Passport at Security?
 

Is there any rule at you must show a passport to get through security at certain checkpoints? A few weeks ago, I was at T4, and I got into a minor argument with the guy who monitors the priority line (not even the ID checker) over needing to show my passport. He demanded I get my passport out of my bag, instead of my DL, so I would have it for the woman who checks IDs. When I disagreed with him, he pushed my backpack, called me an idiot, and forced me into the coach security line. I made sure to make a detailed complaint to the TSA supervisor, and I requested that he speak with their supervisors. He seems quite concerned, so I am hoping he did something, even though TSA doesn't supervise them. Here is my question. Since I believe all flights out of T4 are international, is it possible that the airlines require them to check passports, such that the airlines don't have to do it at boarding? I find this very hard to believe, but I guess it is a possibility. The only reason I think this is that at boarding, Swiss did not look at our passports, which I thought was a bit odd. Anyone have any experience with this?

Maybe I'm being dense, but what airport was this?

Sounds like JFK's Terminal 4.

Could also be Terminal 4 at LAX.

I don't show anything but my passport to the collaborators at the revenue control, oops I meant security, of course.

A) It does not show my home address in case they are really hoping to collect vacant dwelling units for their accomplises to rob.

B) It reminds them and me what a police-state we are living in.
Haben sie dein papir bitte? :mad:

Why didn't you just take out the passport?

Does it matter? Not unless there is a requirement to show a passport at the security checkpoints -- even while the functional requirement at the security checkpoint line is generally ANY government-issued photo ID, by which a state-issued photo ID should be sufficient too.

Well, paranoia about police states aside, that seems like a strange request since only around 14% of Americans have passports. I know my wife (who has both US and Canadian passports) never travels in the US with hers.

So why would he ask you?

While I am no TSA basher, I practice the "stand still and insist loudly for a supervisor" tactic when I'm pushed around. I'm also a very large guy, so that may get me more mileage. :0-)

Every flight I've ever taken out of JFK T4 in the past couple of years has been an international flight and therefore seeing passports with the boarding pass may be more common.

[There were -- and still may be??? -- some flights to "the Islands", for which a driver's license and birth certificate were sufficient for immigration purposes. But immigration enforcement -- and certainly not a departure check of US citizens -- is not the security checkpoints' primary role; it's not even a role of theirs.

He physically pushed you? You should have called the police and filed charges against him for assault and battery.

Why should he give in to someone who broke the law assaulting and battering him? My policy is to have criminals arrested as quickly as possible, not to comply with their demands under futher threat of violence. Like terrorists, giving in only reinforces the bad behavior.

Oh, please. The only contact you have with cops is parking at the state fair.

I've tried to teach my kids not to fold in the face of authority, but I've also tried to teach them when and how to deal with tense people (with or without guns) in authority. It ain't rocket science. And it ain't demanding that TSA employees be arrested.

The above statement of "the only contact you have with cops is at the state fair" is incorrect. Furthermore, most cops don't know who LaRouche is.

I generally get by with my library card at T4. its the BA terminal that asks
me for the passport. :mad:

Really? You display that attitude around cops? How does the back of the Crown Vic look these days?

The Larouche thing was an airport joke. You *did* know that the space shuttle was a Russian Mob plot with the gnomes of Zurich and the Black Helicopter world police of the Zionist UN? :D

My attitude around cops is not one of impotent subjecthood. And I've not been arrested and placed in the back of a Crown Victoria either.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to mean. :confused:

My dealings with police tend to go well because, (1) I'm polite and respectful and (2) I stay on the right side of the law. So when I report criminals to them, things tend to go well for me. Even better is an experience a few years ago when I personally tracked down someone who stole something from me, then called in the police to make the arrest.

So you've told your children if they're the victim of battery that they should just suck it up because that's the right people in positions of "authority"? Telling them that they deserved it if they were the victim of a crime seems a lot like "folding in the face of authority," doesn't it?

If it's OK for ID checkers to commit crimes - we're not even talking about TSA - what are the limits with people who have actual authority, like law enforcement officers?

The OP wasn't "asking" to be battered. Is this like, "well how could it be rape? you were wearing a short skirt - you were asking for it." Sorry, but nobody has the right to batter another, not police, not even the vaunted "ID Checker."