Banned items fly past security (Passengers Flouting Rules)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14807713/

<snip>

Others, however, say they're simply not going to tolerate the new rules. They admit that they ignore the restrictions, slipping expensive cologne, perfume, lip gloss, lotion and other ointments into their carry-on bags or into their pockets in hopes of sneaking them past security. Some of the items get flagged by screeners, others do not.

Unlike Shanker, the cream and liquid smugglers refused to give their full names. One woman said she slipped her Blistex lip balm into a pocket because her lips dry out on flights; another stashed her perfume in her carry-on because she didn't trust baggage handlers; another kept a small container of body lotion in her purse to apply in the aircraft lavatory.

A business executive said he always traveled with hand sanitizer in his pocket because he worries about germs on planes. He has made about 10 trips since the restrictions went into effect and hasn't been caught.

Since the rules went into effect, most travelers have abided by the law, packing their hand cream, hair gel and toothpaste in their checked luggage or leaving the items at home. The flouters, however, say they hate the hassle of long waits at baggage carousels and worry that their expensive bottles of perfume will be broken or stolen if placed in their checked luggage.

<snip>

Gary Boettcher, a pilot and president of the Coalition for Airline Pilots Association, a trade group that closely tracks security issues, said he constantly sees people drinking from illicit bottles of water or putting on lip gloss when he walks through the passenger cabin. Most of the time, he said, it doesn't bother him.

[GetTheRightVote]

1. I am not going to be a lamb and let them take my things, we are free

right ? I recently flew to DC. While there I meet a man working at the airport who is from the Middle East, going back in 3 weeks who told me that he gets into fights every weekend with strangers (in USA). He is young and stupid (violent) but strangely works at one of our airports ? So while they are trying to steal my things from me, he is walking all over the place without the same problem, free as a bird. I hate to fly now even more then I did before. I am so sick of it all, it really is just getting to stupid to believe anymore.

:kick:

[The Stranger]

18. Ugh, I hate reading things like this here.

I meet a man working at the airport who is from the Middle East, going back in 3 weeks who told me that he gets into fights every weekend with strangers (in USA). He is young and stupid (violent) but strangely works at one of our airports ?

[Pacifist Patriot]

21. Maybe "strangely works at one of our airports"...

refers to young and stupid (violent)? They are in the same sentence and would grammatically be connected.

[The Stranger]

30. They describe the same person and, unfortunately, conform to a

stereotype, rather than experience with this person.

[physioex]

29. WTF.....

This is stereotyping, I don't think this is what DU is about......

[pitohui]

2. guilty guilty guilty

and god bless the other american patriots who defy this crap rule w. me

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. Guilty as charged.

I travelled with three small children last week. You're darned right I had some liquid on me.

ETA Oops: That didn't sound right. It was water for the kids, not booze for me....then again, I had valium.

[aquart]

3. Stupid, worthless, hysteria-driven rules.

Deliberately instituted to instill fear.

[ramapo]

4. bravo

The terrorists won this bout by having the whole world act like idiots

[Why Syzygy]

5. lip balm?

Is forbidden? Do you know people used to steal from unlocked checked baggage? We were advised to NOT pack valuables. When I took my first trip since 911 this past February, I had notes in both my check bags that they had examined the contents. They didn't bother to put the lid back on the shampoo, so it was all over the bag. We are dealing with incompetents. I wonder why the travel industry doesn't buck this 'system'. Did they not provide enough campaign finances to the GOP? What is their sin?

[Bill McBlueState]

23. happened to me once

I had a note saying they had examined my bag, and my road atlas was missing. I guess road atlases are tools for terrorists.

The next time I flew, I put a note in my luggage saying, "TSA: I am just a poor graduate student. Please don't steal my stuff."

[progressoid]

6. illicit bottles of water...

Why does water hate America??

[Missy Vixen]

7. The stealing was so brazen at Seattle's SeaTac

that baggage handlers were observed going through the barrels of confiscated items and taking what they wanted. What's more, some told the reporter from the Seattle Times that it was "just like Christmas". I understand these folks aren't highly paid, but stealing items forcibly taken off others is still wrong.

I don't travel with expensive perfume, but I'd have to check my makeup, and the thought of replacing it isn't pleasant. I'd feel worse if I knew someone had looted it out of my luggage.

Julie

[niallmac]

8. Homeland Security and the Keystone Cops skidding

to the rescue. What a huge worthless inefficient bureaucracy. Just
what we needed.

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. This was actually Economic Policy not Homeland Security

Gotta spur demand and increase spending somehow. Steal people's stuff and make them buy more. Brilliant!

[jilln]

19. It was Procter & Gamble!

Within days they had "new" arrangements with rental car companies to include goodie bags of their products with each rental. Full size products, not trial size.

And maybe the landfill lobby was in on it too, because no one will be able to use a full-size product on their trips and will throw them away when they turn the rental car in.

[TechBear_Seattle]

11. Why would terrorists bother with carry-on anyway?

With a $100 GPS device, it is trivial to make a bomb that will explode in-flight. And none of the stuff shipped on passenger planes as cargo is inspected. So while the terrorists are laughing their asses off as we shadow-box in a mirror, they are planning a mass mailing by FedEx and UPS.

[Tesha]

15. Actually, a GPS device won't work in most cargo holds.

Cargo holds are too well shielded to allow reliable operation
of a GPS device.

You'll need an inertial navigation device or a Casio watch.

Tesha

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. Sorry, my bad

Still, the harassment of plane passengers is a pointless excercise of "If we inconvenience them enough, they will think we are actually making them safer (snicker.)" It means absolutely nothing when the cargo on those very same planes receives no screening or inspection.

[glitch]

26. Could not possibly agree more. It is done solely to spread the fear.

And to keep people angry. I do not think it is done to make people feel like they are being protected, however ineffectually.

[Ezlivin]

12. Water bottles contain flammable gases - Hydrogen and Oxygen

The terrorists will take bottled water onto the aircraft, perform electrolysis on it, then take the hydrogen and turn the aircraft into another Hindenburg.

After all, rocket fuel is oxygen and hydrogen.

Sheesh....

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. Di-hydrogen oxide very dangerous

After all...

It can lead to excessive sweating and urination
Inhalation is often fatal
It is a principle component of acid rain
It is not bio-degradeable
It can cause serious burns in its vaporous state
It is a principle solvent for sodium, iron, copper and other toxic substances
While proper use can reduce incidents of disease, it has been associated with outbreaks of cholera, typhoid and other fatal sicknesses for millennia.

I think it is well past time for a world ban on di-hydrogen oxide.

[Ezlivin]

20. It can destroy solid steel pipes through oxidization

Small amounts injected directly into the bloodstream are fatal.

[MidwestTransplant]

22. But if they ban di-hydrogen oxide, only criminals will have di-hydrogen

oxide!

[frylock]

28. oh, the humanity

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. How many of these "smugglers" STILL support Dubya? "Doublethink"

is a hard habit to break. But I suspect that the frustration of trying to travel under "Homeland Security Hysteria" is eating away at support for the phoney "war on terra" and the phoney Orwellian "president" and Congress behind it.

[Wisconsin Larry]

14. These idiots are losing the War on Liquids as well. n/t

[mnhtnbb]

24. I don't have to fly until October. I refuse to check my bags. So...

I may have to get creative.

[indepat]

25. Hmmm! Bet professional women flyers especially love these new rules

to keep then safe from terra.

[damntexdem]

27. Oh my, what a scandal! A first in the history of the world!

Passengers in transit carrying banned items -- who would have thought that this could come about? Especially given that so many of the bans, and their rationales, are so idiotic.