A fear of simple tools
Read Joe’s encounter with a security guard on a cruise ship for carrying a knife that the cruise-line said he could carry. This imbecile, while in the employ of a cruise-line, decided that he would enforce the knife laws of Where Great Britain Used To Be.
A couple of weeks back, I was at Disney, for what is hopefully the last time I’ll ever go there. In trips past, I always carried a gun there. But I was told this time that was a no go. But I did carry a knife. In fact, I carried the Razor Lite I mentioned before because it’s cheap and if it ran afoul of their policies, I could replace it cheap. Every day we went to a park. And most days to two parks.
For the first four days, I’d go up to the security line for the metal detector, empty my pockets into a tray (knife included) and would go right on in just fine. On the fifth day, at Epcot the nice security lady took an interest in the knife. She then pulled out some sort of card that, apparently, was designed to see if the knife was some number of inches or less. I told her I’d been in and out of parks all week and she was the first person to even take an interest in the knife. She was puzzled by this. This knife is borderline whatever the size limit is. And she let me in with it. Then, the last day there we went to Magic Kingdom. And this time a male security guy took an interest in it. Same thing. Only he told me to leave it in my bag.
They were both very professional and polite. In fact, I found the security there to be nothing but pleasant and courteous. And they seem to be effective and are very efficient. Those guys should run the TSA.
October 23rd, 2017 at 5:04 pm
Disney security is a joke. I entered that park for over a year while carrying one or more firearms. They missed it every time. Even the one time that I was randomly selected for the magnetometer and it went off, the used a hand wand, and when it went off over my belt buckle, they waved me on in.
My passes expired last year, and I will not be going back. You can read the story here:
http://street-pharmacy.blogspot.com/2016/09/armed-in-non-permissive-environment.html
October 23rd, 2017 at 5:14 pm
Earlier this year TSA seized my aluminum Uzi “tactical” pen. “We’ve been told to be on the look out for things like this that could be used as weapons now, sorry.”
“That’s okay,”I replied. “If necessary, I’ll just stab someone with any of of the other pens I have here in my bag.”
“Don’t say that!” exclaimed the TSA agent, aghast. Although, frankly, I doubt he was more aghast than I that he would be such a mindless tool for Big Brother. Then he asked me what I do for a living, as if somehow that might possibly excuse my rudeness for having something like a pen made from aluminum in my carry-on bag. I asked him what difference that made, picked up my bag and moved on to my gate.
October 23rd, 2017 at 8:46 pm
I live in the “land of Mickey”. Security there is (mostly) to allay fears of the guests…
…as to the TSA at OIA, absolutely correct. Pre-TSA they used to be WAY more pleasant (because the city wanted tourists to return)
MrSatyre, you should have told him that you were a public relations officer for TSA and you were late for an employee review meeting.
October 24th, 2017 at 9:22 am
You gave me a good chuckle over that!!
AS Ernest said their security is a joke. The last several years I have been going back stage to work,the theatrical hoops you have to jump through are ridiculous. I once had a “security” officer tell me I couldn’t bring my Spyderco Police model in while totally ignoring the hand tools; hammer, screwdrivers, wrenches, CHISELS and RAZOR KNIFE! My woodworking tools are sharper than my work knife.
Most of the security crew are actually really great people once you get to know them, there are a few like the guy in Joe’s story though.
If you really want to see some theater look into the fall safety regulations they have instituted in the last few years.
Done ranting now, I’ll go back to lurking.
October 25th, 2017 at 3:43 am
Just got back from Disney myself. Found it interesting on the second day I started carrying my Maxpedtion Sitka bag and out of the 8 times I went through security with it I got selected for the extra security check of going through the metal detector 7/8 times. I found most of the bag checks to be pretty thorough.
The other 4 times I went through without the Maxpedition bag but the stroller and cooler, I only got selected for the extra metal detector once. The one time I went through the no bag line I also didn’t have to go through the metal detector. So definitely felt like I got profiled for having the military style bag. The time I got through without any check with no bag, I was alone and obviously in a hurry to not deal with security (trying to make a lunch reservation), but if I was security and trying to profile, that would probably be the type of guy I would want to send through the metal detector.
I was sanitized EDC wise with no blades, tac pens, or lights (felt naked) to save time. At the first metal detector check I had my Leatherman Style PS which is a TSA approved with no knife blade, just slightly bigger than the classic mini Swiss Army knives. One dude at the metal detector sees it and I point out it has no blade and hangs out on my keychain. The guy says “well, we don’t really let any multitools in to the park but it’ll be ok this time.” So the rest of the trip it was surprising to my family that when they asked for something to be cut, unscrewed, written down, or lit up, I was no longer the guy to ask. Hehe, it was fun to see that reconfirming that my EDC is actually worth it to them.
Also found it interesting that they save photos at least and maybe use some kind of facial recognition at the ticket gate (and probably security too). Had my “Magic Band” not work one time due to my fingerprint not being read and they pulled up my picture of going through the one of the parks the another time with it to confirm it was me.