TSA officers accused of stealing from passengers
nbcmiami.com
nbcmiami.com
It seems to be more prevalent in the US/TSA than other first world countries.
https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/3-sfo-luggage-handler...
An older example:
https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/sfo-baggage-handle...
My new personal favorite SFO story:
https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/san-francisco/sfo-bagg...
United Airline luggage handlers at SFO decided to steal and resell weed from smugglers, then got robbed on camera at the airport while moving trashbags of it to their car. They got caught because they decided to report the robbery to the police!
Public awareness of this theft would be very damaging so there’s also a great pressure to cover it up.
I’m guessing 75% of actual theft is marked as a “legitimate banned item”. I’ve had TSA agents claim high value items were not allowed so they could be stolen ( the encounter was outside the main security area with less concentrated camera coverage.).
In other words if there are reports of ~ 100 thefts a year it’s likely 4x that amount.
But isn't that the same for other countries' airport security workers too?
IMO this makes society here much more pleasant. Personally, I wouldn’t be comfortable living in a society where people who grow, prepare, or serve food, educate children, or maintain the cleanliness of streets are on the brink of survival. Even ignoring empathy which is subjective, unhappy people rarely do a great job. The original article is a good example.
He was referring to the entirety of the TSA.
And they're not professionals, they're unskilled labor with extra steps.
I'd feel more inclined to empathy if TSA didn't turn every airport adventure into a souless anxiety spree for the sake of regularly failing to catch dangerous items brought onto aircraft.
I think the TSA has made us less safe. If there are so many people desperate for money, what’s stopping them from accepting a payment to get something through?
They haven't improved much since then. The organization has essentially made Security Theater an event with audience participation. Yet they routinely miss threats -- like they have a 95% FAILURE rate at points.
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/06/reassessing_a...
Incidentally, that post is fairly well known amongst the security minded as you see here.
https://reason.com/2021/11/19/after-20-years-of-failure-kill...
I'm not talking one of those small, spherical smokebombs. No, this was one of those 5" long, 1" diameter sticks, and it was by itself in a pocket of my netbook bag, which didn't have room for much else, so it's not like the xray image would have been confusing.
Seems like tons of other people have had similar experiences.
TSA's impact on safety is largely imagination and wishful thinking.
After 9/11, there was an overwhelming urge for government to “do something”, and this is the result. If you’re the one to dismantle the TSA, however strong your data is why it should be done, it’ll be your head to roll as soon as a negative event occurs. And so the show must go on.
We prevented future 9/11 style attacks by locking the cabin doors
I think what's really preventing future 9/11 attacks is the attitude of the passengers.
I'm certain of this. The scheme used on 9/11 was a one-and-done affair. It cannot be repeated. We know this because only one hour after the first plane hit the north tower of WTC, that infamous "let's roll" line was overheard on a phone call from Flight 93.
Not only are future attempts at this unworkable, not even the 4th attempt of that day was viable!
Airport screening should be for bombs or other materials that cannot be countered by passenger resistance. Drugs, pocket knives, darts, etc. should be passed through without comment. This would also improve the effectiveness of the screening! With fewer items to be on the lookout for, the screening can be more effective.
> For the next six months, Gonzalez must pay $700 to the two victims involved and he must do 25 hours of community service and give up his airport security credentials.
For reference, grand theft in Florida is when the property stolen exceeds $750 in value.
The entire thing is a complete disaster and failure.
Where do you get these statistics? Is it a fact or a personal opinion?
We don't have a draft because we don't quite need one; we just force people into poverty and leave the military as the only escape route.
If we had functioning social service programs, young men and women wouldn't enlist, and we wouldn't have enough "volunteers."
Actual social services are buried in endless red tape, regulations, restrictions, and endless challenges and demands to justify their existence....while the Pentagon will probably never pass an audit and is essentially an open fire hose where one can just say "JERBS!" and everyone is happy.
The farm bill is nearly as bad.
And guess who screams the loudest when coastal states want money for help with public transit, housing, etc? Rural America, which sucks from the teat the hardest.
And guess who the biggest single polluter / largest carbon generator in the world is?
The US military.
The metal detectors and millimeter scanners are real at the very least, so I’d expect most weapons to be caught.
https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/sfo-armed-robbery-un...
And remember, this is just one case.
"Instead of making headlines with reform, though, the TSA has become better-known for stealing money from travelers. In September, news reports called out the case of TSA working with other agencies to seize $27,600 from a Texas man, apparently because he was traveling to Oregon where marijuana is legal in conflict with federal law; he was never charged with a crime. Last year, the Institute for Justice reported that TSA and its sister agencies at Homeland Security "seized over $2 billion in currency at airports" between 2000 and 2016."
https://reason.com/2021/11/19/after-20-years-of-failure-kill...
There’s a kids science experiment where you coat your hand in the right powder, dip it in water, and it comes out dry. I can’t find a link to it though.
Isn't the common definition of "wet" that it has water on it?
So, by that definition... 100% of water molecules would be "wet".
The first few paragraphs on wikipedia are a pretty good summary, and the article also includes a picture of a water bead failing to wet a surface:
Wetting is the ability of a liquid to maintain contact with a solid surface ...
It is going to be nearly impossible to convince you, I can tell. The next phase is "well just because it happens often doesn't mean it's common" and other goal-post-moving exercises. I don't really understand why you bothered asking questions if you believed you already had the answers. I'm also not sure why it's so important to you that the TSA be regarded as trustworthy despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Good luck with your future endeavors; I'm done playing.
"Is this common?" was the very first comment I posted [1] in this entire thread, which started this whole discussion. The data you (and many others) posted in direct response showed that ~0.5% of TSA agents were fired for doing something else bad a decade ago... which neither exhibits the "is" part of my question, nor the "this" part, nor the "common" part. Going back to my original question here is the exact opposite of me moving my goalposts; it's me bolting them to the ground at their original locations so that others don't move them.
(And to be clear, I don't have intentions that the TSA be regarded any particular way. But I don't have the energy to continue.)
Not that much to get tempted and swipe them.