4 Dumb Ways to Get in Trouble at the Airport

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name of VA 4:52PM February 06, 2009

As a point of fact actual terrorists don't fit a certain ethnic profile. Terrorists, broadly defined, come from numerous backgrounds which is why so called ethnic profilling while easier is inefficient and ineffectual. The perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, terrorists who comprise Hamas are Palestinian, terrorists who make up parts of the IRA are Irish, terrorist who make up certain extreme eco groups such as Earth First comprise multiple nationalities and ethnicities. I would argue that even the best FBI agent can not on site identify between the multitude of ethnicities and racial backgrounds that pass through the airport at any given time without conducting some sort of in depth interview and background investigation so I'm not sure what chance your average TSA agent would have. In addition, if we were to follow your recommendation we would be casting far too great a net in order to catch our target. Racial profiling is sloppy and inefficient. That is why it shouldn't be used not because it isn't politically correct.

William Brown of OH 1:48PM July 18, 2008

If actual terrorists fit a certain ethnic profile, then the TSA should be allowed, or even required, to focus on members of that ethnic group. This would be more effective than reacting to a T-shirt with an image of a cartoon character holding a gun. Oh, wait, it is not politically correct to acknowledge that most terrorists fit an ethnic profile. . .

Reader in Georgia of GA 6:56PM July 17, 2008

First, we had to take off our shoes. Then they threw out my watter bottle and sunscreen. Now there are going to be officers standing there waiting for me to glance nervously around and thus indicate my "bad intentions?" Odd facial cues and body language clearly mean "I'm planning to hurt someone," not "Gee I hope my plane is on time," or "Where's my sister? She was supposed to meet me at the check-in counter." This entire activity is intellectually bankrupt.

I certainly don't envy TSA workers, who have to put up with tired, stressed, and frustrated travelers every day, in addition to the occasional REAL security threat. These workers are people too, and it's got to be a tough job.But given rising fares and fuel surcharges, longer lines, and new restrictions every couple of weeks or so, the airport overtones of tension and nervousness are only going to strengthen. How, then, can we justify paying fallible human beings under such pressure as the TSA grunt to interpret and act upon something as subjective and abstract as body language?

What is perhaps most frustrating about these new efforts by the TSA is that there are bound to be people reading this article (or one like it) and praising our government for its continued measures to keep us all safe, regardless of how high a price we pay in our freedoms. It was Ben Franklin who said that those who would give up liberty to purchase temporary safety deserve neither and will lose both. We've all heard that quote a million and one times, of course, but it seems some people still aren't getting it.

Adam Gould of NH 1:29PM July 17, 2008