TSA is a Joke! Posted by Michael Cohen

Besides people who stand on the left side of the escalator and the incessant use of "over" rather than "more than," I have no greater pet peeve than airport security.  I hate airport security; not just because it's a complete of waste of time; but it's a complete waste of time that doesn't actually do anything to protect me.

Today, for example, I was at the airport in Norfolk, Virginia, which for those who have never been to Norfolk is a rather tiny airport.

Yet, as I approached security there were 10 TSA agents at work manning the two x-ray machines. Of those ten, I would say that about 4 of them were actually working - at least two were discussing the relative merits of Madagascar (the movie, not the country).

Yet, inefficiency alone has not renewed my pique toward the TSA; it was the fact that I got the extra body search after going through the metal detector. And this happened not because I was suspicious; not because my name showed up on a watch list, but because it took four attempts to go through the metal detector before I figured out that my belt was setting off the detector (the same belt, by the way, that the metal detector in LaGuardia was decidedly non-plussed by).

Now let me ask you; if I was a terrorist wouldn't I pretty much take every possible precaution to avoid making the metal detector go on? In fact, if I was a terrorist intent on taking down a commercial airliner would I even try to smuggle a gun or a plane on board?

And this really gets to the rub of my annoyance with airport security; you'd pretty much have to be the stupidest terrorist in the world to not be able to outsmart the TSA.  Everything that is done at the airport in the name of security is pretty much a response to some act of terrorism that came before - whether it's taking off our shoes (damn you Richard Reid), putting our shampoo and toothpaste in Ziploc bags and throwing away our water bottles, etc. It's all just theater that does next to nothing to make us safer.

And as Jeffrey Goldberg pointed out a few months ago in the Atlantic, airport security is rife with less obvious problems; the no-fly list doesn't actually work because passenger names aren't checked against IDs at the airport and the people who work at the airport, whether driving fuel trucks or selling magazines at Hudson News don't actually go through metal detectors when they arrive at work.

Read the whole article here and join me in getting annoyed everytime you have to take off your shoes to get through an airport metal detector.

Oh and please, I beg of you, remember the left side of the escalator is the fast lane. Don't dawdle!

Comments

[rockkhard]

actually... yes, if they work in the secure area, they go through the metal detector hundreds of times a week. It was a driving reason i quick starbucks.

[JB]

"In fact, if I was a terrorist intent on taking down a commercial airliner would I even try to smuggle a gun or a plane on board? "

So then, you admit security screening works. Thank you.

[JB]

"In fact, if I was a terrorist intent on taking down a commercial airliner would I even try to smuggle a gun or a plane on board? "

So then, you admit security screening works. Thank you.

[frustrated]

tsa agents suck!

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[Calvin]

not because my name showed up on a watch list, but because it took four attempts to go through the metal detector before I figured out that my belt was setting off the detector (the same belt, by the way, that the metal detector in LaGuardia was decidedly non-plussed by).

if it took you FOUR attempts to figure out that it was your belt sounding off the metal detector, sounds like t.s.a isn't the joke right?
it is a METAL detector. right??

do you have a better way to screen the public? thousands of people come through each day, and people DO make mistakes, thats why there is faults and mess-ups everywhere in the world. t.s.a. could just take away all carry-on's and strip search everyone... would that be better for you?

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Awesome article! Paints nice pictures – I think I wander by next time, I’ll check it out!

[BBB]

Thank you. I agree with you 100%. I travel every week. Those who don't travel every week don't really understand the situation.

Tonight at the airport there were about 5 lanes through TSA. One lane, and one lane only, had one of those body scanners. I did not want to be radiated so I just went in another lane. What a complete joke. A terrorist with half a brain could do the same.

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