LAX TSA Shooting: TSA's Pretend Security Has Its Price
As I've said over and over, we are less safe thanks to the TSA gathering us like sitting ducks to wait to go through their pretend security. From the AP:
Gannon says the gunman entered the terminal, pulled an assault rifle from a bag and began shooting at a screening checkpoint before entering the terminal.
The TSA has never caught a terrorist. But now people are injured and at least one person is dead thanks to the bullshit security theater they put on, gathering targets together for any shooter.
I fully expect this to be answered with "well, clearly we need to have the TSA check-ins as soon as you enter the airport."
But I'm not sure we can blame this on the TSA itself - there were metal detectors and bag checks before 9/11 that could/would have been just as good a crowd, as could have been the line at any of the restaurants.
No, it's no more useful as the pre-9/11 security, but unless it's revealed the guy had a mad on for the TSA specifically, I'm sure they can be named as a reason.
Vinnie Bartilucci at November 1, 2013 1:23 PM
If this had been a bomb (or pretend-bomb, as in the recent dry ice thingies), then the powers-that-be would certainly mandate scanning, scoping, and groping at the curb -- which is what many of us have been predicting anyway, ever since the TSA started shitting on our rights at the airport.
But since this wasn't a bomb and just a gun, which the U.S. is so used to seeing (another mass shooting? yawn), maybe they won't institute the curbside gropes yet. Who knows? There's no rhyme or reason to anything these people do.
Lisa Simeone at November 1, 2013 1:46 PM
My crystal ball tells me they're going to use this incident as an excuse to arm the fast-food rejects.
We can also begin the countdown to TSA agents being described as "Heros" by not only themselves, but also at least one (maybe more) MSM outlet.
ahw at November 1, 2013 1:56 PM
Well, it's a good possibility, Vinnie. The person killed was a TSA agent.
Patrick at November 1, 2013 2:08 PM
Amy- this post seems opportunistic to me. Someone's family just lost a loved one, and I would bet that TSA worker killed was a fine human being.
Eric at November 1, 2013 2:10 PM
I just heard on the radio a few minutes ago (on my drive to work) that the shooter is a TSA employee.
BunnyGirl at November 1, 2013 2:12 PM
"But I'm not sure we can blame this on the TSA itself - there were metal detectors and bag checks before 9/11 that could/would have been just as good a crowd, as could have been the line at any of the restaurants."
Okay, I'll bite. If the line in the past was just as long, what was the holdup preventing you from getting on the plane?
Delay = lines. Longer now.
And yes, we CAN blame this on the TSA, because this nut didn't shoot people at an NFL or college ball game, or go off in traffic. As the news develops, CNN is indicating the nut had it in for someone, if not the entire organization.
Maybe an agent molested his daughter - but that's a different story. (Someone step up and defend the TSA for that, now.)
Radwaste at November 1, 2013 2:13 PM
Eric writes: "Amy- this post seems opportunistic to me. Someone's family just lost a loved one, and I would bet that TSA worker killed was a fine human being."
Eric, no one is saying "yay, TSA worker killed!" (Well, some people are probably saying it in private.) The point is that the TSA is incapable of preventing an attack at an airport. Yet we are constantly being told that that's why we have to pay them $8 Billion a year, let them bully, harass, rob, scope, and grope us, and smile as they're shitting on our rights.
It's entirely appropriate that we point out the folly of the TSA's security theater.
Lisa Simeone at November 1, 2013 2:24 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/11/01/lax_tsa_shootin.html#comment-4023492">comment from Lisa SimeoneLisa is correct.
And I post about the TSA all the time, seizing the "opportunity” to talk about how our Constitution is being ripped up at the airport door, how we are not safer, and how we are, in fact, more endangered.
I never celebrate any person being killed. I am against capital punishment, for example.
But we are long overdue to shed tears for our Constitution, and to pay attention to what I’ve said in this post and have been saying for a long time: There are immense costs to this pretend security.
Amy Alkon at November 1, 2013 2:38 PM
>> It's entirely appropriate that we point out the folly of the TSA's security theater.
Just not when it is out of a tragic context. There is no way in our society to prevent someone opening fire. The TSA is there to keep these weapons off planes. They can't be responsible for someone walking up to the checkpoints armed and ready to fire.
>> The point is that the TSA is incapable of preventing an attack at an airport.
Is that in their mission statement? How would you suggest they possibly do that? Seriously, please answer that.
It seems to me that you want to hold them to impossibly high standards but deny them any of the tools to do so.
Eric at November 1, 2013 2:51 PM
Lisa Simeone: Eric, no one is saying "yay, TSA worker killed!"
Uh, wait a second...
Lisa Simeone: (Well, some people are probably saying it in private.)
Thank you. I was going to say...
Patrick at November 1, 2013 2:57 PM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/11/01/lax_tsa_shootin.html#comment-4023580">comment from EricThe TSA makes us more vulnerable to being killed by forcing everyone who is taking a plane to gather in a large crowd and wait to have a pointless, Constitution-violating procedure done to them.
Amy Alkon at November 1, 2013 3:29 PM
" investigators found information on the suspect expressing not just anti-federal government sentiment but also anger at the TSA specifically, according to the federal law enforcement official."
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/01/us/lax-gunfire/index.html
Huh. Imagine that. An armed attack by someone angry at the TSA's thousands of daily violations of our citizens.
No one could have seen this coming. It's just inconceivable.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 1, 2013 3:33 PM
Amy- this post seems opportunistic to me. Someone's family just lost a loved one, and I would bet that TSA worker killed was a fine human being. - Eric
Fuck em. They made their money by shitting on the constitution. He was, under the legal definition of the term, a traitor.
no one is saying "yay, TSA worker killed!" - Lisa
I'll do it. Yay, TSA worker killed!
I'll go one further. Its shame more of them werent killed
lujlp at November 1, 2013 4:00 PM
>>I'll go one further. Its shame more of them weren't killed.
We can always hope for a copycat.
Assholio at November 1, 2013 4:57 PM
And now we find out that the TSA worker killed was a BDO! That's "behavior detection officer." Or as we've been calling them for years, voodoo practitioners.
The whole point of BDOs, according to the TSA, is to spot suspicious behavior. Guess that worked out real well.
We've written about BDOs at TSA News more times than I can count.
I didn't create the irony here; I'm just pointing it out.
Lisa Simeone at November 1, 2013 7:31 PM
Can we all say "terrorist sympathizers"?
Given that the terrorist in question targeted members of the TSA, I wonder if the moderate TSA opponents will be coming out with apologies.
Orlos700 at November 1, 2013 10:08 PM
" I wonder if the moderate TSA opponents will be coming out with apologies."?"
Another boot-licking sycophant speaks.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 2, 2013 1:09 AM
TSA employee misconduct up 26% in 3 years
August 2013 GAO report
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 2, 2013 1:19 AM
TSA workers want more power, admit their job is a sham.
And they blame their bad reputation on the media.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 2, 2013 1:25 AM
I am sad to say that I wish he would have killed more of them. I want the TSA agents to consider that they may be targeted and be afraid to come to work on any given day. The TSA was never needed and is a group that is squatting over the U.S. Constitution and taking a dump.
Jim P. at November 2, 2013 6:48 AM
1. First of all, I agree with just about everything Amy says about the TSA; they are ineffective, overly intrusive, basically a useless bane on travelers everywhere.
2. That being said, they cannot be blamed for this. It was just a nut job, if it hadn't been the TSA it would have been a post office or a police station that he fixated on and shot up. If justified hatred of the TSA was what caused this, then Amy would be writing this column from prison.
3. And to anyone who thinks this is remotely a good thing, not even considering your lack of concern for human life, ask yourself: Will the result of this be the TSA becoming less intrusive or more intrusive? Do you think that they're going to become less humorless dicks or more? I think we can safely say, our airport experience will not be getting better thanks to this guy.
clinky at November 2, 2013 10:04 AM
Clinky, the airport experience is not going to degrade because of "this guy".
It's going to degrade because the TSA will decide to degrade it. They were degrading it before "this guy", and they will continue to degrade it.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 2, 2013 12:02 PM
The TSA is there to keep these weapons off planes. They can't be responsible for someone walking up to the checkpoints armed and ready to fire.
Oh Eric, if only they could actually accomplish keeping weapons off planes. I'm sure we all remember this.
And I have to (sort of) agree with Lujlp and JimP. I'm not sad about the TSA agent dying, mostly because I don't know him personally. I'm upset that he had to die, but I'm more upset that it seems it will take bloodshed for anything to change. People know that the TSA is ridiculous and useless and trampling rights, but most seem to be just taking it in stride, happy that it isn't worse. One friend posted on facebook about how excited she was to only have to go through the scanner, and not also be felt up.
Jazzhands at November 2, 2013 2:17 PM
Orlos700: Can we all say "terrorist sympathizers"?
Orlos nailed it. And you guys. If you're supporting this act, you're a terrorist sympathizer.
Patrick at November 2, 2013 3:17 PM
And you guys. If you're supporting this act, you're a terrorist sympathizer.
Whos the terrorists, the people violating the spirit and law of the constitution, or the guy who shot em?
This is one of those rare real life do the ends justify the means questions.
Given the people working for the TSA believe the ends justify the means, I can not really hold the shooter to a higher standard when he also believe the ends justified the means.
And you Patrick are the type of guy who would have considered Jefferson, Madison, Washington and Fraklin to be terrorist(s)/sympathisers
lujlp at November 2, 2013 4:43 PM
I don't want anyone to have to die for the people in the United States to have liberty. I don't support the idea of an armed insurrection either.
That being said, I would be on the side of the group that is attacking Mordor on the Potomac to reestablish the constitutional limits of a true federal government.
So call me a terrorist sympathizer. From everything I have seen from you, your thinking is that the federal leviathan is always right.
I have a question for you Patrick. I have posted my statement that the TSA was never needed multiple times. If you can't find it I'm more than willing to post it again if would like. You have failed to say how I was wrong. Why do I hear crickets on it from you if the TSA actually worked?
Jim P. at November 2, 2013 5:30 PM
Exactly when did this go from psycho shooting people to "Terrorist act?"
Matt at November 2, 2013 10:42 PM
About the time Orlos700 and Patrick declared it so.
But I'm still hearing crickets about why the TSA was needed in the first place.
Jim P. at November 3, 2013 1:19 PM
Leave a comment