My son left this morning for Manhattan. He approached the security checkpoint where there were no passengers there. He even streamed it live, he was the only person there who was not a TSA agent. He approached the first line, the agent waved him forward and scanned his ticket.
She promptly told him that her line was only for TSA precheck, and made him move over to the next line. He laughed, thinking he was being messed with. Nope, she made him leave and go through the other (empty) queue. When he got to the front, the same agent scanned his ticket again and sent him on to the searches.
This is what government employees do- they follow procedure without applying a single coherent thought.
Yep, and they get pay, with benefits. It makes you wonder who isn't thinking.
ReplyDeleteNot all government employees are mindless drones, but there are LOTS who are, especially among the lower paid (and less educated) levels.
ReplyDeleteAs a federal employee myself, I have seen more problems with clerical and lower level admin staff than anywhere else.
Did you know that TSA has so much trouble with staffing that they got a special waiver of the requirement that federal employees have at least a high school education?
I've seen TSA wanding a guy's BARE FEET.
ReplyDeleteI had another ask me about my skytel pager, she'd never seen one. She then volunteered that she didn't own a cell phone and never had. (post 911, but a while ago) How the hell was she supposed to recognize legit devices from bombs? (this was when we still had to turn everything on to prove it was real)
If you refuse the naked scanner, they don't send you thru the metal detector, just a pat down. Why not do both? If the line backs up or you are with a small child, they will divert you to the metal detector, but if you REQUEST IT, you get the full pat down.
Everyone who travels frequently has figured out a way to get items past the checkpoint if they really wanted to. Many have seen a violation of protocol and said nothing because they know the odds are very low and they don't want to be delayed.
And if a bad actor really wanted to take down a plane, all they have to do is recruit some low paid wage slave in an Indian software house, and diddle the software Boeing is outsourcing to save money.
Good luck to your son, he's fighting the good fight. I hope he makes a crapton of money.
nick