• kreskin@lemmy.world
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          2 hours ago

          Any chance? Why, are you thinking we’ve tried everything? or anything at all?

          I’ll assume good intent for a minute that your question is an honest one.

          Lets start with people having rights in airports. Maybe you miss your plane if you assert those rights but tsa agents with a few days of training should not wield the absolute authority they wield. They are trained little better than rent a cops and their authority should be commensurate with that. They should be accountable for the experience they provide to the public. They should accept feedback, on a curve of course, and the bad TSA personnel should be fired. They need to be accountable for some level of professionalism when interacting with the public.

          TSA should be trained in deescalation skills. Police should as well. This absolutist thuggery cops and tsa agents like to leverage should not be permitted in a civilized society, and there should be real avenues for the public to cite abuse. If we are honest with ourselves, there arent even handed ways to cite and act on abuse, and thats a reflection of abject effing failure of law enforcement and tsa’s leadership. Yes, there are bad travelers, but theres bad authority figures as well, and the thoroughly planned lack of oversight shows that pretty amply. Where is the accountability with these little tyrants?

          From there lets talk about their budget. Its bloated. They have ai programs for detecting threats that are completely unproven. Their equipment deployments are expensive and poorly managed. They should be given barebones security guard level funding because thats exactly what they are. Lets not pretend these are crime fighting heros. They are overpaid mallcops.

          Cargo containers are not thoroughly searched-- we trust senders to be honest about whats in them. TSA’s budget bloat can be redirected to beef up cargo security.

          There are redundancies and inadequacies in the current process. Why not have some new process flows for bag scanning? Bag scanning is a chokepoint for people that should be distributed. The airport layout should optimize for this. Its not.

          Why has TSA allowed Clear and other companies to sell a nicer version for the rich, that literally closes the walkway to allow their clients to saunter through the queue in a privelaged manner? That should never have been allowed. My time is not theirs to sell. That needs to be ended and the people who approved it fired.

          Why am I not allowed to say anything that a TSA agent doesnt like? This is America, and free speech applies even in airports. They have taken this “terrorism” to an absurd degree and they need adult supervision. There should be no such thing as “contempt of TSA agent” that ejects you from your flight. I can consent to security, but I do not consent to mallcops being empowered to cancel my travel on their whim if they are having a bad day and feel bad about their life choices. I dont care if they dont like my tone or a joke of mine. Does it threaten anyone? No. Unless they find something like a bomb or a gun in my bag, they should mind their own effing business and leave us all alone. And if I ask a question, I should have an expectation that they will answer professionally.