I really meant to do *this* forever ago. But really, it practically mocks itself. The TSA’s good catches of 2011–every single one of them being things that would have been caught and taken away pre-9/11. Well, everything dangerous, anyway. They didn’t start getting quite that paranoid until recently. Just how paranoid?
TSA confiscates a butter knife from an airline pilot. TSA confiscates a teenage girl’s purse with an embroidered handgun design. TSA confiscates a 4-inch plastic rifle from a GI Joe action doll on the grounds that it’s a “replica weapon.” TSA confiscates a liquid-filled baby rattle from airline pilot’s infant daughter. TSA confiscates a plastic “Star Wars” lightsaber from a toddler.
Feel safer yet, US folks? No? Well, okay. How about now?
Of all the many complaints about airport security and the TSA, one of the most common is that they make little distinction between plausible security threats and passengers unlikely to be doing anything wrong.
And a recent incident in Wichita, Kansas has reinforced that argument, as a four-year-old girl was apparently subjected to a humiliating ordeal after she hugged her grandmother while she was waiting in line.
The girl was accused of having a gun and declared a ‘high security threat’, while agents threatened to shut down the whole airport if she could not be calmed down.
When asked about the overbearing treatment the girl received, a TSA spokesman did not apologise and insisted that correct procedures had been followed.
Keep going, TSA. Sooner or later, you’re bound to catch you a terrorist. Hey, maybe you can put that on 2012’s best catches list. Or how about just admit your system’s a little tiny bit busted? Yeah, somehow I didn’t think so.
2 responses to “Why does the TSA do this to themselves? Anyone know?”
The last 2 times I have flown somewhere, I’ve been taken aside and tested for explosives because I touched my dog..
You know that harness just leaves a lot of room for explosives to be packed in there…
It’s freaking ridiculous!!
I really think the TSA may be trying a tiny bit too hard to find that terrorist.
I know that rules are there to help us, but honestly, they are targeting people that are the most unlikely people to be the terrorist.
But maybe they think that the most unlikely people will be the ones to blow up everything lol.