toddlers plot to blow airliners up with sippy cups

[jrtom]

Or apparently so some employees of the TSA believe:

http://www.nowpublic.com/nightmare_at_reagan_national_airport_a_security_story_to_end_all_security_stories

Get a grip, guys. Try to remember what it is that you're meant to accomplish. Hint: it's not your personal aggrandizement via petty power trips.

(I have recently spoken, in amnesiadust's LJ, on the subject of cops and why it makes sense that they're often difficult to deal with, namely that people treat them like crap as much as possible and they're often in constant danger of assault. Those factors, for the most part, don't apply here: airline travelers are generally polite and cooperative while they're going through security, and the risk of any of them offering aggression to a TSA worker is basically nil--and even if it happened, they've got backup all around them. TSA workers who act as those in the above story do have, as far as I'm concerned, no excuse.)

Comments

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

I can understand that the organizational culture of TSA is probably pretty oppressive: they feel as though they have to be able to tell their bosses and the press that they're doing the best they can to keep travelers safe, and that includes making their workers as paranoid as they can manage.

However, as Bruce Schneier and others have pointed out a number of times, there are better ways to spend this time and attention than on harassing individual travelers going through security. Sometimes you just have to step back, take a breath, and consider the situation rationally before concluding that a stressed-out mother with a probably-anxious toddler spilled some water just to piss you off and Disrespect Yore Authority. Among other things, if _I_ were trying to sneak something through airport security, I'd get in line right behind a family with a few small children. ("Look! A distraction!")

"Invisible babies": *chuckle*