security theater, scene umpteen
Jul. 10th, 2007 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleI went through airport security in Boston Thursday. While airport security is pretty annoying in Boston, at least they don't have loud announcements every two minutes about "The Transportation Security Administration has raised the threat level for commercial aviation to Orange Alert. Please report any unattended packages." I hated that, when I heard it at O'hare. It made it sound like NEWS. When something has been constant for 11 months, it should no longer demand continuous screaming to tell passers-by about the scary new change. At Logan Airport, the every-two-minutes announcements are only about reporting unattended packages, not about raising the threat level.
Part of the standard security screening is taking off shoes and jackets, and putting them through the scanner. I used to think this was a reasonable requirement, even for jackets with nothing in the pockets. It might be difficult for the scanner to work on the stiff padding in the shoulders off a suit jacket, or the thick quilting of a winter coat. And once the rule is in place, they have to enforce it, even to the point of waking babies to take their little sweaters off. On this trip, there was a girls' sports team ahead of me in line. (I think it was soccer, though it might have been field hockey or lacrosse.) There were a lot of them, wearing lots of padding. Nobody even suggested they take it off, because the rules say to remove coats and jackets, and don't say anything about shinguards.
Part of the standard security screening is taking off shoes and jackets, and putting them through the scanner. I used to think this was a reasonable requirement, even for jackets with nothing in the pockets. It might be difficult for the scanner to work on the stiff padding in the shoulders off a suit jacket, or the thick quilting of a winter coat. And once the rule is in place, they have to enforce it, even to the point of waking babies to take their little sweaters off. On this trip, there was a girls' sports team ahead of me in line. (I think it was soccer, though it might have been field hockey or lacrosse.) There were a lot of them, wearing lots of padding. Nobody even suggested they take it off, because the rules say to remove coats and jackets, and don't say anything about shinguards.
