So a local teen climbed a fence and got on an airplane? Did he have a nail file? What threat did he represent? BFD.
The only persons subject to security now by the TSA are passengers and aircrew, leaving all the rest of the thousands of persons such as maintenance, ground handling, catering and the security people themselves free to enter and leave via their own entrances without this new, intrusive security. Meanwhile we, the long-suffering public and crew, are subject to mindless "security", hours long terminal closures when a backpack is found unattended, and interminable hassles. People are being turned off flying, which is having a disastrous effect on aviation in general and airlines in particular, and it is not safer as a result. The TSA admits that thousands of weapons are still being carried, yet thousands of crimes are not being committed, which must mean that the normal passenger, even if not very bright, is not a criminal.
And the success stories, such as the armed agents of El Al at LAX who stopped a maniac soon after he started firing his guns, and the passengers of the American flight who alerted the crew and assisted in stopping the "shoe bomber", are not used as a learning tool.
The armed air marshal program is a shambles, with the few marshals being given less training and subject to lower standards, overworked and unable to maintain a schedule that offers any real protection. Yet nothing is being done, either as an interim or permanent step, to offer any protection to airplanes in flight, other than to offer to shoot them down if they stray too close to the seat of gevernment. Yeah, protect the Congressmen even if the voters have to die.
How about some meaningful training to cabin crew and tools for them to handle the new reality? Threatening to shut down major airports because they cannot meet the new government rules on massive, unsuitable and intrusive Xray machines in the check-in concourses is a positive step? Plastic knives are safer than metal butter knives but metal forks and glass bottles are still OK? Gimme a break.
There are effective ways to combat criminals and terrorists, and moving law enforcement from places it is needed to the airports, where law enforcement was not a problem, is stupid. It is motivated not by security concerns but merely by greed, both on the part of those moving to the TSA and by the government, which is using the build-up of airport security and Homeland Security to expand their size and influence. A blatant power grab.
The attempted bombing of LAX last year was thwarted not by airport security or airport police, but by Customs at the border. So what are we doing? Making it more likely that the border protection staff will not be there next time! Are we crazy?