April 6th, 2011
Approximately a week and a half ago, reports were broadcast telling of the arrest and confessions of at least two [if not several] TSA Agents concerning theft from airline travelers at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. The agents of the TSA (Transportation Security Administration, or was that the Thieving Scoundrels Administration) were apparently stealing material items from passengers’ checked baggage; the same checked baggage that the agents were responsible for verifying as safe and flight-worthy and not containing dangerous or terroristic devices/contraband. Apparently, arrests of TSA Agents from JFK had been made several weeks ago. However, I heard no report of the story until last week. Very briefly, I heard the reported story on WABC Television Late-Night News Sunday March 27th, as I recall.
Does it seem odd that this story was not given more attention by the mainstream press/media outlets? TSA, the U.S. airport security folks who x-ray and search baggage at the airports and screen passengers as well, are - of course - U.S. government employees (U.S. Department of Homeland Security / insecurity). I would venture to guess that many would not want the populace/consumer/airline traveler to know that some of these TSA folks who are entrusted with helping to verify our safety while traveling via commercial airliners are no better than common thieves. Again, that is to say, I am sure many governmental-type entities would not want us to know that several of the government agents entrusted with our safety are merely low-life criminals – those who have neither apparent need nor desperation but choose to steal to better themselves financially, nevertheless.
Are incidents such as this which involved the apparently government sanctioned thieves at JFK Airport more prevalent and more widespread than the average American consumer may know? Or, is this merely an isolated series of incidents or another in the long list of our Federal government’s ineptitude? Lest we forget, these TSA baggage checkers and security personnel [and thieves] have supposedly gone through rigorous background checks to ensure any trust placed in the TSA personnel is warranted. Apparently, the numbers of common thieves among the TSA has grown and thefts of this sort have continued across the nation for a significant period of time, btw.
In my opinion, another of the huge ironies with this story - and another reason why I no longer enjoy traveling via commercial airliners anymore - is that when traveling by air, the traveler can no longer lock their checked baggage to prevent theft of valuables. Baggage can not be locked, of course, so that any of these potential thieves/TSA Agents can go through/inspect the checked baggage – all in the name of security, anti-terrorism, and passenger safety. (Search and seizure/Fourth Amendment Rights therefore being suspended, no doubt.)
With the irony marching forward: If these TSA Agents can not be trusted to not steal from the unsuspecting airline passengers, one must logically wonder, what else might the corrupt TSA agents put a price on? Could the corrupt thieves amongst the TSA inspectors be bribed into letting dangerous or terroristic items/weapons on the planes?
Obviously, any trust in the recently arrested TSA-common-thieves was ill-placed. One has to wonder if any faith of somewhat assured safety concerning the airplane, cargo, and the planes’ passengers was also ill-advised – given the actions of these TSA agents at JFK Airport.
Adam Trotter / AVT
PS. As another interesting personal oddity to this story, I am aware of a friend who was on business travel to a non-stop destination, leaving from JFK Airport in New York a few weeks ago. Upon arrival at their destination, my friend then discovered that a lap-top computer which was in their checked baggage had been stolen. They reported the theft to the authorities a few days prior to the recent re-reported arrest of the TSA agents/thieves which was broadcast last week. So in other words, there are likely to be more/other thieves working for the TSA at JFK which have yet to be caught - as the thieves of this latest reported story had been arrested prior to the theft of my friend's lap-top computer. Regardless, I’m sure my friend’s missing computer has long-since landed in some Gotham City stolen-computer chop-shop and will likely never be seen again.
Though there are a surprisingly [or not surprisingly] few/limited number of media reports on this latest TSA related theft at JFK Airport, nevertheless, also see:
Two TSA agents busted at JFK Airport for stealing $160,000 from checked bags
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bags_tsa_agents_busted_checked_jfk_FRka1bq83wcuV1xwkEwUJK
Coumar Persad & Davon Webb, JFK TSA Officials, Admit To Robbing Passengers (POLL)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/16/coumar-persad-and-davon-w_n_824105.html
Investigation into alleged TSA thefts at JFK Airport (An article from Like a year ago)
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7447038
TSA Under Fire for Rising Theft by Baggage Screeners (An article from seven years ago)
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=266573
