General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTime to close the TSA
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/11/10/time-close-tsa/Y7RHFtY3UKnu2vTOoi6JnO/story.htmlIn short, yet another fiasco. And the governments response? Yet another directive from Homeland Security that an immediate plan of action be created to correct deficiencies uncovered by our testing.
Fourteen years after the creation of the TSA, there is still no indication that the agency has ever caught a terrorist, or foiled a 9/11-type plot in the offing. Conversely, there are reams of reports documenting the inability of TSA screeners to spot hidden guns, knives, bomb components, and other dangerous contraband as they pass through airport checkpoints. Its doubtful that anyone is still capable of being surprised by a fresh confirmation of the TSAs incompetence even if members of Congress do sometimes feign alarm for the sake of the folks back home.
Lets face it: The Transportation Security Administration, which annually costs taxpayers more than $7 billion, should never have been created. The responsibility for airport security should never have been federalized, let alone entrusted to a bloated, inflexible workforce. Former TSA administrator Kip Hawley calls it a national embarrassment that our airport security system remains so hopelessly bureaucratic and warns that the relationship between the public and the TSA has become too poisonous to be sustained. More tests and more failures wont fix that. Scrapping the TSA would.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)"keeping the American people safe". Just like the Great Wall of Trump.
eomer
(3,845 posts)When in reality toddlers kill more people than terrorists in America.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)Ban babies?
Intern infants?
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)If one was looking for a densely crowded area...
Logical
(22,457 posts)Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)How much security are people willing to deal with? How long will the lines for the screening process be?
Security does work as anyone over 50 years old will remember how many hijackings there were in the 60's and early 70's.
Scrapping the TSA is fine, but it'll be replaced with independent contractors making minimum wage.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)musette_sf
(10,202 posts)or close it.
I did an informal TSA screening accuracy analysis on a recent trip. I wore the EXACT same all-cotton clothes and the SAME foundation garments on the outbound trip and on the return trip. Scanners in both airports were millimeter wave scanners. I have NO implants, joint replacements, etc., I had NO objects in my pockets, and I removed all jewelry before entering the scanner.
I was pulled aside each time for, um, "special attention". In each city, the TSA person showed me where I "alerted" on the scanner. In each city, the "alert" areas WERE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT - city #1, 100% below the waist; city # 2, 100% above the waist. And based on my attire etc, there should have been NO alert at all.
Anecdotal, yes, I know, but I'm convinced the whole thing is a nonsense theatrical activity.