me having a comment.
SICK

This is true. Be very careful the next time you order a pizza for delivery hoping to use the coupon for the free breadsticks, you might just end up working for the TSA.

Thanks -- I haven't seen the famous pizza box in years! I did see a sign on a gas pump in Alexandria about the same time.

What did it say - 'would you like a job hosing others?'