'Straighten Up and Fly Right' Has Just Taken on a Whole New Meaning

by David Kramer
David Kramer, LRC Blog
May. 26, 2010

The Terrorist Scam Authority is running scared--but not of terrorists. Of us. The TSA is keeping a database of passengers who exhibit any sort of “aggressive” behavior while waiting to board a plane at the Scareport. Kicking a wall, throwing luggage (Don’t we usually leave that sort of abuse to the baggage handlers?), or making a pithy comment to a screener (Did you get that, Doug Casey?)* will end up getting the scofflaw’s name onto a Homeland (In)Security database. The database can include “names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, home addresses and phone numbers of people involved in airport incidents, including aggressors, victims and witnesses.” (What--no DNA samples? The TSA must be slipping.)

Here’s the best part: Out of the 240 incidents that have been reported of screener abuse, most of them are incidents where screeners have had conflicts with other screeners!!! Only 30 incidents involved passengers allegedly abusing screeners.

No word yet about a database of screeners who have shown abusive behavior toward passengers. (Probably because that would require memory capacity that today’s advanced supercomputers aren’t powerful enough to handle.)

[Thanks to Travis Holte]

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*A number of years ago, LRC contributor/Libertarian author Doug Casey wrote in his newsletter about a conversation he had gotten into with one of the screeners at the airport he was flying from that I’m sure would have gotten him onto this database had it been around then.

UPDATE: A former Captain for a major airline writes:

I’m a retired Airline Captain of 25 years, and if I’m within a 2 day drive of anywhere…I DRIVE!!! Why? Because I’m SICK of the TSA!

While in uniform and WORKING, I and my crewmembers were treated no differently than the average ‘Mundane.’ Even though we had been FULLY investigated and categorized/documented by the FBI, we were still subject to the same random searches and insults as any normal passenger. Up until the TSA showed up, we Captains were routinely greeted and treated as per our ‘Captain’ status, including being addressed as “Captain.” Once the TSA showed up, all of that changed. I became “Sir,” just like the guy wearing shorts, sandals, a Hawaiian shirt, and a week-old beard behind me. Not once did any TSA official refer to me -- or even acknowledge me -- as “Captain.” This is because they are taught that we are no different that the other ‘Mundanes,’ and are even MORE “suspicious” since we could be some kind of ‘Terrorist’ attempting to gain access to the aircraft (even though the other 5--7 crewmembers with me could easily vouch for my legitimacy). The problem is that THEY were suspect, too…even the 5′5″ slender, Blue Eyed BLONDES with SOUTHERN ACCENTS who generally made up our Flight Attendants. Even ol’ Brown Eyed ME has a deep Louisiana accent which no ‘A-RAB’ could possibly mimic.