TSA Braniac: Let Me Test This Thing -- Ooh, It's Pepper Spray!
Lisa Simeone blogs at TSA News Blog:
Ah, yes, the Brain Trust in Blue, as our writer Deborah Newell Tornello calls them -- every time you think they've topped themselves, they prove you wrong.In the lastest episode of The Adventures of Darwin Award Candidates, a TSA agent at JFK (source of so many shenanigans) was "playing around" with a canister of pepper spray he found on the floor. Oops!
According to the Daily Mail, he thought the pepper spray canister was a laser pointer, and while "playing around" with it, sprayed his colleagues, six of whom were hospitalized.
As Lisa puts it:
That's right, the brilliant "security" soldiers On The Front Lines In The War On Terrorism™ thought a canister of pepper spray was a laser pointer. And these are the people who are supposed to be able to tell the difference between an insulin pump, a purse, a belt buckle, or a breast prostheses, and a bomb.
From the Kerry McDermott story at the Daily Mail:
Earlier this month a former agent who used to work at Newark said of his one-time colleagues: 'I wouldn't trust them to walk my dog.''We're not any big deterrent. It's all for show,' the anonymous ex-screener told the New York Post.
Yes, that's what those of us who are awake and who care about maintaining our civil liberties keep saying.
To be fair, most use-of-force policies allow you to pepper spray sex offenders.
Ken at March 27, 2013 12:49 PM
LOL!
This is awesome.
I love it when the "thin blue line" standing between us and...well, whatever the thin blue line wants to keep us from ... proves their incompetence this way.
My FAVORITE is still the DEA agent who is the ONLY one professional enough to handle a Glock.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeGD7r6s-zU
Any time I feel blue or down I just play that a few times and I feel better immediately.
TJIC at March 27, 2013 12:53 PM
Reading about this incident, I can't help but to think of The Simpsons episode when Marge joins the police force and Homer decides to use her pepper spray on his eggs.
Aspasia at March 27, 2013 4:19 PM
If you liked that, you'll love this:
Flight attendant's gun goes off at Philadelphia Int'l Airport
Jim P. at March 27, 2013 8:02 PM
Know the difference between humiliating a disabled child and a disabled Marine?
The child won't call her pals to stomp your ass into tomato paste.
Ah, the TSA. Cowardice in the face of bravery should be their official motto.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/27/travel/tsa-wounded-warriors/index.html?hpt=us_c2
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at March 27, 2013 11:41 PM
TJIC: "...the ONLY one professional enough to handle a Glock."
I never get tired of that video either. Do you think the guy shot himself in the foot? After the gun goes off he appears to be limping around.
Ken R at March 28, 2013 1:12 AM
I don't get how you can spray six people before you finally realize you're not playing with a laser pointer.
And for that matter, why are you pointing (what you think is) a laser pointer at anyone's face? Laser pointers should not be pointed at anyone's eyes.
Patrick at March 28, 2013 2:14 AM
I laughed out loud. Is that wrong?
Astra at March 28, 2013 6:51 AM
On the bright side, the canister held pepper spray, not sarin spray.
I R A Darth Aggie at March 28, 2013 8:17 AM
Notice that Gog's article link talks about "extending privileges"?
Hey, Jeff Guinn! It's now a privilege to not be groped for having your legs lost fighting the very fucking people the Gropers are supposed to be defending us from!
Ecstatic, arncha?
Radwaste at March 29, 2013 8:28 AM
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