Ozbiggles,
I had a beautifully-crafted, very soothing post prepared, then hit the 'Submit' button and lost the lot
. SO please forgive this shorter version but I'm buggered if I'm going to retype the previous essay I wrote.
Right...
Mate I think you've missed the point. I suggest that most (if not all) aircrew see the need for security screening and, with varying degrees of co-operation, are prepared to put up with it.
What they object to - and this is what I think you missed early on - is a perceived lack of consistency in its application. That is, if other airside workers - who may or may not have direct access to aircraft - get screened away from passengers' gaze, then why are aircrew treated differently (in that aircrew get screened in passengers' view)? Further, there is a view that, at least at some airports, aircrew get screened whilst other airside workers do not (or at least not to the same extent).
We all see the need for security - that is not in issue here. What is in issue, is the effectiveness of the security and how it is carried out.
Further,
I don't think anyone is saying that pilots as a particular class should be exempt from screening (as you seemed on page 2, to think other posters were arguing); hence a pilot showing up as a passenger should not be exempt from screening just because they flash an ATPL (or even go through a separate lane). Rather, they are saying that operating crew (or perhaps also positioning crew in uniform) should be screened separately from passengers -
as are other airside workers.
It follows in this argument that, where no provision to screen separately exists, then all airside workers should go through the same process as passengers.