The TSA: A (Minor?) Complaint
By Randall Holcombe • Monday June 20, 2011 12:57 PM PDT • 9 Comments
There is lots to be concerned about regarding the way the TSA is trampling on our constitutional rights. So, my complaint here may seem minor within the context of all of the TSA’s activities. But...
Last night I was on my way home to Tallahassee, flying through Atlanta, as I often do. Prior to boarding the flight to Tallahassee, the TSA set up a table at the gate, and four TSA employees screened all passengers on the flight to check their IDs against their boarding passes. And, they selected some passengers to have their carry-on items further screened. (I was not one of the people selected for further screening.) The gate agent announced that anyone refusing to be screened would not be allowed on the flight.
The flight from Atlanta to Tallahassee is a short one — 34 minutes of air time, according to the pilot’s announcement — and it would be rare indeed for someone to be just going from Atlanta to Tallahassee. In all likelihood, all of the flight’s passengers were connecting from somewhere else, and the Atlanta-Tallahassee flight was the last leg of their trip.
This TSA screening irritated me for two reasons.
First, it is a waste of resources. The flight was delayed half an hour or so for mechanical reasons, and four TSA agents hung around our gate for more than an hour waiting for boarding to begin, and then screening passengers who were boarding. As I sat there watching them chat with each other while on the government’s payroll, I was wondering whether my tax dollars were paying for this, or whether it was just adding to the deficit, which would hasten the nation’s rush toward a Greek-style financial collapse. We’re spending way too much money on things that don’t make us safer.
Everyone on my flight had already gone through screening to get into the airport to begin with, and almost certainly had already been on another flight. If there was really a terrorist on that flight, would that terrorist have waited until the second leg of a multi-leg flight to engage in terrorism? Would a terrorist really target a small regional jet on a 34 minute flight? It makes no sense to screen passengers on that particular flight when other flights are departing from Atlanta to Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, for example.
It is completely implausible that a terrorist could be on that flight, and a complete waste of resources to screen those passengers.
My second reason for irritation is more significant. Our Constitution says, “The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated... but upon probable cause...” The TSA had already searched everyone on that flight once, so how could the TSA have probable cause that someone on that flight was a threat to security? It’s harassment for the TSA to do this, but worse, it’s a violation of our constitutional rights.
Tags: Civil Liberties, Constitution, Personal Liberty, Surveillance, Terrorism, The State, Transportation 
If they can just get you used to the attitude that constitutional rights don’t actually MEAN anything in the real world, their conquest is complete.
Henry Bowman | Jun 20, 2011 | Reply
I agree, Henry. What steams me about this particular action is the TSA was saying, “We’ve already screened everyone who’s boarding this aircraft, but we’re going to do it again just because we can. And, we’re choosing this particular low-risk flight just to show you that the additional screening has nothing to do with security.” I’m wondering whether any TSA employees have read the Constitution, and what they think about stuff like this.
Randall Holcombe | Jun 20, 2011 | Reply
Randy:
I travel a lot, and have seen a huge increase in the presence of TSA at gates, on jetways, etc. I’m wondering if there hasn’t been a huge hiring frenzy for TSA to mask unemployment (“stimulus”) and they’re expanding their venues trying to justify all the additional staff. After all, if they all just stay at the security checkpoint, the label “TSA = Thousands Standing Around” perhaps just gets too obviously true.
-Mary
Mary Theroux | Jun 20, 2011 | Reply
TSA is more about fooling a jittery post 9/11 public into thinking that the government is ‘doing something’ than it is about security. If you think about it for a moment, you can probably come up with a half-dozen ways to bring down an airliner that easily circumvent TSA security theater.
As proof, I offer the fact that prisons have a much smaller perimeter, much higher concentration of law enforcement, much stricter security procedures and far fewer people entering and leaving. And yet, contraband is routinely smuggled into most prisons. What chance does a larger, busier, less secure facility with thousands of times as many people going through have of actually stopping a determined terrorist?
Security is only as strong as its weakest link. Somewhere, among the thousands of people employed at airports, there could be a bribable person, or even a terrorist working for a company with access. All the strip searches and grope-downs won’t stop Ahmed from slapping a sticky bomb on the outside of an airplane as he passes by.
Of course, TSA has a second purpose. That is to condition us to accept the indignities and insults of the burgeoning police state. Totalitarianism is a good business... for some.
BambiB | Jun 21, 2011 | Reply
Randy:
What goes on in the land of the free is absolutely appalling. I just thought that I would throw in a reminder that there are freer, saner places to live in the world. Take Chile for example. I hope you come visit us here sometime.
John Cobin | Jun 21, 2011 | Reply
“TSA is more about fooling a jittery post 9/11 public into thinking that the government is ‘doing something’ than it is about security”
Yes BambiB you are correct. Looked at from the other direction, they spend billions and billions of our dollars and they can’t come up with a way for us to be safe that doesn’t involve touching our genitals? Come on. If the airlines were in charge of their own safety, does anyone think it would require naked scanners and being groped? Does anyone think they would look in babies diapers? Also looked at from another direction,the problem isn’t the TSA, it’s the citizens. There is much too small a percentage of Americans that would rather not fly than fly and be groped. If airline ticket sales dropped by 90% because people refused to be scanned, you can bet that TSA scanners and gropers would be out of there in a very short time. People need to stand up for their rights, but they don’t. To most, it’s no big deal to be unconstitutionally searched.
Davidus Romanus | Jun 21, 2011 | Reply
John Cobin, it bites that your blog does not accept anonymous comments. What do you mean by, “At a routine stop a carabinero (Chilean cop) found that my car registration had not been paid”?
Routine stop, sounds like the checkpoints and such that we have here.
I get the feeling that “there” is going to wind up being just like “here” quite too soon, but I don’t know. All I do know is, this TSA bunk and all the rest of the police state movement is creeping me out. Rights are beginning,.. er are already being treated as if they are privileges, it’s just that few stop and think about it, or rationalize it away.
clark | Jun 21, 2011 | Reply
I don’t think the TSA management or those that contracted them really give a damn about the Constitution or any ones rights!
DHS has created an empire that even Congress is afraid to reel in.
And like Bambi’s post, we are being conditioned!
For those that do not conform, well it’s off to the re-education camps for you!
Anyone here up for cavity searches?
B Alger | Jun 21, 2011 | Reply