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Comment by h2olover | Hacker News Reader

"The TSA is not an intelligence agency..."

They’re not even a law enforcement agency despite the very cop-like uniforms. They’re not legally “peace officers”, can’t make arrests, execute warrants, handle firearms, etc. I’ve seen discussions where actual police officers are a bit upset the TSA is watering down their uniform style, down to including police-like badges.

Here’s the evolution of TSA uniforms over time. You the transition to being faux-cops: https://i0.wp.com/loweringthebar.net/wp-content/uploads/2012...

There was even proposed legislation to stop calling them “officers” but this didn’t happen. More details here: https://loweringthebar.net/2012/01/junior-tsa-officer-badge-...

> There's a bill currently pending that would roll this back, introduced by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) in December. H.R. 3608, the "Stop TSA's Reach in Policy Act" (yes, the "STRIP Act") would prohibit any TSA employee who has not received the federal law enforcement training from being called an "officer" or wearing a badge or uniform that resembles what a real officer would wear.

Perhaps there should be a more modern marketing effort to push copies of Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here"? It was written in 1935 but is stunningly modern. Empowerment of every dim-witted nibshit and mean-spirited person looking for the cover of "for the good of the country" or "for your safety" was a big part of it. And of course Trump's campaign mirrored the campaign of the demagogue in the book as well. Not to mention the campaigns against the media...

s/intelligence/intelligent

I'm surprised to see so many supporting the TSA's intelligence, they have not stopped a single terrorist attack since their inception.

I don't think that's a claim you can validly make. Perception of how hard it is to get things onto a plane can prevent attacks. And unless you screen everyone's minds, you can't know that that's not the case. I'm not saying the balance is right.

I wish, the TSA was tested and it failed to stop 95% of instances of undercover Homeland Security agents from bringing on explosives and weapons.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/01/tsa-fails-95-perce...

That is not a counterpoint in any sort of way to what I was saying. Fear of being controlled could be enough. Thus making the origin point above my post wrong.

True, I was more ranting, hot topic.

There is a term for what you described, security theater. I'm not saying it's worthless, but it's only not worthless because terrorists might believe it's not.

To the contrary, the stupidity of the average TSA worker is such that it may encourage bad-actors. Having to deal with such buffoons on every flight make it very difficult to sustain the delusion that gov't security is competent. They'd be better off just having everyone pass before a HAL-esque camera that does nothing but give you the illusion that you are being examined by some incredibly competent agent behind the scenes.

That the worst point about this kind of security checks: it's an annoyance for everybody but don't stop the bad guys.

When I came back in France during Christmas, the whole downtown access to a city was restricted, with checkpoints at every bridges. It slowed normal people for control multiple times a day. But because this "security" wasn't present 24/7 any islamist could import weapons at night and make a carnage during the day, with the additional effect of the checkpoint slowing people from escaping the area under attack. Hopefully, there wasn't the budget to employ national police for all the checkpoints, so technically you could cross them without any security people having the right to stop you, which I did one time.

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