Man oh man, will the TSA ever learn? One of their agents was caught on video at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport over the weekend busting a major terrorist. Oh wait, no they weren't. It was a 3-year-old boy in a wheelchair. The TSA was just treating him like a hardened criminal.
To be honest, when I first watched the video of Matt Dubiel's little boy getting the terrorist treatment, I wanted to give the TSA the benefit of the doubt. The agent seemed respectful, and you just never know what some creep could have stuck in the back of that wheelchair. But then things got nuts.
During the three-minute video, Dubiel reveals he wasn't allowed to physically comfort his obviously confused and stressed toddler. And then you see an agent wiping down the boy's hands ... for explosives residue. Because you can't trust those 3-year-olds with the nitro-glycerin? Take a look:
See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.
Swabbing his cast? His hands? For a 3-year-old? I can accept a review of the wheelchair, but that's where it should have ended -- about one minute in.
Dubiel held it together quite well, he's not one of the over-reactive nuts who have sullied the reputation of Americans with valid points about the problems with in the TSA. He seems to have realized this agent was just doing his job ... albeit a job that amounts to a ridiculous waste of federal resources. This video is the epitome of what's wrong with the organization of the TSA. Having traveled, the agents are, by and large, friendly and simply doing what they're assigned to do. But when the assignment is to spend that much time testing a little boy for explosives, what they're assigned to do amounts to a whole lot of time allocated to fruitless efforts.
What they need are better instructions, instructions based on common sense. We, the taxpayers, just paid a man to stand in an airport working up a toddler "terrorist" instead of grabbing someone else for a "random" screening. Frankly, I'd rather pay the agents to stand around and shoot the breeze, while keeping their eyes peeled for something truly suspicious ... at least that might prevent a real terrorist from taking to the friendly skies.
What do you think should have been done in this case?
Image via MattonAir/YouTube