For an agency that claims to have "zero tolerance" for criminal behavior, TSA agents sure spend a lot of time declaring their guilt.
I was reminded of that unfortunate fact a few days ago after a screener reportedly faced accusations of stealing $5,000 from a passenger's jacket as he was going through security at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The agent, Alexandra Schmid, hasn't confessed yet even though officials have it all on videotape. But a closer look at the TSA's rap sheet reveals that often, employees accused of crimes simply roll over and play dead when someone points a finger at them.
Take Coumar Persad and Davon Webb, accused of swiping $40,000 from a piece of luggage in January 2011. They were charged with grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and official misconduct. Last month, they pleaded guilty and were sentenced to six months in jail and five years' probation.
Speaking of theft, how about the TSA supervisor and screener accused of taking between $10,000 and $30,000 from luggage at Newark Liberty International Airport. A federal judge sentenced the supervisor, Michael Arato, to 2 1/2 years in prison and his subordinate, Al Raimi, to six months of home confinement, after both pleaded guilty.
Or Randy Pepper, the TSA supervisor who worked at Seattle-Tacoma, an airport with what many passengers would argue has the worst TSA workforce in the country?
Pepper in 2010 confessed to removing money and jewelry from the luggage he was inspecting, including sterling silver necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings. Few of the items were recovered; most were melted down for the gold or silver content, according to the Justice Department.
And it's not just theft.
How about drugs? Here's a doozy of a drug trafficking case that involves a conspiracy to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and money laundering.
It also involves Minnetta Walker, a Behavioral Detection Officer employed by the TSA. Walker assisted the bad guys in bypassing the normal security procedures, measures and requirements at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, according to the FBI.
Oh yeah, that's according to him, too -- he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and was sentenced to 24 months in prison last month.
Minneapolis TSA agent George Thompson pleaded guilty in federal court to assaulting an 83-year-old Somali man in 2010, a federal hate crime, according to the Department of Justice.
During the plea hearing, Thompson was said to have targeted the elderly man because he had a red beard, which caused him to believe that the victim was a Muslim and an African immigrant. During the assault, Thompson yelled that the victim should "go back to Africa." Thompson admitted that he assaulted the man solely because the victim was Muslim and Somali.
Child pornography, anyone? Andrew Cheever of Lowell, Mass., admitted to it in December. Specifically, he pleaded guilty to having thousands of child pornography images and videos on his home computers. He faces up to 10 years in prison.
Why not fight the charges? TSA critics have long charged that agents who confess are let off with a slap on the wrist, and looking at some of these sentences, it's easy to agree with them.
Oh, I know what you're thinking -- this is so unfair. I'm cherrypicking and drawing attention to a few bad apples, to mix my fruit metaphors. But some have argued that the crime rate among TSA agents is higher than the general population, and even higher than a comparable law enforcement agency. (Except that the TSA has no law enforcement authority.)
But these guilty pleas raise a bigger question. Given the well-documented criminal element within the TSA, it kinda makes you wonder -- who needs protection from whom?
Are the jihadists who allegedly want to bring down another plane a greater danger than the agency charged with protecting America's transportation systems?
Think about it. How many crimes again airline passengers have terrorists committed in the last decade?
What's that? None?
TSA agents, on the other hand -- and by their own admission -- have assaulted, stolen, trafficked drugs and downloaded child pornography.
Maybe we don't need to be protected from the terrorists. Maybe we need protection from the TSA.
Follow Christopher Elliott on Twitter: www.twitter.com/elliottdotorg
Add to that the 62 TSA screeners arrested in 2011 for serious crime, including rape and murder and five in 2012. In 2011 eleven were charged with sex crimes involving children. TSA can’t prevent crime within their ranks, but we’re supposed to trust this agency with airport security.
TSA is indifferent to public opinion and considers their repeated harassment of innocent citizens a measure of success. They rely on the excuse of using unpredictable procedures and sensitive security information to conceal rampant misconduct and mismanagement within the agency.
The agency’s lack of responsible management is why so many crimes, abuses and failures occur. Pistole and the senior staff of TSA have failed miserably in operating this agency and should be replaced.
TSA Crimes & Abuses
bit.ly/TravelUndergroundTSAabuses
It is an unconstitutional agency. It requires surrender of your first, fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth and fourteenth amendment rights to say the least. This done by the federal government regarding travel... something we as citizens are supposed to have the right to do freely.
The constitution does not give the federal government any right to impede the right to travel freely and certainly is barred from making the coerced surrender of constitutionally guaranteed rights a condition to travel freely.
Example: Say if I have a problem with a 'terrorist' who lives in the next county over. He does not know me but I may know of him. One day I see him at the pub. I sit down with him, buy him a drink and we explain our positions. At the end we agree to disagree, shake hands and next time he see's me he shows me favor over others.
However it does not matter if I see a TSA agent in uniform or on the street, they are always in operative mode questioning any and all things and wary of anything that does not seem right. Just because I want to avoid him/her makes me a suspect versus cautious.
TSA agents cannot be reasoned with because they answer to many above them.
A terrorist I can reason with because God, Allah and Jehovah all state we are supposed to reason with the neighbors we disagree with. Sign me: One man's opinion.
After 9/11, anyone trying to hijack a plane will die the death of a dozen people hitting them with laptops.
If you notice, when the TSA rifles your checked luggage they leave a little slip of paper inside the bag. If you read the fine print it states that the TSA is NOT responsible if anything is missing.
Talk about a license to steal...