Dateline: Las Vegas March 2, 2006
Singer, dancer and American Idol celebrity, Paula Abdul, found herself mobbed by a group of fans at McCarran International Airport. Ms. Abdul was apparently late while trying to catch a flight to Burbank. A Southwest Airline official helped Abdul through a backdoor and bypassed TSA security along the way.
The panic by these low-wattage TSA morons quickly kicked in as they developed a plan to save us all from Paula Abdul. Once the plane arrived in Burbank the passengers were detained, arrested or kidnapped by TSA officials until they conducted a retroactive screening of the entire planeload of passengers. My God! Are we that screwed up that we allow for this kind of foolishness by government?
Will we now see the threatening and dangerous Paula Abdul’s name on the Terrorist No Fly List over this frightening security breech?
17 comments:
Paula Abdul must be a terrorist! Have you ever seen her naked?
I would have refused any search at the Burbank airport. They can't use force and the worst they could do is make me leave the airport!
They have you by the balls at the begining of your trip but not at the end! I'd simply walk right through the TSA ass holes! They don't have the power of arrest!
Paul, come on. "Low-wattage TSA morons?" You wouldn't stand for anyone saying that about CPD or any other law-enforcement agency.
The "morons" were the Southwest Airlines employees who breached security, then were dumb enough to tell TSA about it.
The Burbank TSA officers who were told a non-screened plane was on its way to them had to take some kind of action. I probably would have had the pax deplane on the tarmac and then bused them and their bags to the front curb of the terminal, thus obviating the need to re-screen them. But I've never been to Burbank and I don't know the resources TSA had to work with.
I tend to agree that minutely screening pax for handheld weapons is a misguided focus of our security efforts - the resources would be better spent coming up with better ways to sniff for explosives, for example. But as long as we are going to search everybody, let's search EVERYBODY.
And given the number of musician-involved shootings, we probably should profile anyone involved in the entertainment industry . . . .
JM
Nearly all the efforts of the TSA and FAA to deal with terrorism are un-American. We search suspected and convicted criminals in this country, not travelers. The freedom the Fourth Amendment gave us is more important than the methods of the TSA. It’s too bad the courts have not stopped this invasion of Liberty.
The TSA should be disbanded. I’m sorry I can't respect any person that would accept employment at the TSA.
There was NO need to re-screen anyone because Paul Abdul somehow slipped through the cracks. That Abdul incident is a really good example of how the low-wattage morons working for the TSA lack basic common sense.
At the end of the day, I agree with you that there's no need to screen pax (other than maybe a bag check for bombs, and a visual bulge check/high tech sniff for body bombs).
But given that pax are screened, an unscreened person entering the screened area contaminates it.
Given that the Burbank TSA guys (who may have signed up for the job and given up other potential employment before they fully understood what TSA was all about) had to keep their jobs, they could not ignore Abdul's plane and just let it land and disgorge a host of unscreened pax into the system.
Their solution probably could have been tweaked, but they were forced into reaction by Southwest's action. As an airline that benefits financially from having its security screening 'outsourced' to TSA, Southwest really needs to be beaten about the head and shoulders for violating TSA's procedures.
CPD enforces drug laws that violate the right to privacy, and gun laws that violate the 2nd Amendment. I assume you still "respect any person that would accept employment at" CPD.
Again, I agree with you on the futility of pax screening. But sometimes the best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it . . . .
JM
With a law enforcement job the officers can use something the TSA knows nothing about, discretion.
Common sense and prudence with the end goal of protecting the community from real rather than imagined threats is what being a cop is all about.
Cops can set their priorities to deal with crimes in the order of their impact on the citizens on their beats.
The victimless crimes you described generally don’t get the attention when there’s serious crimes’ happening that can destroy or change lives.
The TSA is a black and white, paper driven agency only too happy to destroy the reputation and employment of anyone with a valid concealed weapons permit that forgot he or she had a gun in their briefcase as they were being screened.
Southwest Airlines personnel did nothing that in anyway impacted the safety of passengers by helping Paula Abdul make her flight under the circumstances. That Southwest worker used what the TSA and their monkeys lack, common sense and discretion.
What are you people.......Freaking idiots?!?!?! In todays society everyone knows that you don't get on a plane without being screened. You don't bring a gun to a airport even WITH a CCW permit. Everyone wants to get on the hate TSA bandwagon but think about this....if the airline employee would let Paula Abdul bypass then who else would they let by pass??? Richard Reid, Tim Mcvay?? TSA DOES have arrest power. Anytime you step up to the Metal detector you give consent to search your person. Put your crap on the xray belt and you give consent to search your crap. I DON'T get re-screening pax at the next stop, either but there has to be some action taken. Also, people are not profiled for security (which could be a bad thing). However ACTIONs of people are. And don't forget that your elected congress approved all of the measures that the TSA uses to screen people and bags. Crimefile....if you think that a person bypassing security is "no big deal" then you are the low-wattage moron who lacks common sense. You were probably a crooked cop so all of this is ok with you. A rapist would probably say she had it coming and you would follow with "well she is dressed like she's easy. I can see you mistake. Go ahead and leave. We'll cover for you." IDIOT!! Southwest Airlines DID impact the safety of passengers. What if SHE had something in her bag, a small hand gun for protection for example. She may not have any bad ideas about it but if someone else sees it they might. You're a freaking idiot and I'm glad I don't live in Chicago if all cops there are like you.
I enjoyed reading the above rant of some really great example of a low wattage little TSA, airport NAZI.
He or she never knew what it was like to travel before they existed. Frankly I fear people with this mentality far more than I do airline hijackers
I would think seaching after the end of the trip would be like searching visitors to the jail AFTER they had seen the inmates and were leaving.
I guess a bad response is better than no response to the TSA.
Ok, the reason they screened everyone coming off the plane was because in theory the plane was not sterile since a person boarded a plane without being properly screened. That person, who gives a damn if its a celebrity, could have introduced a weapon into that plane. Now when the plane lands, the passengers on it get off on the sterile side of the airport, and could easily have introduced the weapon into the sterile side.
Before they got off, they had to be screened just like when you come from the street (non-sterile) into the airside (sterile) part of the airport. Unless you can land the plane on the street and have people get off on the landside of the airport, I believe this was the correct thing to do.
Being a celebrity should have no significance on whether they should be immune to laws and regulations.
Not all TSA employees are morons, CPD has a fair number of idiots as well....geeez giving grandma a ticket for forgeting to signal, why don't they do some real police work....
Sterile you say? Sterile is what the dopes should be that dreamed up the Liberty and Freedom invasion through warrant-less searching of traveling Americans. Those folks should not be allowed to reproduce children!
I don't agree with the one poster who went on the "TSA has to do something" and anti-CPD rant, but at the same time I take issue with your referring to all TSA employees as "low-wattage TSA morons."
Granted, there are some dim bulbs working for TSA, but the fact of the matter is that the rank-and-file screeners don't make the policies; they can only carry out the procedures handed down by headquarters. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are far more "low-wattage TSA morons" in management and senior executive positions than there are working at the checkpoints.
Mark Arsenault
Webmaster, Admin & Head Janitor
Screeners Central
www.tsa-screeners.com
The screeners are not bad people just people that are doing a difficult job. The job is difficult because many people like myself don’t want or appreciate their mission.
The attitude displayed by of some of the screeners while checking my firearms and video equipment has not won me over as a friend. Add to it that there has been an epidemic of theft from baggage committed by a small minority of screeners and hatred becomes part of the equation and screeners become the enemy.
For me this far more an issue of Liberty than anything else. The rank and file screeners are at the mercy of their indoctrination by those at the top of their food chain. The politicians and their patronage hacks making policy are a far larger problem than any single screener.
Just to clarify, I wasn't on an anti-CPD rant. I have huge respect for the big 5-pointed star and checkerboard hat. CPD officers dedicate their lives to keeping the city safe in spite of the idiotic/counterproductive IL and Chi laws they often have to enforce (see the Second City Cop blog for choice comments on the Chi gun ordinances, for instance).
I asked Paul if he would fling the same insults at CPD that he flung at TSA, because I think neither group deserves them - at least at the rank-and-file level.
JM
My insults are only directed to screeners with blind loyalty to an un-American institution like the TSA and the destruction of our Liberty.
wouldnt someone like Abdul, or a little old white lady be the perfect "mule" to carry knives/bombs/etc? Grab a son/daughter/granddaughter, send her a clip of them with their mouth taped up, and instructions to pick up a pkg, or else...
Anonymous said...
wouldnt someone like Abdul, or a little old white lady be the perfect "mule" to carry knives/bombs/etc? Grab a son/daughter/granddaughter, send her a clip of them with their mouth taped up, and instructions to pick up a pkg, or else...
March 08, 2006 11:15 AM
Please! Put down you crack pipe! That stuff will melt you brain! Too bad that already started to happen....
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