TSA Agent Arrested at LAX

[American]

Link

They are the first line of defense in airport security but two troubling incidents involving TSA agents at LAX are raising concerns.
A TSA agent was arrested on January 3rd in Terminal One at LAX, a source told NBCLA. He had just gotten off duty and was behaving erratically, saying, "I am god, I’m in charge." The agent was arrested.

Meanwhile, a TSA Internal Affairs investigation turned up evidence of LAX TSA agents using drugs at an after-hours party.

Do we need anymore proof that these morons deserve to us full body scanners? They have some meglamaniacs in their mist.

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

I don't think that this is so much an indictment of the TSA as it is a reminder that the government is made up of perfect strangers -- oftentimes they are well-meaning strangers who do what they are supposed to do and believe in what they are doing, but they are strangers nevertheless.

You should always be very cautious about giving unto the government any authority which you do not wish a perfect stranger to have over you.

 

[Partisan]

I don't think that this is so much an indictment of the TSA as it is a reminder that the government is made up of perfect strangers -- oftentimes they are well-meaning strangers who do what they are supposed to do and believe in what they are doing, but they are strangers nevertheless.

You should always be very cautious about giving unto the government any authority which you do not wish a perfect stranger to have over you.

Especially when they can barely speak English.....

 

[Ikari]

We've all been through the airports, we've seen who the TSA agents are. These aren't people who went to college and studied hard to learn the law and court systems so that they can become police officers or FBI agents. I'm not really surprised that they're drug taking thugs. And these are the people responsible for our "safety".

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

Oh, I dunno.

If in order to pay my bills I had to take a job handling hundreds if not thousands of agitated travelers every day, I'd probably end up doing drugs too.

Especially if I took my job seriously and tried to treat everyone with respect.

After a certain point, it's blow off some steam or loose your shiznit, you.

 

[Catz Part Deux]

We've all been through the airports, we've seen who the TSA agents are. These aren't people who went to college and studied hard to learn the law and court systems so that they can become police officers or FBI agents. I'm not really surprised that they're drug taking thugs. And these are the people responsible for our "safety".

To be brutally honest, the conservatives didn't want to pony up the money to hire college graduates, did they?

 

[CrusaderRabbit08]

We've all been through the airports, we've seen who the TSA agents are. These aren't people who went to college and studied hard to learn the law and court systems so that they can become police officers or FBI agents. I'm not really surprised that they're drug taking thugs. And these are the people responsible for our "safety".

If they really want to get serious about airport safety, then they need to ditch TSA and man these stations with armed, uniformed Border Patrol agents. After all, airports are just like border crossings.

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

To be brutally honest, the conservatives didn't want to pony up the money to hire college graduates, did they?

To be brutally honest, neither side wants to pony up the money to hire people into vitally important positions at a reasonable rate of pay.

The number of military families on food stamps is evidence of that.

 

[Catz Part Deux]

To be brutally honest, neither side wants to pony up the money to hire people into vitally important positions at a reasonable rate of pay.

The number of military families on food stamps is evidence of that.

Total, complete agreement. That's why I'm a moderate. I'm perfectly happy to pay for some necessary roles. We can pay for raises by getting rid of the federal Department of Education.

 

[Ikari]

To be brutally honest, the conservatives didn't want to pony up the money to hire college graduates, did they?

And people want to start in on profiling. Can you imagine that one.

Now if we think at the base of profiling in general. Someone walks around observing people, their body language and patterns and then can match that with set conditions typical of certain behaviors. Angry people will do these three things, people looking to avoid authority will do these 4 things, blah blah blah. But to be a profiler, like an actual one, you have to have a good understanding of human behavior and psychology. You have to have a lot of knowledge about what visible signs mean what and to know the average characteristics of certain groups and behaviors. Then think how many you'd need per airport, how many airports there are in the US. You think we're going to hire the people capable of proper profiling and observation? Or are we just going to pull another group of thugs off the street, give them a 3 hour seminar a plastic badge and send them on their way?

I know for sure which one seems more damned likely.

 

[Catz Part Deux]

And people want to start in on profiling. Can you imagine that one.

I'm sure glad I'm a white woman. What I think that TSA really needs to do is work with the airlines to create a voluntary pool of pre-screened individuals (utilizing fingerprints, birth certificates, flight records, etc.) who are frequent fliers, make it easier for those folks to dash through security, and then screen the shiz out of everyone else.

I would voluntarily provide anything, including blood and bodily fluids, to skip past the leisure travelers.

 

[Coronado]

These aren't people who went to college and studied hard to learn the law and court systems so that they can become police officers or FBI agents.

Which is a pretty low bar for cops, as they themselves don't know and aren't required to know the law anyway. That's not a knock on cops, either.

But yeah, most TSA agents I've encountered I wouldn't trust to watch my dog. There seems to be a really high thug quotient in the department for some reason. I wonder where they hire these people ...

 

[Catz Part Deux]

But yeah, most TSA agents I've encountered I wouldn't trust to watch my dog. There seems to be a really high thug quotient in the department for some reason. I wonder where they hire these people ...

The ones in my local (tiny) airport are pretty decent guys and gals, I see them almost weekly and practically know them by name. But, in big cities, JFC...what a ridiculous mess.

 

[Ikari]

I'm sure glad I'm a white woman. What I think that TSA really needs to do is work with the airlines to create a voluntary pool of pre-screened individuals (utilizing fingerprints, birth certificates, flight records, etc.) who are frequent fliers, make it easier for those folks to dash through security, and then screen the shiz out of everyone else.

I would voluntarily provide anything, including blood and bodily fluids, to skip past the leisure travelers.

They already had that, and it failed. And I would much rather wait in line than to have government database my biometric data. **** them.

 

[RightinNYC]

To be brutally honest, the conservatives didn't want to pony up the money to hire college graduates, did they?

I doubt that there are legions of people with four year or advanced degrees who are just giddy at the thought of taking a job that involves getting yelled at all day by stupid and unruly travelers.

While increasing pay might lure in a marginally more educated group of employees, I very much doubt it would have anywhere near the effect you're implying. Look at it this way - If McDonalds increased the pay for burger flippers by 20%, I bet the demographics of the position would remain largely the same.

 

[Coronado]

The ones in my local (tiny) airport are pretty decent guys and gals, I see them almost weekly and practically know them by name. But, in big cities, JFC...what a ridiculous mess.

You must not fly from where I think you fly. The last time I was where I'm thinking of it wasn't substantially better than anywhere else, but it's been a while ...

 

[Catz Part Deux]

They already had that, and it failed. And I would much rather wait in line than to have government database my biometric data. **** them.

They never even implemented the system for frequent travelers.

 

[Catz Part Deux]

You must not fly from where I think you fly.

I fly from a small regional airport. We've had the same TSA screeners for years. That's because it actually pays a decent wage for our local economy. So, we have some retired cops, etc. doing the job.

 

[Catz Part Deux]

I doubt that there are legions of people with four year or advanced degrees who are just giddy at the thought of taking a job that involves getting yelled at all day by stupid and unruly travelers.

In this economy, I know quite a few people who would consider TSA good money.

 

[American]

To be brutally honest, the conservatives didn't want to pony up the money to hire college graduates, did they?

Yeah, we could have hired liberal college professors to do the job. At least they'd finally be earning their pay. :lol:

 

[Travelsonic]

I doubt that there are legions of people with four year or advanced degrees who are just giddy at the thought of taking a job that involves getting yelled at all day by stupid and unruly travelers.
.

True, but if you make the incentives good enough, odds are that finding the takers will be a lot easier than if you have lousy incentives.

The TSA as it is is a complete joke, security theater at its best, and needs to be completely revamped from the screening procedures to the customer relations aspect.

 

[Coronado]

I fly from a small regional airport. We've had the same TSA screeners for years. That's because it actually pays a decent wage for our local economy. So, we have some retired cops, etc. doing the job.

Okay, I was thinking of flying out from back home.

 

[RightinNYC]

In this economy, I know quite a few people who would consider TSA good money.

So then why would we need to increase the pay?

If there are intelligent people who would take the job making X, then we don't need to do anything. If there are not, then the question becomes whether said intelligent people would take the job for X + $2 or 3k. My impression is that the return on this additional investment would be minimal - you'd attract a few new people to the position, but the bulk of the money would simply serve as a windfall for the incompetent people who would have taken the job regardless.

True, but if you make the incentives good enough, odds are that finding the takers will be a lot easier than if you have lousy incentives.

Yes, but I believe that whatever impact pay has, it is not as important as the characteristics of the job. It's just hard to convince highly qualified people to take a job that is at its heart, mindless customer service dealing with a ****ty customer base.

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

So then why would we need to increase the pay?

If there are intelligent people who would take the job making X, then we don't need to do anything. If there are not, then the question becomes whether said intelligent people would take the job for X + $2 or 3k. My impression is that the return on this additional investment would be minimal - you'd attract a few new people to the position, but the bulk of the money would simply serve as a windfall for the incompetent people who would have taken the job regardless.

I agree. You can't just raise pay, you've got to raise hiring standards and you've got to be smarter about how you provide airport security so that you're not asking smart people to do mindless work.

Yes, but I believe that whatever impact pay has, it is not as important as the characteristics of the job. It's just hard to convince highly qualified people to take a job that is at its heart, mindless customer service dealing with a ****ty customer base.

Which is why the lynchpin of airport security has to shift from mindless customer service to smarter procedure.

 

[Ikari]

They never even implemented the system for frequent travelers.

Yes, yes they did. They had a fast track system. It was a company, you paid a fee, they did background checks, took a bunch of your biometric data blah blah blah. When you went to the airport, you could use the card or whatever it was and basically by-pass the security line. Company went under because no one wanted the service. Actually there were a few like Clear or Flo, but I don't think any of those companies are around anymore.