Viral Video from Chicago's Midway Airport

[PJMcK]

Last edited Fri May 13, 2016, 03:59 PM - Edit history (1)

This video shows the security line at Midway. It's 1-1/2 hours long! As usual, the TSA is doing a terrible job. Their staff is incompetent or bored or worse. Their procedures are invasive and there are probably Fourth Amendment violations occurring daily. Additionally, think of the uncountable hours of wasted time, productivity and money this fake security causes. I call it fake because if they actually caught a real terrorist, the TSA would trumpet it from the mountain tops. Whenever we hear of something, it's because some individual was carrying a loaded pistol, something that the pre-9/11 security checks would have caught.

Of course, Republicans have the solution: privatize the airports' security.

Unless I'm traveling more than 1000 miles, I no longer fly because of the wasted time and hassles in our air transportation system. The crappy service airlines provide will be the subject of a future rant!

[CompanyFirstSergeant]

1. "Fourth Amendment violations occurring daily."

Have you seen the Fourth Amendment anywhere.......?

Yeah, over here......

In the shredder bucket.

[PJMcK]

2. More TSA Fun and Games

Phoenix is another airport with TSA troubles;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3588032/TSA-3-000-checked-bags-miss-flights-leaving-Phoenix-airport.html

[jberryhill]

3. Thanks for keeping us updated on Infowars

[PJMcK]

8. Acknowledged that Infowars is a POS site

However, the video is real and anyone who travels in the US knows that this kind of problem is pervasive. In NYC, we now have the Port Authority trying to privatize the NY airports' security. Sorry, but this link is to the New York Post:

http://nypost.com/2016/05/11/new-yorks-airports-need-to-evict-the-tsa/

Don't worry, I'm a true blue Democrat and have been since first voting in 1976.

[HuckleB]

10. So change the site in the OP.

Come on.

[PJMcK]

11. Sorry, but I don't understand

The video I linked to was on the Infowars site. Please explain what you mean. Thanks.

[HuckleB]

12. You can find the video from other sites, and change the link.

It's just not ok to give a link to that page, for multiple reasons.

[PJMcK]

14. Thanks

Changed the link to YouTube. Thanks for the explanation.

[840high]

36. Thanks for video.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Could you not find a source other than that nutty rightwing AlexJones suckjob rag?

[cali]

5. Fuck posting links to infowars here

[PJMcK]

9. Please see my response to jberryhill (#3) above

And thanks for your polite response (wink).

[Major Nikon]

15. ...while claiming this is "usual"

[ViseGrip]

6. Funny, I use Midway a lot. Never encountered this. It's actually one of my favorite airports.

Was this taken after a slue of canceled flights due to weather?????

I wonder about this video and when it was taken. When flights resume after cancellations around the country...this happens in all major cities!

[ViseGrip]

7. PS. Midway's set up and restaurants are the best.

The other great airport is Tampa. A big airport. Midway is small and my favorite in the small category.

[jberryhill]

13. That's the problem with videos like this

Often the context is missing.

There are roughly 1.7 million people - just in the US - who fly each day.

If this were at all typical, you'd see and hear a whole lot more going on than one tweeted video. As you mention, flight interruptions followed by resumption of service causes a lot of backups.

But, no, 1.7 million people did not stand in a line this long today.

[frazzled]

16. Me too

I love Midway (as compared to Ohare, at least). I only encountered one surprising line recently (in early March). There must have been some high alert, because there were two extra TSA agents, with sniffing dogs, stationed at each of the check-in desks (you know, where you first show your ticket and ID before entering the basket lines), when there is usually only the one checker, and far more than the usual number of agents at the conveyor belt and x-ray stations. That said, the long line moved very efficiently, and we were not delayed at all in getting to our gate. (And getting coffee and bagels at Manny's!). I did wonder about the surfeit of agents. It was a few weeks before the Brussels airport attack, but perhaps there had been chatter.

[Prism]

22. I'm the opposite, weirdly enough

I hate Midway and always book through O'Hare. I do SFO to O'Hare about four times a year. The wait is generally 15 mins through security.

Except that one time. That One. Effing. Time. I visited family at Christmas. Who all had the flu. As in, my brother went to ER for it, flu. And then I tried to fly home. During the trip to the airport, I felt vaguely under the weather all of a sudden. And then, without warning . . . Stuck in a one hour security line, mentally plotting various routes to trash cans, because who knows when the projectile vomit will start.

Dry heaved my way right on through a Dallas layover, arrived back in San Fran, and promptly laid in bed for five days.
It was the longest security line in my entire life. It felt like days.

[frazzled]

24. Glad to hear you survived!

That sounds awwwwful.

My worst security line incident at O'Hare was for an overseas flight, maybe 6 or 7 years ago. More than two hours in line, with everybody getting angry at people trying to cut in, pretending as if they had been there all along for the past hour and a half. There were nearly fisticuffs.

We fly either O'Hare or Midway, depending on where we're going and where the more convenient flights and times are. It's just easier for us to hop on the El and get to Midway quickly. After a few less than happy train rides to O'Hare (don't ask, but it involved both drunks and mentally ill people who took a bit too much liking to us), we started driving and parking, which is expensive and a pain as well.

[PJMcK]

25. Sorry to hear of your experience and glad you made it! (n/t)

[Major Nikon]

17. Midway is a smaller reliever airport

It's not designed to handle larger traffic loads like at O'Hare, and unforeseen circumstances will result in delays unless 3 times the infrastructure and staffing are in place at all times which just isn't all that pragmatic.

[lpbk2713]

18. Is it possible there's a log jam at the TSA body scanner?

If the employees are bored they might look for ways to make their job more interesting.



Why are three male employees standing around watching a female being scanned?

[Shandris]

19. Surely you can see how their 'Lets privatize it' angle works, though. Most people look at this...

...and say "Man, I'd be fired if I did that. That means business must be better." It's a simple jumping point, held in place by the corrupted dialectic. "This side doesn't work? Then the other must!" Not recognizing that both will be the same, as that is the intended result (the SYNTHESIS).

Of course they're incompetent. They have no incentive to care about you whatsoever, and our current society has done it's absolute best to make 'caring' something that is evil and bad (unless it's put into the appointed channels, of course, but that's only to fuel the next round of synthesis).

[philosslayer]

30. The TSA is composed of federal employees

You're dismissal of them as being "incompetent" and "no incentive to care about you whatsoever" sounds like a right wing talking point to me.

[Shandris]

31. I don't believe in 'wings'. That bird can fly right the hell off.

If you think words and phrases have a 'wing', you've kind of got a bigger problem than you may realize. Also, when my eyes have directly observed more cases of governmental incompetence (admittedly, I presume much of it is enforced by the 'rules', which removes it from being their fault directly) than most people will ever encounter governmental workers, when I've been in elections with family, when I've family in various portions of government (now retired*), I'll reserve my natural right to say whatever the hell I like about their degree of competence or lack thereof, enforced or otherwise.

Although I would be interested in knowing precisely what incentive they have to protect you. I'll go on the assumption you've simply never truly considered the question.

[philosslayer]

34. They certainly have more incentive than a private sector person would.

I unequivocally support public sector workers at whatever level of government.

[Shandris]

37. They have the same amount (and type) of incentive -- fear.

And fear is not conducive to a mindset where you can care about anything because it leaves only your reptile/survival brain capable of acting, thus returning to the original point - they can't care about you.

I unequivocally support people who do good things for others without regard to 'rules', particularly when those 'rules' leave people hurt, suffering, or otherwise harmed. When that envelops a public worker, I support them completely. FWIW, in addition to incompetence (again, often the forced kind but not nearly always), I'll also say that I find many public workers start out from a place of compassion than many others.

[Prism]

20. Yeah, fuck that place

I back and forth to Chicago four times a year. I will only ever go through O'Hare.

And this shit is one reason why.

[joeybee12]

21. More Union busting

TSA, while not perfect, is not as bad as right-wing loons in Congress want you to believe...they just want to privatize it.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Gotta check all those flyers for weed

Takes a long time, yes sir

[LonePirate]

26. Why should we listen to anything from a poster who praises a Republican solution?

[virgogal]

27. I think that was sarcasm.

[Person 2713]

28. I've never seen that at midway . Flew out at height of spring break. Crowded? Not like that!

Orlando return was longer at spring break return
Ohare is bigger and can get long. I prefer midway.
This is the smaller of two airports in Chicago people!!
Not sure what that was about
Maybe the early weekday morning after a weather stay delay ? Fri afternoon?
Looked like they looped back to the el exit from downtown

[philosslayer]

29. Security is the important thing

If we have to endure longer lines in order to ensure security, then so be it.

[pangaia]

33. Those lines have very little to do with 'security...'

That's what they want you to think...Be afraid. Be very, very afraid..

[pangaia]

32. Sure am glad I live near a small airport.. ROC.

Rarely any type of security line. As long as I check in the day before, print boarding passes or save them to my phone... piece of cake.. I can often arrive less than an hour before a flight and make it easy... MOST of the time..

Then fly to a hub, if need be, no security... off to San Fran, Dallas, Korea, Japan, Russia, Portugal, wherever.

The worst security situation I ever encountered was at Toronto Pearson at about 6:15 am.. Total chaos !!!!! arrived at 6:15 am for a 9:15 am flight....check in kiosks wouldn't print baggage labels, whatever you call them.... Had to carry on and so had to throw out a bunch of stuff to get through security.....barely made my 40 minute flight home...but it was on a Beech 1900D.. :&gt ))))

One of the best huge airports?? Incheon Intenational !!! rated #1 in the world the last 11 years, I believe... love it..
Oh, and Haneda. I try as much as possible to use Haneda instead of Narita...

Has a good sushi bar as well.. of course.... :&gt ))

[Freethinker65]

35. Midway isn't great, but this is unusual

I fly in and out of Midway several times/year and have never experienced security lines like that. In fact, I dread the wait for my checked luggage at Midway (sometimes takes nearly an hour) than the typical security line which takes far less time.