Bow before your new overlords - the TSA
Thursday, 14 June 2007 | 248 readers so far
I don’t like the Department of Homeland Security and I dislike the TSA even more. I’ve always been pretty up front in saying that I think our airport security is a joke. I don’t mind having my items scanned, but the herd mentality and silly procedures irritate me. The unthinking bureaucracy positively infuriates me. I have watched old ladies and old men being harassed and I’ve watched businesspeople become enraged at the way they are being treated. I’ve seen young mothers struggling to get through the foolishness that constitutes our pretend security process in America’s post 9/11 airports. Which bring us to this story.
The incident started when Monica, who left the Secret Service to raise a family, was stopped while going through airport security because there was water in her son’s sippy cup. The sippy cup was seized by TSA. Monica wanted the cup back because the sippy cup was the only way her son would drink — and it was a long flight between Washington, DC and Reno, Nevada where she was going for a family reunion. If you’ve ever had a toddler you understand about sippy cups.
So she was willing to spill the water out. Drink the water. Anything — all that she wanted was to be able to have a cup that her 19-month-old toddler could drink from.
Here’s what happened in Monica’s words:
"I demanded to speak to a TSA [Transportation Security Administration] supervisor who asked me if the water in the sippy cup was ‘nursery water or other bottled water.’ I explained that the sippy cup water was filtered tap water. The sippy cup was seized as my son was pointing and crying for his cup. I asked if I could drink the water to get the cup back, and was advised that I would have to leave security and come back through with an empty cup in order to retain the cup. As I was escorted out of security by TSA and a police officer, I unscrewed the cup to drink the water, which accidentally spilled because I was so upset with the situation.
"At this point, I was detained against my will by the police officer and threatened to be arrested for endangering other passengers with the spilled 3 to 4 ounces of water. I was ordered to clean the water, so I got on my hands and knees while my son sat in his stroller with no shoes on since they were also screened and I had no time to put them back on his feet. I asked to call back my fiancé, who I could still see from afar, waiting for us to clear security, to watch my son while I was being detained, and the officer threatened to arrest me if I moved. So I yelled past security to get the attention of my fiancé.
Lesson of the story: don’t piss off the massa. Yous gonna gets a whippin’ if ya does.
1 June 15th, 2007 at 9:45 am
Gringo_Malo says:
Remember the scene in the movie Airplane where a dozen or so security guards haul off a little old lady with a walker as a half dozen or so Middle Eastern men armed with AKs and RPGs stroll through the metal detector? The Zucker brothers were amazingly prescient.
As far as I know, the people who clean and service the planes between flights are the same crew of convicts, illegal aliens, and mental patients who were doing it before 9/11. If someone wants his Uzi left under seat 21A, a few hundred bucks will probably get it there. I wonder whether they’ve finally got all the felons screened out of TSA.
2 June 15th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Kitanis says:
Ah the TSA… the Pox on American airline travel and too many people think its a good thing! I am like you Trevor.. its a travesty to the freedoms we have but too many people believe that its protecting them to care.
I applied for a position with them about seven months ago before I went on terminal leave. It was for a position not in the lobby but having to do with baggage area BTW. After going through more than a few federal forms, I met with a initial interview. We went through the basics of the purpose of the TSA and the guy was really hitting on the TSA Charter and the Department of Homeland Security Charter.
When I asked a question about one of the things he stated was part of the duties… he made the statement about how its part of the responsibility of the TSA agent to safeguard the public in their airline travel as based on the TSA Charter then he made the statement, “just like your oath that you took in the Air Force”. When I told him that that oath was based on the Constitution of the United States to protect the country and not a departmental charter.. he sort of humed and hawded a bit and then moved on to other questions. I was told I would be called within five days.. Naturally I never did get the call so I just assumed I was eliminated.
I don’t know why I applied to the position in the first place.. but I could never understand how the government has their mitts all over a private form of travel like it dose. I understand Security but the actions over the period of time proves to me that its overboard.
3 June 16th, 2007 at 9:48 am
alisa says:
When we were coming back from a training exercise in S. Korea, I was traveling with the S-2 who were carrying confidential/sensitive information. That stuff can be a bitch to get through airport security….
What really kills me is when you see an old man wearing the ball cap showing his WWII veteran’s affiliation pulled over to the side for a screening. I mean … c’mon.
There has got to be a better process than this.
4 June 16th, 2007 at 11:10 am
LK says:
I think that the lady didn’t tell the whole story. If you go to the TSA website, they have posted the security footage of the incident and you can clearly see her dump the cup on the floor, even shaking it so the last drops of water will spill out…didn’t look accidental to me. She also flew into a rage at the security officers, saying things like, “Do you know who I am? I am secret service I don’t have to put up with these rules. I don’t know who she thinks that she is, but we all have to deal with these measures, even if they are silly.
Everyone knows you can’t bring water bottled or otherwise through security. She just thought that her being secret service makes her above the rules we all have to follow. She was a snot to everyone there that was doing her job and now is crying victim.
5 June 16th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Kitanis says:
Ok LK
I too saw the footage, but I look at it another way. The rule is the most stupid thing I can think of. A 2 year old child with a sip cup of water? Yup, he is the most dangerous individual on the planet and should be locked away along with his upset mother because the rule is, you can not have more than a one oz of a approved liquid.
Agree, she was STUPID for saying the things she did and for acting unprofessional as a secret service agent.
But I can understand her outrage. Airlines are PRIVATE corporations outside of the government. But in the name of security, we have allowed a organizations like the TSA to come into being, and rules like the liquid on a aircraft have come to be “safe”. I am sorry, I can not accept it. The whole situation is out of control and I have flown enough since 9/11 to be affected.
The next step of course is the new rule about passports which is come into being in the name of “immigration” reform as well as Homeland security. It will get to the point where you will not be able to travel anywhere without your papers.
I am sorry but I am passionate about this since before 9/11.. the rules for security at airports have been increasing since the first gulf war when Sadaam threatened to bomb airliners during Desert Shield, and slowly.. very slowly.. its been getting worse. Either the US Government needs to Naturalize the airlines or it should back out with basic security and allow citizens to travel freely.
6 June 17th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
Trevor says:
I particularly enjoyed the portion of the video where the white male TSA employee walks past the black female TSA employee and jokingly threatens to hit her with his metal detecting Wand of Power. Gosh, that’s great video! As for the rest of the video, I cannot tell what is happening during the search and seizure of the sippy cup. The video does clearly show that woman is a threat. After all there have been many documented cases of middle aged white women using children with explosive sippy cups to blow up planes. Yes, the TSA is doing a dandy job. Thank God I can sleep better at night knowing that.
7 June 17th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
Dan O. says:
Appears to be the same problem as all gov’t agencies: Rules are black and white and everyone is either void of or just afraid to use what used to be referred to as common sense.
What did they think when she offered to drink the water right in front of them? That she was so desperate to get that dangerous liquid onboard that she’d risk drinking it?
Absolutely no individual thinking or initiative going on here. Just morons with laws to back their ignorant actions.
A lot of this might be eliminated if you didn’t have other morons crying about “profiling”. Profiling is a law enforcement tool NOT a racist act.
8 June 17th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Trevor says:
Good point Dan. There are no explosive liquids I am aware of that would not cause an immediate violent reaction by the digestive system if ingested by a human being.