As reported in many places

[james_davis_nicoll]

Silly me. I thought flying on 9/11 would be easy. I figured most people would choose not to fly that day so lines would be short, planes would be lightly filled and though security might be ratcheted up, we’d all feel safer knowing we had come a long way since that dreadful Tuesday morning 10 years ago.

But then armed officers stormed my plane, threw me in handcuffs and locked me up.

Comments

[cofax7]

What terrifies me about that story is all it took is one nervous person. Some passenger near the toilets, or whatever, who got spooked because one of the Indian guys had motion sickness and spent too long in the bathroom. There doesn't appear to be a crackpot filter on this system.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Once, before 2001, I sat on an airline flight to Washington next to a turbaned Sikh in a nice suit who had a briefcase chained to his wrist. No doubt he was part of the security establishment; but I can only imagine the passenger freakouts and ensuing nonsense that could have happened post-2001.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Oooh! <imagining>

[connactic.livejournal.com]

Washington D.C.? I would guess he was a diplomat.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, probably more likely.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

That suitcase could easily have been a diplomatic bag. Although it could have been a lot of other things, too. Back in 2001 I bet banks sent messengers with Very Important Documents, that today are all electronic.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

This was actually way back in the 1980s.

[lurkingcanadian.livejournal.com]

I suppose it makes me a bad person, but I find myself wishing the person who phoned in the anonymous tip is subjected to similar or worse treatment. That individual, at least, is guilty of hurting innocents.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

They could be simply ignorant, prone to anxiety disorders, etc. People using public transit systems, airports, etc. get repeatedly told "if you see something, say something", with the emphasis that not erring on that side could lead to a terrorist attack; it isn't necessarily stressed to them that there is no crackpot filter and this is going to lead to everyone who gets flagged and everyone with the wrong skin color who sits next to everyone who gets flagged being treated like a dangerous criminal.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Speaking for myself, I'm completely aware of all of that, and still want the person reporting this to be detained for hours of questioning. But I'm vindictive that way.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Yeah. OC Transpo cribbed the "If you see something..." shtick direct from NYC for their own use. An amusing picture of penguins with odd wardrobe choices goes with it.

And as for the rest of it...yeah. We need crackpot filters.

[eagle]

Bruce Schneier has a great stock reaction to the "if you see something, say something" nonsense: If you ask amateurs to do security, you get amateur security.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Perhaps there is a crackpot filter in the system, but it doesn't work well enough.