TSA idiocies thread

[denim]

This thread is about things confiscated by airport screeners which anyone with any sense wouldn't have bothered with. To start: link

Teacher Arrested After Bookmark Called Concealed Weapon

POSTED: 10:17 am EDT September 17, 2004
TAMPA, Fla. -- A weight may soon be lifted off a Maryland woman charged with carrying a concealed weapon in an airport.

It wasn't a gun or a knife. It was a weighted bookmark.

Kathryn Harrington was flying home from vacation last month when screeners at the Tampa, Fla., airport found her bookmark. It's an 8.5-inch leather strip with small lead weights at each end.

Airport police said it resembled a weighted weapon that could be used to knock people unconscious. So the 52-year-old special education teacher was handcuffed, put into a police car, and charged with carrying a concealed weapon.

She faced a possible criminal trial and a $10,000 fine. But the state declined to prosecute, and the Transportation Security Administration said it probably won't impose a fine.

Harrington said she'll never again carry her bookmark into an airport.

A guy where I got this from suggested that this might be an example of what they're talking about. Dangerous bookmarks! God forbid people should read anything with an actual binding, apparently. Spare me.

[Glory's Sun]

add it to the fear of terrorism turning into lunacy

[JumpinJesus]

Would a martial arts expert be arrested for attempting to bring his hands with him?

[maleficent]

My laptop bag could be considered a lethal weapon - that could knock anyone unconscious...

[Fire]

i'll just stick with my ballpoint pen and credit card

[MSD]

Yeah, the English teacher is going to start blackjacking people with a bookmark. Zero-tolerance does nothing but remove the potential for logic from a decision.

[Manic_Skafe]

I live minutes from a major NYC airport and I often get on the same buses as several TSA/Aiprort Secruity personnel and between the general slovenliness, obscene conversations, and public drinking (when they're obviously on their way to work) I'm not surprised in the least at this incident. I'm not bashing them all but I've been met by what I hope is the worst of the worst.

Atleast I can rest assured that my tax dollars are being well spent.

[maleficent]

I know it can't be an easy job to do, in some instances it's gotta be mindnumbingly dull -- when they can least afford to be bored... Watching bag after bag go thru, looking for stuff (I think it was MSNBC that has a test that you could take to see how you'd do as a baggage screener - I failed miserably)

I know what I've unintentionally gotten on planes with -- and i know what I've gotten confiscated - there is a lot of inconsistency

[MSD]

Originally Posted by maleficent

I know it can't be an easy job to do, in some instances it's gotta be mindnumbingly dull -- when they can least afford to be bored... Watching bag after bag go thru, looking for stuff (I think it was MSNBC that has a test that you could take to see how you'd do as a baggage screener - I failed miserably)

I know what I've unintentionally gotten on planes with -- and i know what I've gotten confiscated - there is a lot of inconsistency

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3071578/

Click on the link about halfway down. It's labeled "Interactive" and has a pic.

[clavus]

Don't even get me started. I about shut down the SLC airport trying to get through on crutches. They wouldn't let me through with them, and they would let me through without them (because if I fell, I could sue)

To protect the guilty, I won't specify WHO, but I know someone very, very well who has carried a Spydercard through security on a number of times. His wife walked through a metal detector, set it off, and was ignored. She had steel-toed boots on, and had inadvertantly left her Cold Steel Defender on her belt. And then there's the time the TSA confiscated the 1/2" scisors in my friend's bag, but left the 3" serrated Spyderco folder (can't remember what kind).

Dipshits.

[Destrox]

Dannggg...

I only got 50% correct on that test you posted MSD. Guess I Failed.

[Y2KDREAD]

Where do they find the people that are the "security" specialist at airports? You think they would want to try to find people who are capable of making decisions more than what they are told specifically. I mean really, a weighted bookmark?

[carrot glace]

33% i suck at thisi had 4 false alarms

[NoSoup]

I got 75%

The intereresting thing really, is this:

Unless you scored 100%, you let a potential terrorist threat go though, that plane, as well as all the deaths, are on your hands...

[trickyy]

why start a new thread? here is the most recent.

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-.../s_397618.html

Attention, travelers with nipple piercings: If you plan to fly out of Pittsburgh International Airport this holiday season, bring your pliers.
Otherwise, you might miss your flight.
At least one passenger who traveled through Pittsburgh learned this the hard way. She had to remove her piercings in a restroom after airport security told her she couldn't get on a plane with her hardware intact.

there have been debates in congress over the piles of money given to airport security, but this is the harshest condemnation i've heard so far (from an australian lawmaker):
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...5E2702,00.html

"To be tactful about these things, a lot of what we do is to make people feel better as opposed to actually achieve an outcome."
"Has it ever occurred to you that you just smash your wine glass and jump at someone, grab the top of their head and put it in their carotid artery and ask anything?"

she is speaking about the introduction of plastic knives on flights.

also, i have two observations. the amount of security at a given airport is seemingly random. tiny airports can have an obscene amount of security while aiports in the largest cities in the country can be significantly less uptight. i don't see the larger plan.

secondly, if anyone hijacked a plane today, i doubt the passengers wait it out. it would be a mad rush at the hijackers -- certainly intense resistance -- probably even if a gun was involved. i guess the hijackers could buy/occupy most of the seats as a precaution, but i'm not sure that would actually happen.

[Grasshopper Green]

I took the screening test and got 42, then 100%, but I had too many false alarms that annoyed my coworkers and passengers.

I don't have any faith in airport security anyway. I've accidentally taken something on a flight that I shouldn't have and it wasn't noticed (I don't know if that is worse, or being handcuffed and taken away and questioned). It's impossible to catch every thing, every time.

[Sho Nuff]

A buddy of mine was flying legally armed on a flight out of LA. TSA looked at his creds, signed his carry papers, ex-rays his carry on, and confiscated his manicure set saying it was not allowed on the plane. The loaded 9mm on his hip was ok, but those little nose hair clippers. big no-go.

[sailor]

Look at it this way. Half of the "security" personell are high school dropouts who can't do anything else with their time, and get a nice feeling of power by making stupid rules even stupider.

As was already pointed out, all of this security is aimed at making people feel safe. It doesn't actually do very much except annoy people.