TSA got you down?

[lynn614]

TSA is a joke. I fly a couple times a month for work and then a couple times a year for vacations. I had double knee replacements and thus have been triggering metal detectors for over 5 years. Although I will admit that the majority of TSA agents are professional, on average I would say about 25% of them need to get new jobs and about 10% of them need to be arrested for the criminal things they do. My sister has a implanted defibulator and thus can't go through the metal detector and she also travels for her job. We have compared notes and her experiance is about the same as mine. We have both dealt with treats of being arrested when we did nothing more than request that the agent adhere to their own regulations. We have both been groped in our private parts by TSA agents. On one of my recent trips I advised (politely) ahead of time that if I felt like she touched me inappropriately that I would report it. Her hand touched me in a place that all the TSA regulations say they are not supposed to touch so I said something to her. I asked for her supervisor and he tried scaring me into not filing a report. Asking my name and flight number and trying to make me think that I was going to be in trouble for filing a report. The head of the TSA says that only a small percentage of people are subject to the groping, but what he falls to point out is that the majority of that "small" percent are people with disabilities and/or medical devices. These people are subjected to being asaulted EVERY time they fly. They are either assulted by the groping or assulted by having to subject themselves to radiation and having strangers looking at their naked bodies on video screens. TSA tells you that you have a "choice" not to fly. In my case that means I have a "choice" to quit my job in order to avoid the TSA assaults. Yea, that's a choice alright - be unemployed or subject myself to the the TSA assaults. I have written both my senators and my congressman twice and only received a single response from on congressman. And his response was a joke. What do they care, they can get around the TSA attacks.

 

[Fionab]

Another reason I will never visit the US, I had a double knee replacement 3 years ago and have had lots of metalwork in them since 1995, I have never triggered any airport scanner. The more I hear about travelling into or through the US the more I am determined never to go.

 

[dmoore19]

Another reason I will never visit the US, I had a double knee replacement 3 years ago and have had lots of metalwork in them since 1995, I have never triggered any airport scanner. The more I hear about travelling into or through the US the more I am determined never to go.

Well, we kicked you Brits out once a long time ago. Seems only right you would have learned your lesson.

(for those of you humor challenged this is meant completely as a joke)

 

[simplediver247]

Chicago TSA idiots are a joke, IQ of an apple. Looks like they hired many local gang bangers from my old South Side neighborhood due to political correctness and hiring quotas. While leaving ORD Chicago, my wife and 1.5 year old triggered the metal detector with the tabs on their cloths. Right away they were separated from me, baby screaming & crying our wallets, passports expensive watches are all in the tray with other people getting their things next to our tray. I asked what the problem was and I get treated like a criminal & threatened that I can go to jail for interfering. Here's my issue, the idiots that the TSA hire should have an IQ above a chicken, be able to speak fluent English clearly without street gheto mumbo jumbo, be able to count to 10 and know their ABC's. Every citizen including the politicians & law makers should have to follow the same procedures everyone else does. Stop the political correctness crap and lets look at who & what the real threat is. Our politicians are out of control and no longer work for the citizens of the United States, political correctness is bull s_it. If you don't like the way the U.S. is or was for the most part go back to the desert rock you crawled out from. Vote the Bums Out of Office...
Lead Follow or Get out of the Frickin Way

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Another reason I will never visit the US, I had a double knee replacement 3 years ago and have had lots of metalwork in them since 1995, I have never triggered any airport scanner. The more I hear about travelling into or through the US the more I am determined never to go.

Sorry, you are ignorant if you think the TSA has a lock on hiring idiots for low paying security jobs. I can tell you from multiple first hand experiences that the same issues or slightly different but just as irritating issues happen in many other countries. This board is US centric to a degree so you hear more about TSA here. Bottom line, if you are going to travel by air, you have to learn to roll with it like an adult and stop whining like a child.

 

[Fionab]

Sorry, you are ignorant if you think the TSA has a lock on hiring idiots for low paying security jobs. I can tell you from multiple first hand experiences that the same issues or slightly different but just as irritating issues happen in many other countries. This board is US centric to a degree so you hear more about TSA here. Bottom line, if you are going to travel by air, you have to learn to roll with it like an adult and stop whining like a child.

I am really hoping you are quoting me in error, because ignorant I am not.

 

[Kiwi303]

I wonder how long it will be before images of a major league basketball players show up in the entertainment media.

they can afford to fly private charter, no TSA groping, and a ride limo direct from the hotel/home to the steps onto the plane...

With all the Drug money, Oil money and Rogue Nation money touted by the fearmongers as behind the terrorists, they can afford to BUY a plane to fly it into somewhere...

 

[herbdb]

For the most part they are just people doing their job. Give them a break. I am retired now and just fly for fun things, but I was a pilot for Continental. I have two artifical hips and I would venture to say that I have had more pat downs than most people.

Take it for what it is, a screening. I think the chemical swipes they analyze are more likely to catch something than anything else.

Often the rules don't make a lot of sense. For example, a pilot could easily crash an aircraft like that Egyptian Air guy a couple of years ago, but he won't have any sharp objects on him when he does.

 

[naimis]

If you don't like the way the U.S. is or was for the most part go back to the desert rock you crawled out from. Vote the Bums Out of Office...

Do you really think that will make the slightest bit of difference?

Bottom line, if you are going to travel by air, you have to learn to roll with it like an adult and stop whining like a child.

I suppose you are saying if you chose to fly, but it certainly sounds looked like you were implying that those who prefer not to bend over and take it up the ass are whining like children.

I recently finished reading Jeff Bozanic's "Mastering Rebreathers" (2nd ed), and found some pertinent passages in ch13, "Travel". On pg 324:

Any item is subject to confiscation at the discretion of the indivdual TSA agent screening your luggage.

and on pg 326 (hope Jeff doesn't mind my posting these bits of his book):

While researching this book, and in an effort to solve my own travel problems, I have attempted to go to TSA management at both the regional and national levels. I asked for clarifications to their regulations, and a letter stating that if these regulations or guidelines were followed, that the items would be permitted as baggage. After weeks of interaction, I ultimately received the reply that individual supervisors at any site have ultimate authority to allow or disallow any item, regardless of regulations!

So I guess the mistake made by the guys who were arrested for confiscating cash from travelers was not giving the local supervisor a cut.

 

[naimis]

From "You Are All Diseased", George Carlin: