Tuesday, March 20, 2012

So a 3 Year Old with a Broken Leg in a Wheelchair is a Terrorist?!?


Chicago O'Hare International Airport (pictured above); the second busiest airport in the United States. Last year, I flew out of ORD, did not experience a problem and commended the TSA here. However, it looks as if they don't have a perfect record.


What broke in the news last week, yet what was alleged to occur in 2010, a family was flying out of ORD on the way to Orlando, for a Disney vacation. Apparently the three year old, in a cast, in a wheelchair, looked rather suspicious, as the TSA had to search and swab the youngster for explosives. Smartly done, the father recorded the incident.

While I commend the TSA employee for appearing to do his job with professionalism and kindness, we have to ask ourselves if this whole scene was really appropriate and necessary. Over the past few years, there have been many incidents with the TSA and Americans are pretty much given an answer relating to "life is tough and then you die" when they question their tactics. The TSA seriously needs to look at the way in which they implement security to avoid problems like this, as well as airports moving to opt-out.

The background check program is a good start, but it needs to be expanded. To provide Americans with the best aviation security, the TSA must consider searching for the person and not the object, as Israel has successfully done for years, but the sad fact is that this administration would rather allow for inconvenience than seeming politically incorrect. It looks like the only way the TSA will change is with a new administration and we hope Americans will use this as an additional reason to influence their vote this November.

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