More TSA brilliance

Strong Bad

Makes absolutely no sense at all...then again we are dealing with the TSA.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/florida-teen-detained-tsa-design-her-purse-221835034.html

BeefJerky

What a joke. Here are two comments from the site that I like, and that sum it up quite well:
"These people are not ignorant, they are just plain stupid, which can not be fixed. It seems the TSA is getting to be more of a threat to our safety than the terrorists."
"Guess what...the terrorists have won...and they are now called the TSA."

Honestly, for my next trip to visit my friend in Florida I am seriously considering driving. It may take longer, but it would probably be less stressful. The amount of BS that I have to put up with at the airport is making flying less and less appealing.

mdaudioguy

Lunacy, for sure, but can you imagine how many double-takes that purse causes? :eek: Can you imagine sitting next to her and catching a glimpse of that out of the corner of your eye, as she picks her purse up from the floor to get something out of it? Or the cashier at the liquor store, as she puts it up on the counter to get her money out?

She's well within her rights to carry it, but you have to admit, it's going to draw considerably more attention than most any other woman's purse. In my mind, this is just another teen looking to stand out - not that there's anything wrong with that. However, the over-reaction is becoming all too typical.

Strong Bad

What boggles my mind is, it's just an IMAGE of a gun. It's not a real gun. Suppose I put on a movie on my laptop while flying. Let's just say Rambo for sh**s and giggles. Lots of guns and actual shooting. What if I pause the movie where Stallone is blowing everyone apart...yeah, there's an image of a BIG gun on my laptop. Technically, i've violated the law according to them for displaying an image of a gun.

it's just an IMAGE!

Where does the madness end?

mdaudioguy

Strong Bad wrote: »

it's just an IMAGE!

Yeah, and a little one at that!

Where does the madness end?

That's just it - it won't.

logo896

I guess if you have a picture of a skull on your t shirt your going to kill people because you love schools.

sucks2beme

This is what happens when you give people that make $8 and hour a little power.
Someone at the TSA needs to go over and take charge. Fire the local manager.
Set a clear policy. And make it public. But of course instead eveyone will posture and
dance around the core issue. The real policy is, nobody at TSA is ever wrong.

Sherardp

The yahoo comments are awesome. TSA = Thousands Standing Around, and that's what they do. I've been through tons of airports and essentially it's all the same. People screaming for you to take off your jacket, shoes, socks, underwear. Heck one TSA agent told me to remove one of my T-shirts because it looked a little too thick. HAHA!! Idiots.

WilliamM2

After some of the other TSA offenses I've read about, I hardly see this as newsworthy. So they detained her a little while, big deal.

rebuy

WilliamM2 wrote: »

After some of the other TSA offenses I've read about, I hardly see this as newsworthy. So they detained her a little while, big deal.

You are kidding, right?

shack

WilliamM2 wrote:

After some of the other TSA offenses I've read about, I hardly see this as newsworthy. So they detained her a little while, big deal.

rebuy wrote:

You are kidding, right?

I agree with William in this case. NO BIG DEAL. It looks like a gun no matter how small. They checked it out, let her check it rather than take it on the plane and sent her on her way. Much ado about nothing.

exalted512

shack wrote: »

I agree with William in this case. NO BIG DEAL. It looks like a gun no matter how small. They checked it out, let her check it rather than take it on the plane and sent her on her way. Much ado about nothing.

I think the 'ado' is that it took them more than 2 seconds to figure out it was a gun or not. If they can't figure that out, how the hell are these people going to know what an improvised bomb looks like?
-Cody

Strong Bad

Just curious if you guys read the entire article...

"After TSA agents figured out the gun was a fake, Gibbs said, they told her to check the bag or turn it over. By the time security wrapped up the inspection, the pregnant teen missed her flight, and Southwest Airlines sent her to Orlando instead. The changed itinerary created no small amount of anxiety for Gibbs' mother, who was already waiting for her to arrive at the Jacksonville airport."

After they figured out it was fake? Are you serious? How long did it take them to determine that her purse with an image of a gun on it was fake?

Long enough that she missed her flight, AND they sent her to Orlando instead of home to Jacksonville where he mother was waiting to pick her up.

What if I had a tattoo of a gun on my arm? "Sir, please check your arm or turn it over to us! Images of guns are illegal on flights!"

Then we have double standards. No issues with her heading to her destination, but on the way back...different story.

Hardly much ado about nothing. It's a damn disgrace!

rebuy

It's amazing to me how far we are willing to let our liberties and privacy go to hell just because the Government says so.

mdaudioguy

NOT siding with TSA, but it doesn't look like just a picture. It looks like it's a raised, miniature replica... However, no way should it have taken so long to determine it wasn't a threat, at least as far as I could tell from the photo. Perhaps there's more to the story.

SDA1C

exalted512 wrote: »

I think the 'ado' is that it took them more than 2 seconds to figure out it was a gun or not. If they can't figure that out, how the hell are these people going to know what an improvised bomb looks like?
-Cody

Precisely! And these are the idiots in charge of security?

1C

mrbigbluelight

I just hope Mr. Gibbs (Vanessa's husband) wasn't too upset about her being sent to Orlando instead of her home. :rolleyes:

Definitely NOT defending TSA screening agents, but John Dillinger made his way out of prison with a replica of a handgun carved out of soap. In the days before 9/11, when airline passengers were more "timid", that purse embossing could have been used to cause a problem.

Post 9/11 ? Well, if you could somehow smuggle a Cold Steel Magnum Tanto knife on board and attempted to cause trouble, ..... you're not going to get very far. Passengers aren't going to meekly sit by anymore while trouble goes down. Most people realize they're more "stab proof" than "30,000-feet-drop-bounce-proof".

mdaudioguy

mrbigbluelight wrote: »

I just hope Mr. Gibbs (Vanessa's husband) wasn't too upset about her being sent to Orlando instead of her home. :rolleyes:

She's 17... and pregnant. Whatever gave you the idea she was married, too?
Not to judge her... No, we would never do that...
I bet she didn't react with a sassy attitude, either... No 17-year-old would do that.

Splif

I work at an airport. I see and hear about this stuff as much as anyone, if not more. The inherrent problem with TSA is that no one with an ounce of common sense is in charge of this made up administration. The frontline people are always the ones who get blamed, and not always rightly so, but most of the time.

When this administration was implemented the only thing that changed in the frontline was they got snazzy new uniforms, a badge, and a nice 75-100% pay raise. The old airport screeners were the same people that pushed around the wheelchairs. They're still the same people with a "shiney new coat of paint". There's still no substance. Honestly. IMHO, the TSA is a complete joke. We are not any safer flying today than we were 10 years ago. I mean for god sakes, even United's own pilots are complaining to the FAA because they are not properly being trained, be it books, classes, tests, or simulators, before being approved to fly new aircraft...but thats a different argument.

I don't like to defend the TSA, but in this case I have to. If you try to sneak liquid through, you will be in trouble. A knife, gun, boxcutter, brassknuckles, its all the same thing. You're asking for trouble. This was not a printed image of a gun. This was a piece of plastic, in the shape and color of a gun. If TSA did not detain her they would not be doing their jobs.

Everyone knows the security measures. You're told, blatently, when you buy your ticket. You don't say bomb. You don't carry a gun. Real, fake, plastic, black white, whatever. You're just asking for trouble if you do. And you might miss your flight.

Common sense goes a long way. Do what you're supposed to do, and you get what you want. You don't and you don't. The world works pretty smoothly if you follow the rules.

MacLeod

Bad things always happen when you give stupid people authority. These people arent qualified to be the night manager of a 7/11 yet theyre in charge of the security at the airports.

My favorite one was from several years ago. A DEA agent went to board a plane. They let him take his gun on because he was a federal agent. But they made him leave his fingernail clippers behind!

And there is no defense of this at all. Yes the gun was raised and could look like a replica but it wouldve taken a person of even average intelligence about 5 seconds to examine the purse and realize exactly what it was and let the girl thru. Its some loser thats lived in a trialer all his life and got stuffed in his locker all thru high school thats finally got some authority and so its payback time.

quadzilla

macleod wrote: »

bad things always happen when you give people authority.

t,ftfy

sucks2beme

On one side, it may have caused about 1 minute of panic IF it showed
up on the x-ray as a shadow image. Yes, I'd pull her to the side, and tell her to check it.
Not because it's a danger. It's a PITA because of how it shows up on their systems.
But that should of been the end of it. Detain? Not called for. But either she checks it, throws it out
at the checkpoint, or she doesn't go through. That's the right response.

ryanjoachim

And in a related video (according to yahoo.com) -

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/world-largest-insect-discovered-zealand-193452525.html

GIANT BUGS!

inspiredsports

MacLeod wrote: »

. . . bad things always happen when you give stupid people authority . . .

I think bad things happen when you give ANYONE authority, but that's just me.

I dropped my wife off last Thursday to catch a flight from Cleveland to San Francisco. She called me from the gate and told me she had been detained for 20 minutes because a scanner showed a "yellow block of color" around her right ankle. It turned out to be some kind of equipment malfunction, but she said she felt she was treated as if she was a prisoner.

The next day, flying out of SFO to Tokyo, she was singled out, instructed to remove her "Delta Gamma" monogrammed sweatshirt and asked to wipe her hands with a round white cloth she said resembled a coffee filter. This was put into a machine and tested for explosives.

This is purely crazy that she was singled out twice in two days. My wive is a blonde, tall, fit, attractive woman in her late forties and I think these assclowns get there jollies stopping people like her.

sucks2beme

Worse yet. They are stopping people that DON"T fit the profile . Why?
To show the world how open minded we are. I was waiting for a flight past security.
Two TSA guys walk over and say that they are doing a random past checkpoint check.
They ask questions, and look over my laptop bag. No problem really, other than they
walked right past two guys dressed in sheets and headgear, talking loudly in their native
language on their cell phones. Why would they go past them to me, the over 50 pasty white
guy traveling for business?
Of course, I do know there are other radical groups out there that could also be a problem.
Timothy McVeigh proved this.