TSA: Tiny Little Thugocrats Need To Show Travelers Who's Boss
All of these citizens are more sheeplike than ever in their unthinking obedience to the TSA thugs, many of whom -- in my frequent experience -- seek to show any uppity citizens who come through their pretend security portal who's boss.
And by "uppity," I mean citizens who don't kowtow to these repurposed mall food court workers in their cop-flavored uniforms.
Tampa's ABC station has a story about a mom who was held back because of her breast milk. Marisela Burgos writes:
Stacie Vroman, her husband, and their two children were in Florida on vacation and they said their experience flying back home was disappointing."Knowing it was a smaller airport, it didn't seem like there would be that big of a complication to get through," Vroman said.
She said they had a number of issues because of long lines at the airport and after being held back by TSA. She added that they arrived at the airport at least an hour and a half early, thinking it would be plenty of time.
Vroman said she gave TSA a heads-up she had breast milk, which is what she is supposed to do.
"They set it aside and then said we had to check it. I said ok that's fine. I understand that and it just sat there. I said are you guys going to check it," Vroman said.
She felt like she wasn't getting anywhere. She even asked for a supervisor while the rest of her family waited at the gate.
"It almost felt like they were being vindictive at that point....almost (a) power trip or something and I don't know if they weren't trained properly with how to test it. That was just really the frustrating part," Vroman said.
More from PopSugar's Lauren Levy:
After continuing to wait for security to check the two three-ounce bottles of milk, Stacie said that she asked to speak to a supervisor while the rest of her family waited at the gate. "It almost felt like they were being vindictive at that point . . . almost a power trip or something and I don't know if they weren't trained properly with how to test it," she said. "And I had asked TSA, I said, 'Can you guys just check it because I have to get on the flight.' Like I'm my child's source of food . . . so I have to be on the same flight, otherwise we don't have a way to feed him," she told Wood TV.When TSA agents still didn't move forward in checking the milk, Stacie asked if she could just dump out the bottles so that she could board the flight with her family. "I have to go because I have to be able to feed him. And they said, 'No, you can't leave,'" Stacie said. "As a mom, to be able to feed your kid and feel like you're not going to be able to, it was extremely frustrating."
Not only did Stacie and her family miss their flights and have to pay to get new tickets home, they also had to take a much later flight that went to a different, further-away airport. This meant that they also had to pay for a rental car to drive home that night. After the incident went viral, Stacie said that the airline contacted her and offered to refund the change-of-flight fees.
There's this claim about time from the ABC story:
TSA said Vroman walked through the metal detectors just 12 minutes before her flight's departure time."No one wants to take responsibility for it either. I will take responsibility in saying that you know...maybe I should have gotten there even earlier. I will say that, but the unfortunate thing is how early would have been early enough? You know the lines were so long. I don't even think that would have matter(ed)," Vroman said.
Officials said people need to remember to call TSA if they have any questions about what is and isn't allowed at the airport. They want to remind people to show up 2 hours before their flight.
And maybe you're thinking, "Oh, maybe she showed up just before her flight."
Well, guess fucking what: She should be able to do just that and not be waylaid by power-mad government thugs who, as I like to put it, couldn't have caught Bin Ladin if he crawled up their ass and yodeled.
Again, the TSA geniuses had their "security" defeated 95 percent of the time.
This confirms what security expert Bruce Schneier has said for years -- that this is security theater, not meaningful security.
And check out what they're saying. You're supposed to show up TWO HOURS before your flight. Think of all the time that people who do meaningful work -- who aren't employed to grab fellow citizens' groins in order to put on a security puppet show -- lose to this utterly meaningless, rights-violating exercise.
Anybody out there awake?
MORE -- from Christina Kerby at Medium:
The next day, on my way home from Denver, the body scanner once again revealed some bright object of concern around my groin area. My heart sank, hard and fast.When I got pulled aside, I viscerally reacted and surprised the hell out of myself by speaking up. I was in fight or flight mode. I was desperate. In a shaking voice, I told the screener, "I don't want you to touch me. Is there any other option?"
She said, "Ma'am, we need to check this area," gesturing to my waist and hips. "Are you wearing a belt?" No I wasn't. This time I said, "Do I have a choice? Can I go through the machine again?" I started to unbutton my jeans, thinking that if I showed her once more there was nothing suspicious in my waistband she'd let me by. "Ma'am, I don't want you to strip for me," she said with a chuckle.
Then I lost it. "I'm coming from a funeral, I just want to go home, and I don't want a stranger touching me right now." So she called a supervisor. I was offered a private screening. I said, "That won't help. The issue is I don't want to be touched right now. I haven't done anything wrong." At this point the supervisor explained (very gently) that they couldn't let me go without patting me down, so I buried my face in my hands and let them touch me while I sobbed.
Meanwhile: "California officer detained in Taiwan after TSA misses gun in her bag at LAX"
Oh, and about the hysteria over guns on planes, there's yet another bit of nonthink. Becky Akers at Lew Rockwell gets it:
The TSA has been bragging for a couple of days now over a co-pilot for Southwest Airlines whose life it has ruined. The Thieves and Sexual Assailants discovered a ".380 caliber handgun ... loaded with six bullets" when they rifled the poor guy's bag at their unConstitutional checkpoint. Naturally, this "crime" of absent-mindedness with neither a victim nor motive saw the pilot arrested.So far as I recall, no research has ever even been conducted to learn whether weapons aboard a plane help or hurt. It stands to reason they'd protect us aloft just as they do on the ground. Yet the TSA constantly plays on the urban myth that merely possessing a gun at 30,000 feet will end time and space as we know it. And this time, the agency's histrionics over a forgetful pilot delayed his flight for four hours.
Meanwhile, a guy who's in the cockpit can do vastly more damage with the airplane than he could with a handgun. As we saw on 9/11.
My op-ed on what meaningful, constitutional security would be is here.
Yeah, it's just pathetic. And it's two hours now? Multiply by the number of passenger flights per year. Divide by average life expectancy. We come up with roughly two thousand lifetimes wasted, per year, by TSA.
Sure, it's not quite the same, but in a sense TSA costs us 2000 lives per year.
I remember the days fondly when I would park at Dallas Love Field, get out of my car, wave my ticket at the desk and walk onto my plane. One day, when I called things very close, it took me 20 minutes from parking my car to sitting on the airplane.
a_random_guy at April 24, 2017 11:23 PM
Hate to say it, but there's a lot of office work one can do on one's phone in two hours. Not to mention simple reading, whether for work or fun.
lenona at April 25, 2017 9:39 AM
If I was a gun owner, I would pride myself on being a responsible gun owner. I wouldn't allow myself to say, "Oops, I forgot I left a gun in there. My bad." Not knowing the location of your guns at all times is negligence and I would be willing to be detained, questioned and miss my flight. But even then, as long as no one was harmed, I wouldn't feel like it would be right to have me arrested.
Fayd at April 25, 2017 9:39 AM
U.A. understands that of late, aviation had grown insufficiently masculine.
Crid at April 25, 2017 10:20 AM
Forget the TSA. If hijackers need guns, they can just use the Air Marshall's.
Air Marshall leaves gun in airplane bathroom.
Conan the Grammarian at April 25, 2017 5:30 PM
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