I was sure I was about to be detained for the knife, but they simply told me I could leave it there or exit the security line and mail it back to my house for a $15 fee. I took that mailer option, walked out of the line unescorted with a knife, filled out a mailing form, put the knife in the bag, and went through security again.
This most recent trip, I checked carefully for knives before heading to SFO. When I entered the line, they were low on bins. I started taking things out and asked if I needed to remove the Kindle and game system. The TSA agent said I could leave them in, so I did. By the time I got to the other end, I was pulled aside and questioned, as they checked for any suspicious residue on the devices. They eventually handed me the devices back and escorted me to the beginning of the line, where I had to go through all over again, this time with the Kindle and game system in a bin.
Once I even accidentally packed a small toolkit in my carry-on rather than my checked luggage and they let me keep it!
It bothered me a lot, to the extent that I still have vivid memories of it, and I also hate the TSA with every fiber of my being.
So I think it might just be a personality thing.
Even for frequent fliers, the TSA is pretty far down on any rational list of complaints about government. I fly almost every week, but in the past 12 months I have probably spent a lot more time at city hall on a stupid residential parking permit than I did in (non-customs) airport security lines.
In addition to personality, a lot of people project much larger political ideologies onto the TSA. You see a lot of that even in this comment section.
Only if focusing exclusively on direct interactions.
From an ideological perspective, I don't think it's projection (your wording) to observe that in their current form they align closely with both general government authoritarianism and the exercise of federal power over the states.
From a pragmatic perspective, I think it's perfectly reasonable to be alarmed about how such security measures seem to normalize invasive government behaviors in general. Societal norms and values aren't static, so how we do things in the present can and does affect how the public views things in the future.
CMH->MCO ‘remove your belts please’
MCO->SEA ‘keep your belts on’
SEA->CMH ‘i’d recommend you take your belt off’
"Agent": Sir, I recommend you take your shoes off.
Dad: That's okay. I don't need to take my shoes off.
"Agent": Sir, I'm going to need you to take your shoes off NOW!
In addition to challenging the authority of the Memphis TSA agent, my dad is half Japanese and looks quite a bit less white than I do.
TSA has made flying for him and people like him so incredibly difficult. He's just opted out. I don't blame him, either, though it does make visits more challenging now.
I mean honestly.... Why do people like this have to take their shoes off and manage all of their carry-ons and personals into bins and onto belts and ... The entire farce of the TSA is all so callous and genuinely stupid.
When looked at like that, TSA costs more total lifetimes than have ever been taken through terrorist attacks.
The FAA website stats that 630,000,000 people fly per year. If each of them takes 10 minutes to cross the line, that's 105,000,000 man-years lost per year...
Otherwise, thanks for doing the math on how much of our lives is killed by security screening.
I'd love to see law enforcement trained in using basic, declarative sentences: "Sir, regulation X.Y.Z says you have to take your shoes off. Please step aside, do so, and rejoin the line."
I don't believe this is required (or even typical) in the US. Law enforcement is generally allowed to make non-mandatory requests and hope that you comply with them. A prime example is needing to explicitly invoke your right to remain silent (https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127352...). You might also look up videos of people refusing to cooperate with the immigration checkpoints in various states along the Mexican border.
I'm wearing a smart watch, of course, with plenty of metal in its construction.
Nowadays, I just stash anything not made from cotton in the bag to go through the X-ray well before I get into range where TSA officers can given contradicting instructions and then berate me for not following their directives.
You are describing the the usual daily cluster-fuck of life in the military, and in fact, government service in general. I don't know why it is that way, but it is. I have not experienced it in my now 20 years of life in the private sector, but back when I was in the military it's just like that, all the time.
It actually makes it quite hard to not start seeing everything and everyone through a suspicious lens. The odds are good that there are additional structural reinforcements. They probably don't get rewarded for anything else. They may even get actively penalized for not behaving that way.
At my corporate job, I was instructed to a. Look for a reason to pay a claim rather than looking for a reason to deny it and b. Look out for the customer rather than cover my own ass.
Then I had a claim for a benefit that was only paid once a year. I knew the six week period it occurred in, but not the actual date. I got dinged by Quality for paying it.
My ultimate solution: I no longer work there. But most people just do what they need to do to get their damn paycheck. Fighting the good fight is usually not what they get rewarded for.
Office Space:
"I have 7 bosses. If I do something right, no one cares. If I do something wrong, everyone comes down on me like a ton of bricks. I spend all my time trying to not get yelled at."
(Or words to that effect.)
Indeed that's the more likely. I recently had a TSA moron tell me that my iPad did not need to come out because "it's not a computer." I explained that it might not be a laptop but it was still very much a computer. You can't make this stuff up.
In Newark, I put my backpack in the plastic bin. Vegas, put the bag directly on the conveyor belt. LaGuardia, stack the bins after picking up your items. Vegas, do not stack the bins.
Pro tip: if you’re crafting aircraft security regulations for a living, get on one of those aircraft to get together to create a harmonized set of regulations.
Bought mine at BestBuy. Samsonite 5580680. The zipper goes all the way down so the bag is split in 2, a pouch holding your laptop and the other half holds the rest of your stuff. This lets TSA X-Ray equipment inspect your laptop only without cables, cellphone, and gadgets on the way.
I read this sign as a TSA worker shouted every 30 seconds to the shuffling line about how everyone needed to take out all laptops, "ipads", cameras, etc.
I wonder if it was a pilot program. Or more likely, just part of the constantly shifting fabric of pointless theater. I fully expect these new machines are primarily to sell machines, and not to fulfill any other purpose.