If you’ve flown in an airplane since 9/11, you have been subjected to a rigorous screening process prior to boarding your plane.
When you purchased your ticket, your name was cross-checked with a watch list and a no-fly list. If you purchased a one-way ticket, you were probably flagged for additional screening. After you checked in for your flight and you approached security, you were most likely swabbed for explosives residue and then your identification was checked. Then the fun stuff came. You had to take your shoes, jacket, and your belt off. Emptied your pockets. You walked with your arms raised, as if you were under arrest, through a scanner–either a metal detector or a full body imaging scanner. If any oddities were found, you were wanded by security. If this still didn’t satisfy them, you were taken to a room to be groped. If you ticket had been flagged during purchase, you were groped regardless.
And then there’s the carry on security. Everything through the scanner. No liquids over 3 ounces–hairspray, lotion, water for your baby’s bottle, etc.–trash it or check it. Empty your makeup/shaving kit because no tweezers, clippers, or razors are allowed.
Then you proceeded to your gate, where your carry on might be randomly selected yet for yet another inspection.
Whew! The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) sure is doing it’s best to keep us safe on airplanes!
Except they aren’t.
While you and I are being groped, most airports do not subject airport employees to any of these security measures. That guy loading your luggage onto the plane…not groped. The bag he brought to work with a change of clothes and his lunch…not checked. So he could bring a bomb to work and load it onto the plane in your luggage, and no one would be the wiser until it exploded in the sky. Even after the Homeland Security Inspector General’s Office reported that 73 employees at airports last year were flagged for potential terror ties, nothing has been done to fix this problem.
I understand many people have major issues with the extra security measures put into place after the terror attacks of 9/11. I also have a problem with them in that the government runs the program. I personally don’t have a problem with going through the extra security, but would rather it was privatized so there is accountability. What I do have a major problem with is airport employees not having to go through the same screening process as the consumer.
