L'Ombre de l'Olivier

The Shadow of the Olive Tree

being the maunderings of an Englishman on the Côte d'Azur

12 September 2006 Blog Home : September 2006 : Permalink

Airport "Security"

The UK tabloids, particularly the Sun and the Mirror tend to have a poor reputation for accuracy. On the other hand sometimes they report stories which have to be true because they fall in the "you can't make this up" category. Samizdata and the Register both note this one from the Sun:

A TOURIST was told to turn his T-shirt inside-out at an airport — as a picture of two guns on it was deemed a SECURITY RISK.

Dave Osborne, 21, was bound for Newark, New Jersey, when guards hauled him out of the queue for his Guns N Rollers T-shirt.

They told him the two pistols on the front could constitute a security risk and upset passengers.

Of course if he'd been wearing a "Bollocks to Blair" T shirt he'd probably have been arrested rather than just told to hide the image....

Just for once I wonder if the UK shouldn't learn something from the US approach to airport "security":

Here's my story about being at the airport: First, no one checked my photo ID when I got on line for security. Then I walked through the metal detector and no one checked my ID again. Then my bags came through the little thingie and no one stopped them to say, "Golly, ma'am, you've sure got a lot of pill bottles and tubes of makeup!" So I got really pissed off and found a security guard and said to her, "Ma'am, I have prescription medication in my bag, and I think I'm supposed to have that checked?"

[...]...then she walked away. Then she walked away. !!!!! And still no one has checked my ID!

In conclusion, the Jet Blue terminal at the JFK airport is really damn lucky that I am not a terrorist.

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I despise l'Escroc and Vile Pin