Tuesday, August 02, 2011

So it appears the Touching Special Areas people

either got tired of being called on molesting people and possibly irradiating people with dangerous levels; or maybe somebody finally got the idea that A: This crap isn't working and B: sooner or later, some husband/parent is going to start stomping the asshole molesting their child, so maybe they should start doing something that might actually work.

Bitching and whining from the usual suspects:
Civil libertarians argue the screening is TSA showmanship — coming just weeks before the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — and could quickly devolve into profiling.

“It’s an ineffective waste of taxpayer dollars that has the potential and the reality of leading to profiling based on race and ethnicity,” said Massachusetts ACLU executive director Carol Rose, who dismissed SPOT as “security theater.”

Whether you like it or not, Rose, when the major threat comes from certain groups of people it behooves us to pay a bit more attention to people in those groups. Deal with it.

Biggest problem? How many TSA weenies actually have the mentality that can make this work? Especially worrisome when I read this:
At Logan, about 70 agents — all with college degrees — are undergoing training by an international consulting firm that includes a four-day classroom course and 24 hours of on-the-job experience, said TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis.
Yes, because have a degree(you'll note they don't say in what) automatically means that four-day class and 24 hours will render them experts in this. Yeah. They'd probably be better off hiring a bunch of successful retired cops with high-school educations who have a good record of catching bad guys. Assuming their brass would have the brains to figure that out.

Why yes, I am a bit cynical nowadays.

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