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Comment by nandomrumber | Hacker News Reader

Would anyone argue that the TSA, Theatre Security Agency, shouldn’t be defunded?

Replacing it with nothing in an orderly fashion? Probably a good move.

Replacing them with ICE as a political gesture? Not so much

The TSA is responsible for more than just airports. As someone with family who works (worked) on port security in the maritime division, I would argue that Chesterton's Fence [0] applies here just as much as anywhere else.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...

Many of us were alive when the TSA was created. It's not a mystery why it's there. (Mostly so politicians could say they did something to improve air travel security.)

Well, and it did do something - make the experience more consistently mediocre. Which is indeed something.

Previously, some airports were even more of a nightmare, and others were actually pleasant.

Ports had no security before 2001? What does TSA do there?

Ports did indeed have very little security before 2001 (compared to now). See ISPS code: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Ship_and_Port_Fa...

The Coast Guard has long been responsible for port security. TSA does administer TWIC, the Transportation Worker Identification Credential program, which is a biometric identification system go access to secure port facilities.

Yeah, it was actually a lot of fun. I worked in a port-related area and often we would just cruise around the port and look at the ships. If it looked cool we would yell loudly and ask if we could come aboard. The seamen were usually thrilled to show us around their massive ships and would often invite us to a barbecue. With the introduction of the ISPS all of that was over in an instant.

Depends on what defunded means... if it means pay/control shifting from a Federal agency to local, then yes.

Maning, airports / municipalities should be funding this. If airports were in control the the user experience, I bet you would see a lot better outcomes.

> If airports were in control the the user experience, I bet you would see a lot better outcomes.

Would you? It's not like I have a choice of which airport to fly out of.

Maybe New Yorkers have options, but for the rest of us, there is only one that is an option.

It shouldn't be defunded, because as stupid as it and the 2001 politics that spawned it were, anything MAGA will replace it with in 2026 would be way worse.

There's an argument for that, though I think replacing it with Trump's basically-unregulated private military is pretty concerning.

This isn’t that.

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