I trust I won’t weary readers’ patience with yet another report on Why The TSA Should Not Exist. Yes, this assessment comes from one of its allies—as have many such assessments in the past. And yes, it’s inadvertent, as the others were, too. Predictably, it ends by demanding more power for its authors rather than abolition of the TSA, just as its predecessors did (“…the [group calls] for an officer to be stationed within 300 feet of TSA checkpoints, and for airport police to have ‘unfettered access to all closed circuit camera systems in each airport’”).
Still, there’s an awful lot of amusement on tap here for critics, victims, and cynics of the police-state.
It seems that both Los Angeles and JFK International Airports recently suffered false alarms. In JFK’s case, “bogus reports of gunfire triggered multiple stampedes and more than two hours of panicked chaos and confusion” a fortnight ago; Our Rulers on the scene, whether cops or TSA, were as terrified and clueless as the serfs they boss. (The story to which I’ve linked quotes a passenger’s excoriation of said Rulers for not ordering her around: “I was stunned. I kept thinking, ‘Where are the police?’ … There was no communication whatsoever, not a word. No one was in charge.” Variations on this theme figure in virtually every account of the incident I’ve seen. Isn’t it tragic that such absolute dependence on “authority” is the ordinary reflex now? The police-state has thoroughly succeeded in infantilizing Americans.)
The chaos repeated itself at LAX last Sunday. Once again, erroneous reports of a “shooter”—oh, for an armed populace that doesn’t jump at its own shadow!—roiled the airport.
Naturally, “a national airport police group” is exploiting these “security failures”: “’Passengers ran through security checkpoints without being cleared,’ the American Alliance of Airport Police Officers said in a statement. ‘Furthermore, passengers who had already gone through clearance were running out of the airport onto the tarmac, which gave them direct access to planes. Many left luggage that could have explosives in it unattended.’” Goodness gracious, the possibilities absolutely boggle your little pea brains, don’t they, Airport Police Goons?
“The point is,” these alarmists continue, “a bad guy does not have to be too sophisticated to be able to figure out that if someone just yells ‘shooter,’ all bets are off and TSA clearance immediately becomes free flowing and airplanes become accessible in the unfolding chaos…”
Indeed. So what purpose does the TSA serve?
3:48 pm on August 31, 2016