TSA is getting badges and new, more police-like dark blue uniforms, because “some TSA officers aren’t respected” by the traveling public.
Note to TSA spokeswoman Ellen Howe:
No matter who issues it, or what it says on it, a badge is a piece of tin. A badge does not confer respect, it merely confers authority. Respect is what you earn through fair and judicious use of that authority.
A.J. Castilla, a screener at Boston’s Logan Airport and a spokesman for a screeners union, is eager to get a badge. “It’ll go a long way to enhance the respect of this workforce,” he said.
Of course he’s eager to get a badge. He’ll get him some re-spect with his new badge. If you offered him a Glock to to with it, he’d be just as eager to get that, because the only thing better than a government-issued badge is a government-issued gun.
That’s just what we needed…badges for a few ten thousand frisk monkeys who would be salting fries or selling scratch tickets at the Stop-N-Rob if it wasn’t for the TSA, so they may lord it over their betters in a more auspicious fashion.
I swear, this terrorism hysteria will be the death of us. It’s slowly turning this country into a two-class society: inmates and guards.
15 Comments
June 16, 2008 at 12:22 pm
In EMS we have the same problem. If therte is not enough “respect,” the idea that we wear badges is seen as the answer. Many of those who want badges seem to have the same problem as the TSA – they do not know how to deal with patients (customers).
I do not remember the source, but I read that the increase in highway fatalities, since the TSA was created, is much larger than the number of people killed on 9/11/01.
We discourage people from flying, the safest form of long distance transportation, in favor of driving. Even on the divided highways, the safest roads around, the increase in fatalities is unjustifiable. Then there is the only 9% success rate at finding contraband. Yes, NINE percent.
The terrorists do not need to come here to kill us, the government is doing a better job than bin Laden did.
June 16, 2008 at 12:45 pm
They will have arrest powers, and will take over policing duties at US airports beforeit is over.
June 16, 2008 at 1:58 pm
the airport shit is ridiculous but if pinning on a badge could give them some common sense and the system itself some expediency and legitimacy instead of the farcical, clueless, (almost) comedic police state aura that they seem to want to cultivate then slap that tin on ‘em!
but…
“I swear, this terrorism hysteria will be the death of us. It’s slowly turning this country into a two-class society: inmates and guards”
bullshit, mostly only your theorist is insulted and assaulted; most of us go through that tsa idiocy rarely and without repercussion…as stupid as much of it obviously is we’re hardly in lockdown mode…
jtc
June 16, 2008 at 2:29 pm
In a newsclip a while ago there was a passenger interviewed while standing in a long line waiting for a security check: “Here we are all bowing towards Mecca.”
It is astounding to what levels of idiocy people are willing to go for a bit of perceived safety. Some days I feel like living in a big lunatic asylum.
June 16, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Seriously, what do you think would happen to someone if they stood up on a crowded plane and said, “Everyone stay in your seats. This is a hijacking”?
My money would be on 150 people tearing him limb from limb.
I’m in favor of “All Armed Airlines”. You get a seat assignment and a handgun with one round. I’m willing to bet that would be the safest airline ever.
Turkish Prawn
June 16, 2008 at 3:34 pm
YOU PEOPLE that playing the route of being so critical of these TSA personnel have probably never put on a uniform…..of any kind…..and have certainly never had to face the ridicule and inciteful behavior that so many people seem to offer to someone simply trying to do their job. YOU get pissed because they are screening you for security purposes when YOU are already running late to get your flight. Thats right, I said it, YOU are already running late, so maybe it is YOU who should have started your trip to the plane just a little bit earlier. Do I think that having these people in place is the answer….? Absolutely not, at least not in the form they are required to be there in.
What is ridiculous about this whole mess is that they take these people, many of whom are not qualified to be there in the first place and they thrust them into doing a police job. The TSA……..”Transportation Security Administration”……is supposed to be about keeping us safe when we do fly.
So, you take this person who has never been to a police academy or had any substantial police training. Then, you put them into a position of authority and a job assignment where they are supposed to detect illegal weapons, contraband, etc. and do something about it…..? ? ? C’mon here people, putting a metal badge on their chest is not going to make a significant difference if they do not have the other training and tools necessary to get the job done.Having been in law enforcement for almost 30 years now, it makes no difference if a badge is metal or a sewn on cloth badge, we have all used both for years and it depends on the particualr job application at the time.
At the same time, what would have these airport police officers up in arms about this idea..? They are all supposed to be working hand in hand to accomplish the same goal. But alas, look around ANY airport in any city and see how many actual police officers you see on the ground, as opposed to the number of TSA personnel. If they do observe a weapon or find any contraband, they currently have no “powers of arrest” and certainly do not have the tools or means to confront someone with a weapon, so they have to make a call and wait on a cop to respond….? Duh, what do they do in the meantime…?
How about this TSA…? The personnel are already in place and they are a part of the federal government. The feds have law enforcement training academies located around various sites in the country. Why not simply begin the process of sending these people to an academy…….or if they happen to be former peace officers who are already trained, better yet………then you could commission them as law enforcement officers, federal agents or whatever title you want to put on them and give them the authority to take action themselves.
Sure, you will have some who will ultimately not pass the “test” of going through the training, etc., just the same as any agency faces today. When you identify those, you simply replace them or move them into a non-combative position, but for goodness sakes, do something here. Merely pinning a metal badge on them is not going to make a significant difference with some punk who is already bent on a destructive path. And, when one of them gets hurt because they do try to do the right thing, better just get the check book out because the failure to train and/or properly equip statutes will most assuredly kick in.
Lets try to be a little pro-active instead of the typical reactive as is so common in government operations today. When and only when you give the TSA personnel the tools and equipment to do the right thing the right way can you expect to truly achive the results you are supposed to be looking for, keeping Amercia and her travelers safe.
June 16, 2008 at 7:24 pm
the Stop-N-Rob
Thanks for that, I just had green tea come out of my nostrils…..
June 16, 2008 at 8:07 pm
BRM,
Why would the TSA need guns?
Their role is purely symbolic.
They keep you waiting long enough that any armed terrorist would flip out and start shooting. Only passengers would be hurt, because the terrorist is still so far back in line, that no TSA personnel would be in the line of fire.
I do wear a uniform. I do put up with abuse. It is part of the job.
And I do arrive for my flight early. I bring books so that I may occupy my time while in line.
How does any of this justify the increased fatalities due to the TSA?
June 16, 2008 at 11:04 pm
I don’t remember where I first saw TSA=Thugs Strangling Aviation, but I certainly believe it’s true. I’m convinced that the recent airline bankruptcies are as much due to TSA as to Jet-A.
June 17, 2008 at 6:40 am
I’ve worked airline security in Frankfurt Germany and I can’t get through the TSA checkpoints without snickering like a hyena. This is why I don’t fly anymore, because Barney Fife threatened me with arrest the last time I flew, for the horrible crime of laughing at him.
I mean come on, you don’t profile pax, you don’t search the planes before the passengers board, you don’t have ramp side security, but you do check people ‘randomly’. I’ll stick to the road thanks. Airtravel is finished as far as I’m concerned.
June 17, 2008 at 10:55 am
Hasn’t anyone quoted Cartman’s, “Respect mah author-i-tah” yet?
Of all of the most completely useless and ineffective “security” things ever done, the security theater of the TSA stands as the acme of hapless twits.
I will never, ever get on another airline’s aircraft until I am allowed the means to properly defend my life and that of others. Period. I refuse to check my Constitutional rights at an airport flight gate, simply because idiots want to “feel” safe, rather than actually being safe.
June 17, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I have metal where my knee used to be, so I trigger the idiots’ metal detectors every time.
I deliberately fly in shorts so they can see the mess of scars and skin-grafts I call my leg. Most still insist on squeezing my knee or otherwise causing me pain.
On a trip a couple of years ago, I got pulled aside for “special treatment” as usual — happens to me on every flight. They ran their explosives-detection swabs, double x-rayed my backpack, hand-searched it, then gave it back to me.
I’d been to the range the day before, and used it to hold my empties — why or how their detectors didn’t pick up both burned and unburned powder is beyond me.
When I arrived at my hotel, I shook-out the bag on the bed. Along with a visible amount of unburned powder were several empties and a half-dozen LIVE .40-cal rounds. UNFIRED rounds.
And this as a result of “special treatment.”
I agree with Blackwing, but this just means one must think outside the box.
A heavy leather belt with a grommet placed near the end, combined with a heavy padlock makes an amazing flail-weapon. Loop the belt through the buckle then clip the padlock through the grommet. Place your hand through the loop made by the buckle and you now have a ~3′ flail with a 1/2-3/4 pound steel weight on the end.
As you charge Haji-Hijacker, throw the lock into his face with all your might. Quickly make a couple of more loops around your hand, to shorten the flail enough to make it controllable and finish beating his head in with the lock.
Likewise, limp (fake if necessary) and carry a “hame top cane” (google it). They’ll look at it like monkeys first spotting a television, but they can’t very well tell a handicapped man he can’t keep his cane. This is a nice club with a 1/2 pound steel head — our ancestors called it a “mace.”
A stainless-steel “space pen” and the t-handle to a screwdriver set will give you a 8″ stabbing tool that will easily go through an eye and into the brain, or poke other 1/4″ holes in the body part of your choice.
A bit more thought and you could come up with many, many more, but the aforementioned are with me every single time I fly. Just because I can’t carry a knife that looks like a knife, a club that looks like a club or other obvious “weapon” doesn’t mean I am unarmed.
DD
Further thought will help you come up
June 17, 2008 at 10:25 pm
They lost my respect when they told me while my son cried at my side that he could not bring on the airplane a very small snow globe souviner he bought himself with his allowance in his carry on. He wanted to carry it so it wouldn’t break. Apparently it had slightly more than the allowable amount of liquid in it. I almost missed the plane running back to the post office to spend 3X the cost of the trinket to ship it home by parcel post. It arrived safely the next week. BUT, if the woman had been wearing a badge . . .
June 18, 2008 at 12:03 pm
If you want to focus on the one thing, reducing the stupidity of air travel, it can be done. Don’t fly. Now I’m not saying never fly. If you need to get to a funeral, fly. I’m saying don’t fly as a general rule. Airlines run on fairly thin margins. If 20% of the seats are empty, that flight is losing money. Drive, or go to the nearby beach, lake or attraction this summer.
Cut out our extra flights, and let the airlines (and the gov’t) know that we really mean what we say. Treat us like we’re all terrorists and you will go out of business. It would only take a few weeks or months and changes would be made.
Personally I’m in favor of founding “2nd Amendment Airlines”. Every adult that was open carrying would get a discount, security checks would be for bombs only. But hey that’s me.
Anyway, once that problem is solved, c’mon back and I’ll tell what I propose to do about the illegal border crossings and then we’ll tackle the gas prices.
June 20, 2008 at 4:31 pm
TSA is a useless organization staffed with incompetents performing a pointless Kabuki play intended to simulate security. Their harassment of paying customers does not add security, but they hope to provide its illusion via added inconvenience.
Highjacking is an obsolete tactic. Flight 93 saw to that. The major threat to air travel is going to be bombs smuggled onto the planes, which can be guarded against without treating everyone like felons in the exercise yard.
I have to fly by nature of my employment, and that’s the only reason I subject myself to those Barney Fifes. I travel on government orders, on a ticket obtained through a military travel office, and I still get the scrutiny from some half trained unemployable nitwit, who is the same guy who let the box cutters through on 9/11, except now he’s a federal employee. By all means give him a badge and dress him in dark tactical garb, that’ll make Achmed pee himself and go elsewhere for his 72 virgins.
I have some other TSA stories, but I’ll save them for when we want to give ourselves aneurisms. Suffice to say I sicced my Representative on them not long ago.