This story from womenswallstreet.com is really fascinating.
I don't really know what to make of it.
It concerns a woman, the writer, who is on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles. She and her husband notice suspicious behavior from a group of suspicious Middle Eastern men. It's worth reading the story for the details.
The story both points out serious flaws in our airport security systems and raises many questions about racial profiling and the near impossibility of creating the kind of safe environment we think we want without giving up on many of our ideals. Would the writer have been as suspicious if she witnessed the exact same behavior by a group of white men? Probably not. Is it reasonable for her to be more suspicious of Middle Eastern men on an airplane? Possibly, but what are we to do about it?
To me the only answer is to increase security to the level at which we feel safe and subject everyone to the same screening. Any differentiation between travelers for increased scrutiny is asking to be exploited. It is easy enough to find out what they're looking for and get around it. If security is high, it should be high for everyone. The problem with profiling is not the implied racism -- though that is a problem -- it's the false sense of security it imparts.
The writer of the story loses most of my sympathy when she quotes Ann Coulter, and then loses most of the rest when she asks at the end of the piece, "Do I think these men were musicians? [the men were later found to be musicians] I'll let you decide."
She'll let me decide? How am I supposed to decide what she thinks?
Related story:
Liz and I have noticed the last few times we've traveled by air that they have stopped checking IDs at the gate. We presented our IDs and boarding passes at the security checkpoint and then were specifically told that we would not need our IDs again and could put them away. The only explanation we could think of for the pointedness of this announcement is that many travelers had been losing their IDs and complaining, so the regulations were softened. Security loses to the American art of bitching, once again. Still, it seems reasonable, right? No one can get through security without being checked, so why check again at the gate? Beyond the security checkpoint, we can be confident that we are among friends, or at least non-terrorists. Can't we?
Well, if you ask me, their should always be a check at the gate. In fact, they should probably move the metal detectors and x-ray machines to the jetway entrance. The gate is the last barrier to the airplane. Once on the jetway, a travelers options are severely limited. Once only through security, anything can happen. Consider the range of shopping choices one has once through security at modern airports. There are restaurants, bars, shops of every kind. Consider the silverware.
And by not even checking ID at the gate, we've lost track of travelers. There is no way to be sure that the people on the plane are the people you think they are. I can imagine plenty of scenarios where someone could switch boarding passes, change planes, confuse the system and get lost. Not a good thing.
Security without consistency is just a stupid game. It's an illusion, and we'll be playing the blame game again soon when another tragedy strikes.
