Friday, July 1, 2011

Airport Security is a Joke

I traveled to and from Las Vegas from the Burbank, CA airport to visit my daughter's family and my grandsons this past Father’s Day. I had a great time there enjoying a cabana at the J.W. Marriott in Summerlin and the "Greatest Show on Earth" at the UNLV stadium.

However, air travel security is a joke. Las Vegas has the new X-ray scanners, and I got to experience that. I was told to remove my wallet and hold it in my hand and raise my arms above my head. Fine. While I hate the intrusive searches just to take a plane, it was better than driving 5 hours, as long as there were no traffic problems.

When I got out of the X-ray machine the TSA person went through every compartment of my wallet. What the heck can I use from my wallet to take down a plane? This seems so ridiculous.

However, I see the complete joke of security when Olajide Oluwaseun Noibi can travel all over the United States with only a college student ID and other people’s expired boarding passes. I become even more enraged when I see on the Internet as a sweet little 6-year-old girl is frisked, and as a baby is given a pat-down while being held stomach-down by its mother. And then there is the crying young woman who said the intrusive body search she had to endure in Dallas made her feel violated. Of course it did.

You don’t see the airport screeners for Israel airlines going through people’s diapers. This happened to 95 year old Lena Reppert who suffers from leukemia and has to wear an adult diaper in her wheelchair. For Israel the screeners are well trained and interview people who they might suspect. They know what to look for and have the best airline security in the world. Meanwhile we have TSA staff that are needlessly thorough instead of smart and leave us neither free nor safe, just annoyed. I think next time I will drive to Las Vegas or take a bus.

Rennie