Terrorist at the Gate
 

I flew OAK - DEN on Sunday, and saw something I had not seen before. It was sort of a passive gate check - 5 TSA screeners stood in various corners of the gate and watched all the passengers, all the while making little "signals" to each other.

It was as if they were a special ops insertion team, sneaking up on the enemy, except it was as obvious as signs the catcher gives to the pitcher.

Stone faced, they stared at the passengers for any suspicious behavior, it was the most amateur effort at playing bounty hunter I could imagine. Two focused on the jetway gate, as if to assure nobody barged it, four stood in opposite corners and scanned the audience.

All wore gloves, and acted as if immediately ready to pounce on the terrorist. Except that immediately after calling the last boarding group, they responded as if the play was over and headed off as a group to the terminal - exactly like an actor might change personality when the scene was over.

Logistically I though it was interesting - unlike the gates, they had no LEO available to address escalating issues. They did not have radio's to call for an LEO and I imagine depend on one of the team to do such in another manner. And a single distraction would cause the house of cards to fall down.

Is this new or am I just noticing?

You should have yelled.... Bunt Bunt!!

^ :D

and look here for more on the attack of the gate raping blueshirts:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...rrrhhhggg.html

That's the thing - it wasn't a gate search, it was a gate stare-down.

They made no contact with the passengers while they were at the gate, they just made little finger jesters to each other and moved around the perimeter of the folks waiting.

Surveillance like behavior - except obvious as an elephant in the living room.

It sounds like you didn't feel safer after the experience. I'm sure Bart or Ron will straighten you out.;)

Sounds like clowns at work. :D

I suggest putting those cell phone camera's to work.

Get the evidence of TSA's effectiveness published in every available area possible.

i've seen that exact behavior as well and it's the pre-cursor to a gate search based on "spot" analysis :rolleyes:. if they don't "see the big catch", the blueshirts stand there and do nothing but wasting their own resources and then move on

I would have made a few choice finger gestures of my own every time one of them looked directly at me.

That is SUCH a power trip!

It's like something out of fifth grade: "we're going to come up with secret code signals to talk to each other! Then everyone will be scared of us and respect us!"

Do you get a secondary if you smile and them and say "you guys are hilarious!"

And while passengers are backed up waiting to go through security because six TSAs are playing around at a boarding gate . . . :mad: :td: :mad:

2 TSA Spots on the jetway of my flight out of JFK Su. afternoon. I didn't see them harass anyone just a waste of tax dollars:td:

I saw this at ALB yesterday as I deplaned. 2 TSOs were lurking at the podium, and 2 more were on the opposite side of the gate area. One of them even had a 2" 3-ring binder labeled as "TSA ALB PLAYBOOK" - I wonder if it was SSI, and if so, why it was out in plain view to the public.

Found on teh interwebz! The source of the TSO hand signals:


http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...7/a49699e2.jpg