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Comment by Fripplebubby | Hacker News Reader

Not from the article, but from the comments below it.

> My phone was stolen while I was going through TSA security at JFK and the TSA guy must have been in on it because he wouldn't let me get it even though we were able to locate it using my husbands phone. When we used the find me app later we saw it was somewhere in Queens so definitely wasn't stolen by someone else flying that day.

I had never heard of that happening before. Great, another thing to be anxious about at the airport. TSA does not pay very well, so I can understand the impulse.

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It happens often. Here's a new one with a video https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/miami/news/tsa-agents-accused-of...

Oh so that's why you have to push it through yourself these days. That way they don't touch the thing and so can't steal anything.

This is 11 years old but relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxsLbl16IM

You understand the impulse to steal because a job doesn't pay well? I don't. I would understand the impulse to go back to school to develop a marketable skill, but not to use the force of the state to steal from people.

Edit: Would you still find this behavior understandable if the TSA agent directly stole from passengers as their bags were scanned? What if the passenger in question ignored the collaborating-TSA-agent and moved to confront the thief; would you understand their behavior if they arrested the iPhone owner, you know, since they're underpaid. Would you accept the same behavior from a local NYPD beat cop? They aren't paid well when they first join the force, can they steal from random people too?

I don't accept or condone theft. That's an extreme position. But I do try to understand the way our flawed world works, instead of just wishing that people would see things the same way I do.

Did it really increase your understanding if you just learned about an issue (TSA-abetted phone thefts) and chose a "common sense" reason for that issue (low wages) seemingly without any actual effort?

I'm glad you don't condone theft, and even that you seek to understand the world, but I don't think that you've increased your understanding of the world in this case.

Please enlighten me - what is the actual explanation that will increase my understanding?

It seems willfully obtuse to read "understand the impulse" as "excuse the behavior" in this context.

Plucking an excuse for illegal behavior out of thin air and calling it "understanding" seems willfully naive, to the point of providing a fig leaf for the bad behavior.

Yes a literal interpretation of the parent comment does not point to "excusing the behavior", but I believe a more realistic interpretation was warranted here.

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