I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

[feather]

TSA claims sick girl tests positive for bomb residue - Dallas News | myFOXdfw.com

DALLAS -
A 12-year-old girl in a wheelchair was detained for nearly an hour at DFW Airport while trying to get through security.


Shelbi Walser was traveling with her mother on Sunday for a trip that's become routine. The seventh grader lives with a genetic bone disorder and was on her way to Florida for another rare medical treatment.


She's never had a problem flying, but this time Transportation Security Administration agents claimed she had bomb residue on her hands.


"It was frightening. I kinda got mad," she said.


The agents would not allow Tammy Daniels to get close to her crying daughter so she started recording on her cellphone.


"Are you kidding me? We're going to get you out of here in a second, okay?" she said in the video.


"I said, 'What do you mean? What did you test her for?' 'Oh she tested positive for explosive residue.' Okay… at that point you would think they would test her wheelchair, but they did nothing. Everything just seemed to spiral out," Daniels said.


The mother and daughter said a bomb specialist showed up and several agents began talking on their cellphones all while other passengers were speaking up in support of the girl.


"There were people saying, 'Really? You're going to do this to her? Y'all have to take her somewhere private where she's not out in the public and everyone can see her,'" Shelbi said.


Daniels said the agents then suddenly told them they were free to go and offered no explanation about it being a false alarm or anything.


"It was a little much. I don't know what to learn from this one. Somebody, they need to go back to the drawing board on this one," she said.


The TSA responded to questions about the encounter with a statement that said in part, "TSA's mission is to safely, efficiently and respectfully screen nearly two million passengers each day at airports nationwide. We are sensitive to the concerns of passengers who were not satisfied with their screening experience and we invite those individuals to provide feedback to TSA through a variety of channels."

Does the TSA not report to anyone? There's no accountability? Oversight?

When I travel to the US I'm in fear of the TSA. I have a friend visiting over the break, she travels with syringes for medication, and I just sent her an email asking her to be prepared.

[Kamal]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

I got stopped by the TSA for carrying Pepto in my bag for my dad. They were gonna throw it away until I said it's "medicine". The lady said, you said the "m" word, asked me to rip the label off, put the bottle into some machine, took it out, put some sticker on it, let me put it in my bag and off I went with it.

I haven't had a problem with the TSA as much as I've feared clearing immigration and being unnecessarily detained, especially when I was on an H1-B visa. During one such detention when I was in a cubicle waiting for a "senior" immigration officer ot see me when I heard a grown-ass South Korean man crying his ass off in a neighboring cubicle cause they were gonna put him back on a flight to S. Korea. Something wrong with his J-1 visa. I mean the guy's a doctor for the love of God. If he cures even 1 patient back into good health, give him a fuckin chance.

The system here is terrible.

Country was built on the back of immigrants and the ones aiming to make it here legally are treated the worst.

[Garrick]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

TSA sucks. Period. If I had to guess, most of them hate their lives and they take it out on the travelers going through the airport. They are all almost predictably unfriendly. I still think the TSA was created as a job haven for our economy.

[feather]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

It does seem like a calling for bullies.

[res0nat0r]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

I've traveled all over the usa the last few years and haven't had a single problem. It probably helps that I am white though. But I haven't had my bags looked over or any other shit like that ever. I just go thru the scanner and take my shoes off and thats it.

[Highsteppa]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

My experience the few times that I've dealt with them have been largely benign, but I have seem their overzealousness in action once or twice. And while it did seem excessive at the time (it was the searching of a person's luggage), I had to somewhat admit I was relieved that they were being this thorough, but at the same time, knew that I'd be royally pissed if I was the person being searched.

Part of me wondered how much of this was them being Nazis at the security check, and the other half was asking myself how much of this was them covering their own asses. Imagine how guilty you'd feel or the shitstorm that you'd be on the receiving end of if you were a TSA agent and you the person that let a bomb through the gates because you didn't do your "due diligence".

The extreme measures that are being taken are a result of 9/11 - we demanded more stringent means of preventing something like that again, but would we be saying that they did enough if something like that happened again? We'd probably get all kinds of hindsight bullshit again that would make the TSA's current practices seem tame by comparison. The devil you know might not be as bad as the devil you don't know is what I guess I'm kind of saying.

[feather]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

Part of me wondered how much of this was them being Nazis at the security check, and the other half was asking myself how much of this was them covering their own asses. Imagine how guilty you'd feel or the shitstorm that you'd be on the receiving end of if you were a TSA agent and you the person that let a bomb through the gates because you didn't do your "due diligence".

Fair point.

[floridaorange]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

I had a knife in my backpack and they just took it and threw it away, thankfully. This was about 2 months ago leaving Orlando for LA.

[threehills]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

The peon's at the security gate are the bottom feeders in the TSA hierarchy. They are required to stop anyone with bomb residue or anything similar on it, or any other sort of pre-determined findings. They have no choice. They are not granted the power to say who gets to go on, who who gets searched in depth. They are following a predetermined protocol. And frankly this is a great idea. I don't want the low man on the totem pole to make that decision. It sounds like they did the right thing. They followed their policy, contacted a supervisor, who has more training, and the supervisor made the call, even though it was obvious, to let the girl through. Would you put it past a terrorist group to put a bomb on a girl in a wheelchair? I wouldn't.

[88Mariner]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

Americans demand shitty things like the TSA, and are incapable of doing anything about it.

Planes fly into buildings and then all of a sudden they demand that some bureaucratic fuckwits strip search people who plainly aren't terrorists because if they're going to die in an explosion at 40,000 feet it better not be a guy who might have been discriminated against.

The searching and detainment of this innocent little girl is a direct result of the their demand for peace of mind at all costs. I'm surprised there are few American's here bitching about this tbh.

You asked for it.

[res0nat0r]

Just about everyone hates the TSA. Take a poll tomorrow and if the majority of he USA votes against it they would be shutdown by Jan if that were allowed.

Also most of the USA wants smarter gun control laws. But the leaders who vote against stuff the majority want still aren't going to get voted out of office.

[mnbvcxz]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

I had experienced it for the first time last month and it was very thorough; my bag was even searched and a bottle of contact lens liquid was checked for drugs/explosives. But this lasted about 5 minutes and I was on my way.

I guess I'm somewhat surprised by the hatred against TSA as isn't tight security wanted? As long as you're not detained for excessive periods of time or being bullied the process seemed fine to me. Am I missing something?

Of course, things such as the girl in the wheelchair being detained is ridiculous. However this is an isolated event.

[feather]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

If you read around there're more than one isolated event.

[nelinho]

Re: I don't understand this TSA thing in the US

Supposedly if you dont dress like you are catching a bus you will get treated better....Imran Khan (ex Pakistani cricketer & captain?? Now politician) got held for a decent amount of time...he also publicly objected to US drone strikes on Pakistani soil..a US ally dont forget.

Also an Indian diplomat got detained for several hours this year I beleive, and maybe a Bollywood actor too.


Cat Stevens (i forget his Islam name...Said Islam maybe?) was also another high profile case.

9/11 was a whole heap of systematic errors that had never happened before...supposedly...thats the echoes i've heard down in the rabbit hole anyway