Half of TSA employees have been disciplined, half of those multiple times. The tag line of the movie Clerks was “Just Because They Serve You Doesn’t Mean They Like You” but this rag tag crew couldn’t get hired at the Quick Stop, and drops more racist remarks than Randal at the video store.
TSA sceeners have maintained a private Facebook group for years, where about a third of the agency’s employees are members, as a as a home for mocking passengers with racist tropes and homophobic rants.
The page is called “TSA Breakroom,” it’s limited to agency employees, and there are 18,000 members. Since being exposed it has been deleted.
The agency – whose entire purpose is supposed to preventing attacks against aviation – is home to an employee who actually wishes for a successful attack because it would kill passengers.
There were racist tirades against Asians, and fat shaming of babies after taking photos of the children:
And passengers asking TSA not to manhandle their stuff is just an invitation to do the same.
Whether it’s mocking passengers for their stupidity (ironic given the qualifications to join TSA) or going on rants about the non-existence of genders other than male and female, it’s a window into the culture of an agency run amok – and given extreme power over the lives of those who wish to exercise their right to travel.
The TSA, for its part, “confirmed the page’s existence but said the page ‘is not affiliated with TSA,’ and that the agency ‘does not monitor the site’.”
The agents have a thankless job, they should be allowed to ran in private as long as it doesn’t affect their job performance.
Worst part of the TSA is the document checker. Actually, 75% of the time it’s fine. But 25% of the time you get a grumpy old person yelling at the next passenger as if it’s the prison canteen line. As this TSA person is often the very first human we interact with at an airport, what a miserable start to any journey.
Also some thoughts on Asians. I bet TSA complains Asians don’t have their IDs out, they don’t listen to instructions. This is because Asians don’t focus on petty shit like this in their lives. No ID ready for the document checker? Who cares? Asians are focused on advancing math and science and that will contribute far more for the world than moving the next passenger in line 0.3 seconds faster.
Also, generally if you move fast through the document checker, you’re still bottlenecked in the line for the X-ray, so those oblivious Asians are not wasting any of your time at all.
Where to begin. In a world where employers now look at your social media posts and you can be not hired or fired for posts that do not comport with a message the employer wants, and this has been ruled legal in the courts, if TSA doesn’t monitor this site, it means it really doesn’t care about the quality of its employees. Duh, I guess we already knew this.
@Jason – “This is because Asians don’t focus on petty shit like this in their lives. No ID ready for the document checker? Who cares? Asians are focused on advancing math and science and that will contribute far more for the world than moving the next passenger in line 0.3 seconds faster.”
I understand you’re trying to be complimentary but that’s still pretty racist dude.
@Steve S: “I understand you’re trying to be complimentary but that’s still pretty racist dude.”
Pretty much this.
Indeed.
Back on track, there are some things I’ve found that will guarantee the TSA to inspect my bag (legal-to-transport with relatively high specific energy). So I leave notes, pointing to the object, saying what it is, and wishing them a nice day. No need to encourage people to exercise their power.
Dang this is depressing. God forbid I ever have to go thru one of these airports with the bad TSA staff…
If Trump were to fire about 3/4 of these clowns, it would guarantee his re-election.
I am a 4 million miler experienced global traveler. Nothing surprises me. But when I dropped a plastic bin on the floor and moved it underneath the roller ramp after picking up my stuff – because there was no place else to put it – a TSA douchebag told me to pick it up. And if I didn’t they would “take me to a back room.” Makes me proud and thankful that I’m smart enough not to have to work for the government, especially TSA.
Unfortunately that’s what happens when you hire the bottom of the barrel. I am all for privacy and would not advocate that this group be taken down as they have a right to say whatever they want. However, when you do hire the bottom of the barrel, you will get people who think that they are entitled. Give them a little power and they think everybody else is inferior. This job deals with many different types of people so only people that respect other people should be given these jobs.
I travel over 200K miles per year and have seen a lot of good TSA people. Unfortunately, I have also seen a disproportionate number of bottom dwellers as well