gsoltso

Ahhhhhh, so I see what I think you are referring to.

The original comment stated "since when did candy not be allowed in your bag through security? Apparently this has been a rule for a while..... this is in precheck"

The item was not "confiscated", the item was not even voluntarily abandoned. It was removed from the bag and run separately - which happens quite often if a bag is too densely packed. If you pull up all of the comments from the original poster @harvellafella for March 7th, you will see that he has a discussion with someone else where he indicates "3:30ish checkpoint to the higher number gates. Why does candy have to be removed from bags in precheck?"

Then "I work in the food industry and I have taken bags of products through multiple airport precheck lines with no issue"

Then @asktsa chimed in with "Any items are subject to additional screening. This may be to resolve alarms or as part of our screening measures.".

petaluma1

No, <redacted>, this was not the incident in question. In the incident I referred to the candy was taken away from the passenger. Now I will admit I could have the wrong airport but the candy was definitely taken from the passenger.

There's also been another incident in the last few weeks wherein TSA took a child's bag of cookies away from him and left the child in tears.

mauve

I believe the normal response is:

<deleted>.

gsoltso

I have not seen those, though I was looking specifically for GSO related information. I can not think of a case that requires the disallowance of food items - caveat for liquids, gels, pastes, other items of that format. Cookies or candy (hard candy, candy bars, etc) are allowed to be carried through. One difference currently, is more places are asking passengers to remove larger food items from the bag and run them separately to help speed the process by cutting down on the number of bag checks. Until this particular thread, I had not heard of this type of item (cookies, candy) being disallowed.

Schmurrr

I got the new patdown yesterday. It seems there's still a lot left to screener discretion, as the patdown yesterday felt less invasive to me than several I've had before. The TSA employee interlocked her hands and passed the back of her hands across the front of lower torso a few times, but there were no fingers in my waistband, no hands in my hair, and minimal hands between my legs (i.e., only one pass and no groin chops).

nachtnebel

Might not the difference between female and male anatomy account for this? Fewer things to get in the way of the horizontal swiping.

I think it is interesting they've gone to this really awful technique and inflict it
on people for the slightest of causes. It highlights the complete bankruptcy of their regime, even after the expensive machines, and a 95% failure rate. They failed, so passenger must pay.

Clearly, TSA management wouldn't have imposed this on everyone unless they thought they could get away with it. The camel is well into the tent at this point.

chollie

Yup. This wouldn't be possible if we didn't have thousands of cheerful, eager TSOs ready and willing to rub and fondle and chop groins for a living.

petaluma1

Not to mention those travelers who seem to think it is either quite funny or very acceptable to be sexually assaulted by TSA screeners.

I still want to know if the screeners who do pat downs are volunteers or are they told they have to do them to keep their jobs. Strange that no one will answer that question for me.

petaluma1

Bottle of size-compliant lotion was confiscated this weekend at GSO because TSA could not determine it was not explosive. As well, the passengers was subjected to a sexual assault because TSA could not determine "explosivity."

gsoltso

You have a link to that so I can read up on it?

petaluma1

https://www.facebook.com/jendemirecs

petaluma1

Personal conversation. Lotion, compliant, was removed from her bag and she was not allowed to get out of line to dispose of it herself.

TheBOSman

I can't answer definitively, but I presume most are of the latter group based on the number of unenthusiastic (often thorough to clarify, but definitely not enthusiastic) pat down givers I've dealt with.

chollie

This is really really disgusting, even for TSA. That TSO is a perv, plain and simple. I'd particulary like some 'academy'-trained TSO to explain why this screener went back and gave the boy's groin (penis and scrotum) a second aggressive rubbing before testing his gloves. Pure pleasure or SSI? Or did his 'screener discretion' allow him to stroke and rub the boy as many times as he wanted, as long as he does the mandatory minimum number of strokes?

This screener forced the boy to go through a grope that the boy would not be permitted to watch on a public movie screen, because it would cause the movie to be R-rated.

Any screener who tries to defend what happened in this video should post videos of themselves doing the same thing to their own children in public, so their kids can truly understand what Mom and Dad do to other kids.

This is without doubt the worst I've ever seen. I have not only lost every shred of respect I might once have had for 'good apple' TSOs, because no one who does this or tries to defend it or squirms with delight while watching it instead of 'seeing something' and 'saying something' is not my idea of a 'good apple' - or even a normal decent human being.

That goes double for the two cops who evidently supported this action and stood threateningly by to gawk and ensure that the screener was able to enjoy his groping - including the return for a second pass.

If I saw this screener on the street, I would call him out, loud and clear, for what he is. Filthy TSA-enabled pervert. I hate to say it, but from now on, every time I read a post from someone who professes to be a TSO, I will be visualizing that screener-poster with his/her hands on some young kids privates.

GUWonder

Touching anyone like shown in that video is just unnecessarily gross and gratuitous. If the TSA thinks these sexual/private part feeling-ups are needed to locate explosives, guns and other contraband weapons, explosives/ and incendiaries on young buys and girls wearing shorts even, the TSA needs to go back to the drawing board.

Nowhere else in the world -- beside where the TSA claims to rule the roost -- would you see such a kind of scene so often at an airport screening checkpoint.