TSA Plays Joke On Traveller At Screening

An anonymous reader writes "As a 22-year-old female student at the University of Michigan went through security at Philadelphia International Airport, a TSA worker was staring at her. He motioned her toward him. Then he pulled a small, clear plastic bag from her carry-on — the sort of baggie that a pair of earrings might come in. Inside the bag was fine, white powder. Answer truthfully, the TSA worker informed her, and everything will be OK. After 20 seconds of crying, the TSA agent waved the baggie. It was his, and it was all a joke. Ann Davis, a TSA spokeswoman, said this afternoon that the worker is no longer employed by the agency as of today. She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own."

Comments

The Shampoo Bottle is half fool

[Anonymous Coward]

What an idiot. This TSA worker lost one of the most fun jobs any wanna-be cop or control freak would ever dream of having. It's the TSA's loss, and Best Buy's gain.

Re:The Shampoo Bottle is half fool

[spamking]

Best Buy? Don't you mean Buy More . . .

I have nothing to hide why are you looking

[vxice]

For all of you who insist that "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear" I truly hope this happens to you every damn time you fly.

This happens all the time

[Dana Larsen]

It seems this kind of "training" happens more often than we'd like. Customs agents have also been caught planting drugs on people for "training purposes" in Japan.

Interestingly, Canadian courts have ruled that you have an expectation of privacy even when there's drugs in your luggage.

Re:This happens all the time

[bit9]

Let's not forget this little gem.

I concur

[Locke2005]

The TSA employee should be fired... preferably from a large canon.

Re:I concur

[dissy]

The TSA employee should be fired... preferably from a large canon.

I think an officer of the law (despite the fact the TSA are not, they seem to get the same extra rights and privlidges to comit crimes as officers of the law do) should be held to a higher standard.

A TSA agent admitting to having, and showing the evidence of, an ounce of cocaine in a baggie is an amount to be an automatic felony with required prison term and no bail.

He needs to be held accountable for possession of the schedule I drug cocaine, and put in prison accordingly.

If I as a normal citizen were to admit to possession of an ounce of cocaine, that act in and of itself is enough to be given a jail sentence, even after it has been tested and proven not to be actual cocaine.

Anything less is only begging for vigilante justice to be taken out on him.

Re:I concur

[Chrisq]

I see you like canonical spellings.

Re:I concur

[Gilmoure]

From Star Trek canon or Star Wars canon. Which one is more annoyingly nit-picking?

Re:I concur

[Locke2005]

I pretty sure the "white powder" was something like powdered sugar, not actually cocaine. I don't believe the TSA can afford to buy significant amounts of real cocaine. This was intended to be used as an exercise for luggage screeners, not for drug-sniffing dogs. The mistake he made was when he decided to give the passenger a hard time for "fun", when the only proper behavior would be to calmly inform her that she had involuntarily been made part of a test of the system.

Re:I concur

[dissy]

I pretty sure the "white powder" was something like powdered sugar, not actually cocaine

No, I am pretty positive it was exactly that. Maybe not sugar, but definitely not cocaine.
Thus why my entire post was made on that assumption :}

If *I* ("I" being me personally, not an officer of the law, and not a TSA agent) was to show a bag of white powder (say it is sugar) and state that it WAS cocaine, it is still a crime I would most likely face jail time over, or at least probation and a criminal record.

Stating a substance is a scheduled drug and stating it is in your possession (assuming not a schedule where a prescription is possible here) then it is still a crime for some reason.

I don't know the reasoning behind it, nor thought about it enough to decide if it is a good idea or anything.
But I've known two people arrested for that (One had creatine powder and claimed it was cocaine, the other had some form of ground up spice/plant and claimed it was weed)

Can't say on the officers reasoning, but the charges were possession with intent to distribute.
For the guy with the powder, it was even tested for court and came back clean. It still counted.

That was a number of years ago too. At least in the first case (and the topic at hand), having a bag of nameless white powder would more than likely also add some scary terrorist charges as well.

Re:I concur

[Syntroxis]

If you were to sell powdered sugar to an undercover agent as "cocaine", you would be charged with the sale of cocaine. Period. End of story.

Re:I concur

[SQLGuru]

Ah, but if you sold it as "the good stuff" and never referred to it as an actual drug, you'd probably have a way out......if you can afford a good lawyer.

Re:I concur

[jimicus]

Ah, but if you sold it as "the good stuff" and never referred to it as an actual drug, you'd probably have a way out......if you can afford a good lawyer.

You do that, and let us all know how you get on.

Jail Time

[CFD339]

If I'm not mistaken, making a joke about having something illegal to a TSA agent at the airport can result in large fines and even jail time. In this case, the TSA agent made a "joke" that represented a serious threat to the safety, freedom, long term career and life outcome of a 22 year old girl while in a position of authority and power. Jail time seems frankly appropriate to me.

Re:Jail Time

[Jeng]

Pressure will need to be applied for jail time to occur in this case.

The pressure you can apply is though your congresscritter. Let your congressperson know how you feel on this topic, if you bug them enough they may be motivated to do something about this. Even if they just do it for re-election points, it's still something.

Re:Jail Time

[Anonymous Coward]

If I'm not mistaken, making a joke about having something illegal to a TSA agent at the airport can result in large fines and even jail time.

And jail time for the agent is just as appropriate as jail time for someone cracking a terrorism joke in line.

His joke was tasteless, awful, and far over-the-line. Should he be disciplined? Absolutely. Should he be fired? Yeah, probably. Should he be jailed? Um, I don't exactly see him as a "threat to society". He's a callous asshole. It happens.

TSA agents make a nice punching bags, but people in all jobs do stupid job-related shit. Ask a coroner or mortician what qualifies as an "office prank" if you want to be appalled at something.

Sometimes I wish our judicial system allowed for more creative punishments. In this case, I think one properly sanctioned, medically monitored swift kick to the agents nuts, administered by the victim, would be all that is necessary for everyone involved to leave this incident in the past.

Sending someone to jail over this shit seems like a slight overreaction. X hundred hours of community service and move on.

Re:Jail Time

[xZgf6xHx2uhoAj9D]

Two wrongs make a right?

Re:Jail Time

[MartinSchou]

Should he be jailed? Um, I don't exactly see him as a "threat to society"

And if he had removed a bag of talcum powder from her luggage, and she had said "it's cocaine", she would be thrown in prison.

If we aren't allowed to make jokes without going to jail for them, they shouldn't be allowed to either.

Re:Jail Time

[pydev]

Should he be jailed?

Yes.

Clear enough?

Totally Not funny

[rbmamm]

This kind of joke would only be funny to a terrorist or a drug dealer and this idiot should be viewed as one of the above.

privacy law

[pikine]

Davis said privacy law prevents her from identifying the TSA employee. The law prevents her from disclosing what sort of discipline he might have received. .... She said privacy laws prevented her from saying if he was fired or left on his own.

It seems that privacy law nowadays are used to protect just the agents of the government, not the people. Ironically, privacy laws are protecting the same agents whose job duty is to violate the people's privacy. I find this even more outrageous than what the TSA employee did to that poor girl.

Re:privacy law

[tobiah]

As always, it's not the crime, it's the coverup.

Who watches the watchers ?

[OldEarthResident]

It's incidents like this which keep those of us who would really love to visit the US far away from it.

How could someone with a mentality which considers it ok to play such a joke on a passenger even be considered for employment by the TSA ?

Protecting innocent people is a serious business. It would be nice if the people entrusted with it didn't have a high school bully type mentality.

Re:Who watches the watchers ?

[raddan]

I heard there was a murder in your country once. That's why I stay away!

The U.S. is a big place with lots of people. Bad things are bound to happen no matter how carefully you 'watch the watchers'. Who watches the watcher-watchers?

other side of the coin

[phrostie]

and how would the TSA take it if someone played a prank on them at a security check point.

the prankster would be in jail.

the guy got off easy.

Re:Why I no longer fly

[paazin]

Though I understand where you're coming from -- how wonderfully impractical. Be glad you don't have a profession that requires you to do regular overseas business travel, otherwise you'd be in a bit of a jam.

True terrorist

[Syntroxis]

This employee should be charged with terrorism. Put yourself in the victims shoes. I'm sure that she was fully terrorized.

Re:Why I no longer fly

[Syntroxis]

I'm right there with you. Unless it is an overseas trip, I will not set foot in an airport. If the TSA had been doing their job on 9/11 all this airplane crap would have never happened. If TSA had done their job when a person with no luggage, no passport, paid for ticket with cash, etc., was allowed to board a flight, there would have been no Christmas bomber.

This is all a very sick, sad joke.

Re:Why I no longer fly

[amRadioHed]

TSA was created in reaction to the 9/11 attacks, it didn't exist at the time. Furthermore, the private security at the time didn't do anything wrong. Box cutters were not banned items.

Re:Why I no longer fly

[Syntroxis]

Ok, so they weren't called TSA, but I went through metal detectors, had to turn my laptop on, etc. As far as box cutters... from a USA Today Article.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2002/2002-11-11-box-cutters.htm>
Pre-9/11 rules barred box cutters
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Airlines failed to enforce existing security guidelines on Sept. 11 that required airport screeners to confiscate box cutters from passengers, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Government rules did not specifically bar the objects before last year's the attacks, but the airlines were in charge of security then, with the Federal Aviation Administration overseeing their performance. The airlines issued a manual in 1994 that listed for screeners items passengers could not carry past airport checkpoints.
The AP obtained a copy of the document, which included box cutters such as those purportedly used by the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.....

All-in-all, what happened on 9/11 was an epic fail on many, many levels of government security. Now, because of the governments failures, anyone who flies is subject to ridiculous regulations which will never stop anyone but the most stupid perpetrator. Have they even started screening the baggage and freight in the belly of the flights??? No? Didn't think so, but, get ready to pose nekkid for the TSA examiner.