posted on Jan, 26 2004 @ 07:14 AM
I can remember right after 9-11, when checkpoints were still run by the "rent a cops" and a "trained" airline employee, (like myself, a quick 4
days course paid for by the airline) was requried to oversee the checkpoint and handle any "issues" that came.
First, I will be honest, I am NOT a security expert and I'm sorry but a 4 day crash course taught by an airline trainer is not going to prepare me
for a part-time roll as a security expert. Nor did I want to deal with the hassle and disagreements with the travelling public!
These security officials were confiscating anything with a pointed and even blunt ends. Over the course of an 8 hour shift (and I you would only do
this maybe once or twice a month) the crap that was collected was mind boggling!
Aside from the obvious, like knives and lighters, things like corkscrews, tools, sewing kits, scissors, fingernail clippers, manicure sets and other
oddball items were removed from the public citing "security concerns." Ask me, I think most of this was BS!
Well, over the course of the last year or so, gone are the rent a cops replaced by "official" rent a cops in the TSA. *sigh* While they do not hand
search bags as often as they used to, they are still collecting nearly anything that can be construed as a weapon.
Next thing I know, we will not be able to take a ballpoint pen onboard an airplane. Guess it will just take another event of aircraft being taken over
for the US to realize that security has not improved since 2001.