Annoying part about the kabuki theatre that is TSA is that they are inconsistent airport to airport. Shoes gotta come off, shoes can stay on. Laptop by itself in a bin, or with other things in a bin. Other electronics (e-reader, battery pack, etc.) in a bin, or in your carry on. But if you make the wrong choice they will let you know… loudly.
When the government forces you to act like a clown for no apparent reason
Submitted 2 days ago by Mickey7@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/b335034d-77ac-45cd-8959-27a23953ce5f.png
Comments
JayBeeTX@lemmy.world 2 days ago
adavis@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Inconsistent within the same airport.
One time the line split into two, with announcers for each line shouting different instructions. One had you take all electronics out of bags, the other didn’t. One lines instructions included taking your shoes off, the other didn’t. The line without shoes off instruction had agents insulting people for taking their shoes off for not listening to instructions. 10M away there is an agent shouting at people to take your shoes off.
Furbag@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I just had this experience the other day. Flying SFO to BOS and it was like the security people didn’t even care. Leave everything in your bags, leave your shoes on, leave your belt on. The only thing they asked was empty your pockets, and it could all go in one bin. I thought that finally TSA was getting a bit better about not being such pricks about every little thing.
And then on my return flight, I got pulled out of the security line three times. Once for a mistake printed on my boarding pass (not my fault, but I had to get it corrected at the service kiosk anyway), once for my CPAP machine that I left in my carry on bag (which is exactly how I did it in SFO and they didn’t give a shit), and once a bottle of liquid that was 8.5oz (limit is 8.4oz), so they made me pour out 0.1oz of fucking liquid.
They yelled at me all three times and said that I should know the rules by now, but none of those things came up during my first flight. The rules change literally every time I fly somewhere, so there’s no point in memorizing them anymore. There are the “hard” rules which are sometimes not enforced and then there are the “soft” rules that seem to vary from airport to airport, or even individual TSA agents having a bad day or going on a power trip or something. I hate it.
Kn1ghtDigital@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Almost like security isn’t the point…
Patches@ttrpg.network 1 day ago
It isn’t wholely the point. It’s also a massive jobs programs.
But specifically for not knowing what to expect is a feature not a bug.
If you don’t know the exact procedure every time - then you can’t plan for every countermeasure. You cannot plan 100% when the variables are always changing.
Skullgrid@lemmy.world 1 day ago
they are inconsistent airport to airport
Forget TSA, international travel with my baby for the first time, anxiety problems, little time between connections, laptop and pram fucking freaked me the fuck out.
ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I imagine they asked you to power the baby off and on whilst they his behind a blast shield.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 2 days ago
And if it’s busy and you’re in hurry say goodbye to your small electronics in the bin
ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Had TSA take me aside and X-ray my laptop for a good 20 minutes last time I flew.
To be fair, the laptop had a sticker that insinuated drug use, but it’s not like I had hidden a thousand doses of Mega LSD under the SSD (which it really looked like they were scanning for).
ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Casual reminder: Materials such as magnesium or PETN are perfect for smuggling through airport security. Reason being, they only show up as an anorganic material in the x-ray thanks to their density. They lack any sort of smell that dogs could detect as well. Israel and Russia have used both of these successfully for terrorist attacks in the past, all of the explosives have been smuggled successfully through the security theater. Israel sent pagers with 2g of PETN in the batteries to Hezbollah and Russia wanted to get a magnesium explosive onto an DHL aeroplane to make it detonate during flight.
In both of these cases, the airport “security” did absolutely nothing to stop this. Better empty your bags everyone, because you are the security risk. Once you start allowing this type of nonsense, it will stick around forever.
PR3CiSiON@lemmy.world 1 day ago
TSA is moving away from ion mobility detection to mass spec detection. Mass specs are great at detecting it.
ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m doubtful that this would solve anything, because for example in the case of Israel, the explosives went through multiple independent security theatres, and the PETN still successfully arrived at the victims. Like, if it happens once, okay, maybe it’s a fluke, but if it happens multiple times throughout the supply chain and every single time it’s A-okay, that’s a problem. Israel heavily relied on regular commercial transport for their bombs. There were countless instances where they could have been stopped, but they weren’t. And that is a worrying signal.
And even if all explosives would be detected with perfect accuracy, from now on, it still would be vulnerable to other points of attack. Just pay off a throwaway goon squad, let them smuggle ceramic weapons in their trousers into an aeroplane, and there you go. And I do believe Mossad and the FSB can come up with better ideas than that. IMO, there needs to be a more effective alternative, than this security theater nonsense.
icelimit@lemmy.ml 1 day ago
Wouldn’t ms require actual mass of material? Volatiles, sure, but how many magnesium ions do we have free floating that doesn’t have an organic source?
Also ms is expensive af. Tax dollars folks.
Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Years ago, my now deceased grandfather and uncle were flying together. My grandfather had a full ass pair of scissors in his fanny pack, because he was a practical man and having scissors on your person at all times is useful.
My uncle scanned the row of x-ray machines, and picked the line with the TSA agent that was inspecting booties closer than the x-ray screen.
My grandpa successfully made the trip with his scissors.
ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 2 days ago
That reminds me of when the Los Angeles Clippers (an NBA team, originally from San Diego, named after the famous clipper ships) had a mascot named “Scissors”. Very popular mascot up until they started using him to promote exercise programs for children, including the now-infamous “Run With Scissors”.
ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Using Augusten Burroughs for their marketing was their first mistake.
Frozengyro@lemmy.world 2 days ago
You can bring scissors on a plane.
Fuckfuckmyfuckingass@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Grooming scissors, sure. Full size scissors? Not a chance.
heyWhatsay@slrpnk.net 1 day ago
I had an online disagreement in the TSA subreddit about how moronic taking shoes off was. Those fascist pawns believe that shoe bomber reaction for years was justifiable.
Mubelotix@jlai.lu 1 day ago
Wait what? You guys had to take your shoes off? Never encountered that even though I already reached my plane limit for my life
hansolo@lemmy.today 2 days ago
The addition of the TSA logo in this meme 🤌
Kyuuketsuki@lemmy.ml 2 days ago
Took two flights this last week and was made to take my shies off for both.
I opt out if the millimetre wave scanner though, so they basically just make it an additional thing for not toeing the line.
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 2 days ago
This is proof that rare dramatic instances are indeed, rare. And people have become hypervigilant.
thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 2 days ago
In Amsterdam, I just had to put my feet (with shoes on) through a machine that took a second or two
no need to take off the shoe
Then I given a little question and answer, the Danish officer looked me up and down and then let me board the plane. I felt much more sure that they were being diligent and actually screening people, unlike TSA that always feels like security theater.
Especially when they decide they need to pat you down and then actually move your dick “to be sure I wasn’t hiding anything”
Like thanks for thinking my dick is so big I am actually hiding something but come on… you just wanted to get a feel of my cock Mr TSA
thesohoriots@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Agent Richard Fondler strikes again
ZeffSyde@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’ve got nothing to hide ;)…
Pringles@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
In Düsseldorf, after the full body scan and scan of my bags, I still had to take of my shoes, put them in a box, they scanned said box with shoes and after as I was putting on my shoes, using the metal seat to lift my feet, they complained about that because people sit there. Which is a fair point, but holy shit was I pissed off at the time. I hate that airport.
KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 2 days ago
In Poland i could just walk through a scanner without stopping and that was enough