{"id":1837,"date":"2002-04-22T22:34:56","date_gmt":"2002-04-23T03:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1837"},"modified":"2002-04-22T22:34:56","modified_gmt":"2002-04-23T03:34:56","slug":"doing_the_wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/22\/doing_the_wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"Doing the wrong thing"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge, “I\u2019ve got to tell you . . . I don\u2019t think random checks enhance security very much at airports. “<\/a> Great. Thanks for that analysis. It makes the last several months of traveling feel so much better.<\/p>\n

Ridge, though, is pushing a plan to let frequent fliers (about 20% of all fliers fly half the miles in the US) register in some sort of security database, submit to background checks … and fast-track their way past security. <\/p>\n

Where can I start in listing the problems with this?<\/p>\n

  • We do a crappy job of profiling terrorists. All this does is give someone a profile to try to match to slip through security.<\/p>\n
  • Americans are willing to put up with a lot of hassle and inconvenience … but only if it’s fair<\/i>. If they think someone else is unjustly getting a break, there will be blood in the aisles.<\/p>\n
  • At best, given the above-cited statistic, it only will impact 20% of the fliers.<\/p>\n
  • Ridge wants the airlines<\/i> to run this program. Yes, the airlines, the ones who ran airport security before and did so piss-poor at it (because their primary incentive was to keep security cheap and keep lines moving) will now be back in charge of security again.<\/p>\n
  • Ridge wants the program to pay for itself by having people pay for these fast-track passes. See the notes above on “fair” and on the history of conflict between commercial interests and security interests.<\/p>\n

    Ridge notes, with some justification, that picking 85-year-old grandmothers out of the line for frisking is probably not terribly productive. But that’s an extreme example. The alternative is to try to pick folks who “look suspicious” — which is going to inevitably lead to (a) racial\/ethnic profiling (which may be understandable, but is hardly fair), and (b) letting people through who didn’t “look suspicious” but who were really mad-dog whackos.<\/p>\n

    There may be a better way to deal with airport security than we are presently doing. But this proposal isn’t it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    According to Homeland Security Czar Tom Ridge, “I\u2019ve got to tell you . . . I don\u2019t think random checks enhance security very much at airports. ” Great. Thanks for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8192,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/28\/color_me_shocke.html","url_meta":{"origin":1837,"position":0},"title":"Color me shocked","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 28-Apr-05 3:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I sure feel safer, don't you? Last week, reports from several government departments confirmed what most business travelers and other frequent fliers already knew: after spending more than $5...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27126,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/16\/tsa-solves-the-dont-you-know-who-i-am-problem.html","url_meta":{"origin":1837,"position":1},"title":"TSA solves the "Don't you know who I am?!" problem","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 16-Mar-12 12:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"By letting big business frequent fliers with Amex platinum cards and $100 opt out of most of the security line folderol. Previously noted by me, but the BoingBoing attention is worth the added repeat. #ddtb Embedded Link TSA Precheck: $100 application fee to skip the song and dance - Boing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8986,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/03\/10\/colorful_threat.html","url_meta":{"origin":1837,"position":2},"title":"Colorful threats","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Mar-06 10:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the colored terrorist alert codes. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge unveiled a new \"homeland security advisory system\" today, introducing a color-coded grid that is...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/threats.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10557,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/12\/22\/well_one_of_us_is_in_dece.html","url_meta":{"origin":1837,"position":3},"title":"Well, one of us is in decent spirits","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Dec-06 6:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Kitten goes flying with Snoopy. We go flying with nobody. :-(( UPDATE: She really was a trooper through all of this, handling it with more patience and forebearance than her...","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","block_context":{"text":"Travel","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/\/images\/d6c5f16891.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":39348,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/23\/security-checks-begin-at-home.html","url_meta":{"origin":1837,"position":4},"title":"Security Checks Begin at Home","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 23-Oct-13 10:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"Lots of moving parts in this article about TSA's expansion of its security work, but a few noteworthy pieces:1. TSA is now checking out people well in advance of their arriving at the airport, cross-referencing their reservations with a variety federal databases for all sorts of things. The goal is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":39215,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/16\/the-easy-way-to-avoid-the-default.html","url_meta":{"origin":1837,"position":5},"title":"The "easy" way to avoid the "default"","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Oct-13 9:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's simple. If you consider \"default\" to be \"not servicing our debt,\" then we can simply avoid it by ... well, massively cutting other spending. \u00a0Like Social Security checks.But, of course, that's the president's decision (we're told). So it will be Obama's choice to either \"default\" (which Mr Will seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}