…will be to eliminate the TSA.
I was in Chicago this week for work, and on my way back the TSA gerbil found a knife in my briefcase. The same briefcase that made it through RDU without anyone noticing a knife.
When I am elected president in 2016 the first thing to go will be the stupidity that is TSA. That’s right, they took my $60 knife from me. The mail-it-home kiosk has been closed for months at MDW because people complained items didn’t make it back or something.
The stupid part about this whole episode, though, is that I don’t need a knife to cause havoc on a plane. I’m a big enough guy, and know enough about the basics of martial arts and self-defence to cause issues.
But I’m honest, and up-standing, and have no reason to do so.
But the TSA doesn’t consider whether or not you’re likely to cause an issue. Nope. It’s an outright ban.
Bastards.
So, you seem to be suggesting that the knife ban should only apply to some people to be determined by the TSA. Leaving it to the discretion of individual agents sounds like a horrible idea. And really, do you not know enough to leave the knife at home?! The degree of shock at the outcome of that incident doesn’t reflect well on the writer.
Jim – the issue isn’t whether or not I “know enough to leave the knife at home”. The point is that I didn’t know it was there, and it successfully got through RDU’s security line, which means that there is not a consistent application of “security”.
The issue is that there was no alternative provided – it was a theft of personal property.
I hate to put myself in a position to defend the Stasi goons of the TSA, but so it is. It was not theft. There are rules. You were aware of the rules. You violated the rules. You could have turned around and left the airport and come back without the knife. You didn’t. I’m sure the cost of doing that would have been much more than the cost of losing the knife, I concede.
I actually carried a dive knife with a six inch blade through security in Honolulu and LAX and was stopped with it in Chicago. A flight attendant was kind enough to store it for me and return it to me on the other side. I don’t fault ORD for enforcing safety rules. I wonder what the people in HI and LA were smoking, though.
Really, in what way is it relevant to mention that you’re honest and up-standing? Timothy McVeigh looked like a nice enough guy, didn’t he? I mean, you expect the glorified security guards at the airport to divine your deeper motives during the 30 seconds they’re interacting with you? Really, I think you’re expecting way, way too much. It would be rude of me to explicate my expectations of TSA employees due to the particular lack of respect I have for them, even among the security/law enforcement set, which is really saying something.
You want something to be angry about? Be angry that they really do steal electronics. I don’t know about TSA, but the thugs at ICE can steal laptops and other devices with no explanation and no return policy. Welcome the United Police States of America.
No, I couldn’t have left the airport – since I was on a business trip and had already returned my rental car, I had no recourse but to surrender my knife to the TSA under duress.
Had I had any other recourse, I would have happily put my knife in a bag I could check. They won’t let you pull an already-checked bag to put anything else in it, so that was not an option. And the briefcase in which they found my knife was not checkable – there were too many items in it which could not be contained without observation (velcro flaps over pockets, etc).
The fact still stands that the publicized fix for this unknown trespass of “the rules” was not available because MDW closed it down. With no alternatives, the only way I can look at this is as a theft.