TSA- Super Secret Special Screening. WTF???

[Manifestor_of_Light]

I've had "SSSS" stamped on my boarding pass for extra screening.

I don't have a passport and have never been overseas. Just to Mexico and Nassau before it required a passport.

I get pulled out of line and stuck in the extra line with all those dark skinned males.
I am short, white (really white--hazel eyes, ash brown hair, and always sunburn), female and over 50.

I sent the TSA a letter asking under FOIA why I was pulled for extra screening. Nearly a year later, I got the answer back: NO REASON FOUND.

:wtf:

Once I flew from Houston to Minneapolis and Minneapolis to Missoula, to go to Idaho (2005).

In Houston at Intergalactic (IAH) they screened my luggage, then went thru it by hand. The lady pulled out an A-440 tuning fork.

I said, "It's a tuning fork.".

She said nothing and put it back. I don't think you can bring a plane down with one.

Hey at least I got to keep it.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

1. All those dark-skinned males?

Did you have to use your fainting couch?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

2. Nope. Just wondered why I was the only white and only female in line.

That's all.

[TwixVoy]

5. Is DU turning in to the fucking KKK these days???

Yes, because being WHITE should exempt you from any kind of screening. And we all know your vagina also prevents you from being a criminal.

You don't deserve ANY special treatment because you are "white" or "female" despite what your prejudiced brain believes.

When I worked retail I can't tell you how many old grannys our asset protection team busted using INFANTS to help them steal. (usually putting merchandise under them in the stroller) Who thought we wouldn't pay attention to the WHITE female with a baby because of course they could never do anything wrong. FYI - child protective services also had to be called to take the child from these sick fucks because they used the child in the act of a crime.

[Kablooie]

9. Are we turning into the Krispy Kreme Kitchen? Is that your point?

[dkf]

3. Maybe your father turned you in for training with extremists in Yemen.

Oh wait a minute. That was the other guy who got to fly just fine without a passport even and tried to make the plane go kablooie.

How silly of me.

[JCMach1]

4. Sometimes it happens at random... have had it happen to my whole family

try telling a 6 year to not cry and go with the nice officers!

Almost forgot she was airsick and throwing-up at the time too... Way to go TSA!

[Echo In Light]

10. A-holes w/way too much power & time on their hands. People should fiercely resist this shit...

... if they don't, it'll continue, and continue to get worse.

[TwixVoy]

11. So do you agree with the OP

that WHITE people should enjoy special exemption and treatment?

[Echo In Light]

12. Yeah, that's clearly what my post speaks to, isn't it?

[TwixVoy]

13. Yup it sure does

The ENTIRE point of the OP is "I'm white and shouldn't be with these dark skinned people".

Must suck for you white folks to deal with a LITTLE TASTE of what we've dealt with for the past 200 years. And look at you cry like a little baby the moment your white skin doesn't get you the special treatment you expect.

[Echo In Light]

14. Get over yourself, and spare me your bullshit projections

If you were remotely familiar w/the tone of my views you'd realize how outspoken I am against this phony WoT and its highly lucrative "$ecurity" measures. Hasn't a fuckin thing to do w/anyone's ethnicity.

[TwixVoy]

15. Sure it doesn't

I have a feeling the OP probably got told what to do by a black TSA officer and that infuriated her. If you were one of us "dark skins" you would know exactly the attitude I am talking about. She's also the kind of person that probably looks at us on the street as we walk past on the side walk and looks at us like we are about to knife her for walking in her direction.

The fact you can't see it means you're a middle class white boy who likes to pretend you know what it's like to be one of us as the OP likes to refer to as "dark skins". The fact you seem completely unaware of the OPs attitude tells me all I need to know about you.

[Echo In Light]

16. No, genius, not unaware, just didn't care to see it as an invite

So I spoke to the matter within that I perceive as important - the Big Brother apparatus sees everyone as having "terrorist" potential, b/c as anyone posting at a forum dealing w/politics knows, every govt's primary enemy is its own populace.

[TwixVoy]

17. Oh so you "just didn't care" white boy?

So can I call you white boy from now on? I don't mind you refer to me as "dark skin" since you didn't care the OP did, but I want to be able to call you "white boy". So if you are cool with me being called "dark skin" I can call you "white boy".

Or is that another special thing only you white folks get to do to us? Kind of like how the OP thinks we belong in the colored line at the air port.

[Echo In Light]

18. I can see you're preoccupied w/the unfortunate aspect of people finding reasons to hate others...

... and even though I've not given any direct or indirect implication toward that in my postings, you insist on lumping me into what it is you're against, and nothing I can type here will change anything, so... um, yeah, if it makes you feel better to call me "white boy" b/c I responded to another poster talking about his family being 'pulled aside' unnecessarily, go for it. Doesn't mean anything to me either way.

[TwixVoy]

6. You make me sick

I have a feeling you are one of those WHITE people who gives TSA hell because HOW DARE they check you when all those "dark skinned" people are around.

Literally I am sick.

I can understand why they want to screen you. You are obviously a racist. Using your own way of thinking - racists are much more likely to commit acts of violence than non-racists.

[newfie11]

7. My friend, a 78 year old Lakota grandmother

was pulled out of line for extra screening.
There was nothing suspicious about her other than a dark skin.
She was very upset and embarrassed.

[TwixVoy]

8. Well she has dark skin

according to the OP she deserves to be checked out.

[SoCalDem]

19. I have always hated people rifling through my stuff..and now I just drive

everyone "funeral-worthy" in my life has passed on by now, so theres no rush to get anywhere.. We'll stick to our comfy car..and stop when we like, eat what we like, and even smoke, if we want...we're earthbound-oldies:)

[piratefish08]

20. It can be tough being Whitey McWhiteskin in the good ol' US of A.....

:sarcasm:

"with all those dark skinned males".

oh, the horror.

[donco6]

28. LOL! Whitey McWhiteskin.

Had to guffaw outloud at that one.

[a la izquierda]

21. It happens...

I've been pulled out and screened extra. I don't particularly care. I look Mediterranean (my mom's family is Sicilian). It happens to my uncle all the time (he's 100% Italian). I fly constantly, so if I got pissed everytime, I'd be aggravated a whole bunch.
I also get the run-around when I return to the US from extended periods in Mexico. That annoys the hell out of me. Extra screening on a plane? Eh, not so much.

[mmonk]

22. Expect more of this as things heat up internationally.

I'm beginning to think we have seen the end of life enjoyed with less intrusive policies. Without addressing protections from abuse of power, it is a bad mix. It might be prudent with those safeguards in times of tensions but the genie of abuse of power left the bottle sometime back. I suppose in your OP, you were pointing out that not just those one thinks of that are typically profiled by officials, but everyone, is subject to this. That is how I took though others took it another way.

[DRoseDARs]

23. Call you Representative or Senator. Ask them for help. I remember a few years ago a similar story...

That person did that and got a little relief. However, as long as the TSA exists you're probably never going to be rid of this nonsense.

I should clarify: If this was a one-off incident, I wouldn't bother with it. If it happens more than once, I WOULD bother with it.

[TwixVoy]

25. Yes call your republican senator!

How dare a white woman get put in the colored folk line!

[KharmaTrain]

24. I Got The "Treatment" For Changing A Flight...

A couple years ago our flight was first delayed and then postponed, instead of waiting the 24 hours (like the airline suggested) I demanded to go on another flight that day. After hassling with the airlines (and having to pay a "rebooking" fee) I got onto a later flight but when I was getting ready to board the plane, I was told I had to undergo additional screening AT THE GATE. Yep, a couple of TSA gorillas went through my carry-on and did a pat down. I was told that this was cause I had a SSSS on the boarding pass. I was both humiliated and majorly pissed off. And it happened again on the return trip...even though I didn't make a change on that flight. When I questioned why I was pulled out, I was told it was because I had made a sudden flight change. I asked how this would be a security threat and was told "this is not uncommon" and that the "airline recommended" the check. I later found out I had been hassled due to the grief I gave the American Airlines people in getting the flight rescheduled. Needless to say I no longer fly American and if I am stopped on a future flight, I already have my attorney alerted...

[TwixVoy]

26. When you were in the colored folk line

did they touch you? Did they touch a white woman? Tell us. Was it worse than the shame of being the only non-colored person in the line? Did people stare at you?

[LeftHander]

27. A-440 sympathetic vibration could crack a fuselage open

She was right to want to take that tuning fork. TSA keep us safe from pure tone...TERROR!@!!

:o|

[MineralMan]

29. Dark-skinned males? WTF?

As for the SSSS, that may have been assigned due to the peripatetic itinerary. I don't know.

As for the tuning fork, it was simply not recognized by the x-ray machine reader, and needed further identification. Not everyone knows what a tuning fork is, and they're not a common item in carry-on luggage, unless you have a musical instrument along for the ride. As an oboist, I carried one in my oboe case at all times, but was never bothered about it by TSA.

I am quite disturbed, however, that you think that your white skin and female gender would automatically make you less suspect than a "dark-skinned" male. Perhaps you could explain further.

[TwixVoy]

30. Seems like more and more of these people are coming out of the wood work at DU

Seems like more and more of these people are coming out of the wood work at DU. The recent events with the air lines and security has given them a convenient cover to let their racism out.

I honestly think at least 50% of DUers these days belong to the white, upper middle class, christian, heterosexual club and are completely out of touch with reality.

[piratefish08]

31. I've only been on here since 9/08, and it has changed A LOT in the last year.......

[MineralMan]

33. I'm not sure about that.

I fit your category, except for the Christian part. Racism seems to cross all sorts of boundaries and doesn't seem to be something you can infer from such characteristics.

It is just there...sometimes subtly, and sometimes much less so. It's disgusting, though, no matter the source.

[Xenotime]

32. It's like * is in office all over again.

[MineralMan]

34. Uh, could you please come back to your thread and

answer some of the questions people have raised? That would be good.