I just went through security in the Colorado Springs airport. Yes, amazingly enough, they have free wireless internet at some of the gates here (this helps dull the pain of waiting for my 2-hour late flight), so naturally I am blogging. hah. Anyway, I wanted to write about airport security. They're probably monitoring the wireless connection and I'll get arrested for writing this. If I don't post for a few days that's what happened.
Anyway, every time I fly I notice how inconsistent and incomplete the Transportation Security Administration and their airport procedures are. On this trip I'm especially conscious of it. In Portland, on my way here last week, they made me put my bag through one of those giant x-ray machines, AFTER checking it at the airline counter. Then, I wanted to lock it, but I wasn't allowed to touch the bag, I had to tell the TSA person how to do it and she did it for me.
Contrast that with today, where they have little tables set up BEFORE the airline counters. They unzip the main compartment of each bag, swab around the zipper and a little ways into the bag, then stick the swab paper into a machine.
Then they let ME re-lock my own bag. Then they put a little sticker on it that says "TSA" and then they wait with me till it's my turn to check in and carry my bag over to the counter for me.
Then we have security. At PDX, I specifically asked if I should take off my shoes, because often I have been asked to do that. The guy says, "well, we'll see, just walk through." So I go through the metal detector, no beeps, that's the end of it. Here in COS, they tell me to take my shoes off right away. I mention that they don't usually set off the detector, and the guy says "we're looking for other things besides metal."
And these are just examples. Oh and then we have the incompleteness - why are only the main compartments of bags opened and tested? I could probably fit a pretty effective chunk of semtex in one of the side pockets of my bag. This is just proof that all this security shit is just lame.
So what about these inconsistencies? I can only think of 2 explanations: First, it could just be simple incompetence and the result of running a giant bureaucratic agency across hundreds (?) of airports. Or, it could be on purpose. Why would they have inconsistencies in security procedures on purpose? To keep people confused and afraid. When you don't know what measure to expect, when the rules change with every airport, when you can't be confident that you know what the hell the deal is when you're getting on a plane, then you're going to be afraid. If it was the same all the time, people would get used to it and they would get less scared. However, as with everything else in our society, the fear level has to keep getting pumped up. Especially by the government. This sounds like paranoid conspiracy theory, but I don't totally discount the possibility that corners are cut and budgets are slashed because the priority is not to encourage competence and consistency -- and the lack of these things creates fear. All of this is just a smokescreen to make it seem like the administration is making us safer. But they are not.
Besides, I don't think the next terrorist attack will be anything to do with airplanes. There are so many other ways to cause horrible havoc and mayhem in this country. Trains, power plants, water plants, hotels, schools, factories, the list goes on... and what is being done at those places?
Posted by steev at Mayo 10, 2004 04:33 PM