My "interaction" with a TSA BDO (aka Spot-nick) at EWR May 13, 2017
May 17, 2017, 11:09 am
#31
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Your interaction took BDO/Spotnik encounters to a whole new level of absurdity, IMHO.
You alarmed him enough to discuss you with another TSO and to pursue you for a follow-up interrogation.
Then you were able to completely dispel his suspicions just by showing him an ID.
1) how did he have any way of knowing if the ID wasn't fake?
2) even if the ID is genuine, he alerted on your suspicious behavior, not your identity.
The program (based on this one encounter) is even stupider than I thought.
You alarmed him enough to discuss you with another TSO and to pursue you for a follow-up interrogation.
Then you were able to completely dispel his suspicions just by showing him an ID.
1) how did he have any way of knowing if the ID wasn't fake?
2) even if the ID is genuine, he alerted on your suspicious behavior, not your identity.
The program (based on this one encounter) is even stupider than I thought.
TSA has dropped funding for BDO's so why are there still TSA BDO's in our airports?
May 17, 2017, 11:28 am
#32
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Why would TSA allow entrance to the sterile area if they have a security concern? Doesn't that make the SPOT screening process pretty much useless? Of course that would be redundant anyhow since GAO has already determined that TSA's BDO program is not worth doing in the first place.
TSA has dropped funding for BDO's so why are there still TSA BDO's in our airports?
TSA has dropped funding for BDO's so why are there still TSA BDO's in our airports?
May 18, 2017, 3:57 am
#33
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Two things have to happen. The authorizers in Congress need to eliminate the SPOTNik program as an authorized TSA activity. Then, the appropriators need to eliminate the funding from the programs no longer authorized. So, if the program's funding is removed but the authorization remains, the TSA Administrator can still do the SPOTNik program but has to take money from somewhere else within his reprogramming authority.
May 18, 2017, 5:02 am
#34
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It's important to understand what the funding cut for the SPOTNik program actually eliminated. It didn't eliminate the personnel slots because the SPOTNiks are still around doing their thing. Perhaps it eliminated funding for SPOTNik research, for the SPOTNik Academy, recurring SPOTNik training and certification or funding for unique SPOTNik software. It's also important to know during which fiscal year the elimination occurs.
Two things have to happen. The authorizers in Congress need to eliminate the SPOTNik program as an authorized TSA activity. Then, the appropriators need to eliminate the funding from the programs no longer authorized. So, if the program's funding is removed but the authorization remains, the TSA Administrator can still do the SPOTNik program but has to take money from somewhere else within his reprogramming authority.
Two things have to happen. The authorizers in Congress need to eliminate the SPOTNik program as an authorized TSA activity. Then, the appropriators need to eliminate the funding from the programs no longer authorized. So, if the program's funding is removed but the authorization remains, the TSA Administrator can still do the SPOTNik program but has to take money from somewhere else within his reprogramming authority.
May 18, 2017, 6:30 am
#35
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 597
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
May 18, 2017, 8:30 am
#36
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So, would you prefer being groped in public, or in a private room?
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
OP was stopped after security. His encounter with the BDO was prior to the ID checker and he answered every question asked. If that BDO had a concern then why was OP allowed through security and into the sterile area of the airport?
TSA displays the idiocy of TSA Security very well and this was just one example.
May 18, 2017, 9:24 am
#37
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So, would you prefer being groped in public, or in a private room?
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
OP was stopped after security. His encounter with the BDO was prior to the ID checker and he answered every question asked. If that BDO had a concern then why was OP allowed through security and into the sterile area of the airport?
TSA displays the idiocy of TSA Security very well and this was just one example.
May 18, 2017, 9:31 am
#38
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 3,526
So, would you prefer being groped in public, or in a private room?
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
May 18, 2017, 9:33 am
#39
Join Date: Nov 2014
Posts: 597
Flying is stressful enough. But that's just me.
May 18, 2017, 9:46 am
#40
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I hear you guys. But I'd much rather be having a drink and snack in an airport club or lounge than have a stranger with latex gloves fondling my scrotum in public. Maybe it's just me, but a beer or scotch and water on the rocks and some cheese is a lot less stressful than starring in security theater.
Flying is stressful enough. But that's just me.
Flying is stressful enough. But that's just me.
May 18, 2017, 10:43 am
#41
Join Date: Feb 2007
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So, would you prefer being groped in public, or in a private room?
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.
“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”
The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”
TSA clerks are not as scary as you seem to think. I've knocked them about a bit myself - I've played the NEXUS game, and when the supervisory clerk was too uninterested in his job to recognize it or allow me to show him the list of approved IDs, I asked for a higher supervisor. He lied and said there wasn't one, and I was not as experienced as I am now and didn't know he was lying. So I went to the Skyclub rather than argue further. But I did write to the TSA to tell them what had happened and to ask them why TSA clerks were allowed to stay on the job without knowing what they were supposed to do in the job. I never had a problem with having my NEXUS card accepted after that. I don't know if it was because of what I did or not, but I didn't do what I did just for me.
Another time, I was taking pictures of the NEXUS line versus the regular line, and a couple of guys in military uniforms, with guns, told me I couldn't take pictures in the direction of the checkpoint. I said "can!" and they went away.
Another time, I was at JFK T1 and the clerk kept asking for my passport when I presented my driving license and I kept saying why? And she called a supervisor, who called somebody on a radio (I swear by the Old Gods and the New that I have no idea who he could be calling or what about) and he made some scribbles on my boarding pass and I proceeded.
Those of us who are more experienced flyers have a responsibility to stand up to the TSA clerks, to make it easier for the next passenger who doesn't want some TSA clerk leafing through his or her passport.
May 18, 2017, 12:10 pm
#42
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: BOS and vicinity
Programs: Former UA 1P
Posts: 3,723
If nobody pushes back at abuses (TSA or otherwise), they will get worse or at least continue. Not all of us can push back all of the time, but most of us can afford to push back at least some of the time. And you don't have to be a jerk to do it.
Also, TSA employees have way less actual power than the average traveler believes. Most if not all of their leverage comes from the ability to delay you (making you miss your flight) or make you "voluntarily surrender" your property. If you have lots of time before your flight or if you can say you don't care about making your flight with a good poker face, TSA screeners are significantly disarmed. Every outright retaliation I have gotten from TSA has manifested as some sort of delay and nothing more.
May 18, 2017, 6:43 pm
#43
Join Date: Oct 2008
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So, would you prefer being groped in public, or in a private room?
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
Or is it a fetish of yours to be groped by a stranger wearing latex gloves?
The LAST thing i would EVER do is rile up a TSA agent. You have a plane to catch and family jewels to protect. And you are not the one who calls the shots here.
May 21, 2017, 7:20 pm
#45
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Original Poster
Join Date: Feb 2004
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