Security nazis at Detroit airport

Apr 22 04:44 UTC 2002

I was out on the west coast last week, and flew Northwest, which had me
connecting flights in Detroit.  So I get off the first plane in Detroit
and go down the terminal to the new gate, and give them my boarding pass
and my ID.  Figured I'd get right on the plane.  Wrong.  I was asked to
step aside to a nearby table, where they opened my suitcase and searched
through it.  They made me take off my shoes and unbuckle my belt and
frisked me, and waved a hand held metal detector under my arms, between my
legs and under my feet (I guess they thought I might have something in my
socks)  I had to empty my pockets and the security guy actually looked
through my wallet (he said I could be hiding a razor blade in there)

I complained that I had already passed through security
at LaGuardia in New York, where I did not have to take off my shoes or be
frisked or anything.  They said this was Detroit airport and they have
tighter security there and insist on re-checking everyone who connects
there, even if they have cleared security at their original airport.

I guess the detroit airport has a private security firm doing these extra
checks now.  Its really aggravating and self-defeating.  Next time I book
a flight on Northwest out to the coast, I'll book myself through Memphis
or somewhere else.  Why should I connect in Detroit if I am treated like a
criminal?  The plane left thirty plus minutes late because they were
checking everyone who was connecting, not originating there.  I think if I
passed through security at a major airport, that ought to be good enough
for the security nazis at detroit airport.  sheesh. 

response 2 of 167:

Apr 22 04:54 UTC 2002

okay thats the wrong phrase to use, but if we get to the point where 
everybody gets searched and treated like criminals, you get to the point
where it resembles something like a military state.  We cannot let
paranoia rule

response 4 of 167:

Apr 22 04:56 UTC 2002

Richard "slipped in," changing nothing.  

response 6 of 167:

Apr 22 06:50 UTC 2002

Actually, on my trips to and from Miami, I got "pulled over" twice for
selective searches, going through everything, but I didn't post an item
whining about it.

response 8 of 167:

Apr 22 12:56 UTC 2002

I agree it's out of control, but Detroit does have reason to be more careful
than other airports.

response 10 of 167:

Apr 22 13:58 UTC 2002

I flew out of (and back to) Detroit recently and didn't have any unusual
experience with security.

Detroit Metro Airport is rated as being about THE WORST major airport in
North America from a traveler's point of view.  The problem the airport
management's attitude: contempt for customers.  They have some new
facilities, sure, but the bad old attitudes are still very much in
evidence.

Recent example: the proposed Detroit-to-Lansing passenger train route goes
right by Metro Airport, and it would seem reasonable to have a stop there. 
Um, no, the Airport has a longstanding policy that you have to PAY
enormous fees for the PRIVILEGE of picking up or dropping off people at
the airport, which makes it pretty much uneconomical to do it unless you
can make passengers pay huge surcharges.

That's why it costs something like $50 to get to the airport from Ann
Arbor, and why Greyhound/Indian Trails buses don't have a stop there.

Of course, if you drive there, the parking fees are horrific, too.

I don't think other airports are quite so mercenary (and merciless)  about
ground transportation fees.

The one person who is most directly to blame for this state of affairs (at
least currently if not historically) is Wayne County Executive Ed
McNamara.

response 12 of 167:

Apr 22 16:55 UTC 2002

They are good about that in Ann Arbor.  When Jon and I visited a while 
back, there was someone to pick us up and people to take us around to 
all the various sites and someone to put us up and even someone to 
take us back to the airport to catch our return flight.  It was great 
and my first time on an airplane.

response 14 of 167:

Apr 22 19:32 UTC 2002

I've flown out of DTW three times recently, all three times heading back
to Reagan National in DC. Two out of three times at DTW I was pulled over
at the checkpoint and wanded, while at National I never received any
special attention at all. (Apparently I'm not as suspicious as John
Dingell.)

response 16 of 167:

Apr 22 20:52 UTC 2002

richard must be BROWN.

response 18 of 167:

Apr 22 23:25 UTC 2002

I recently flew from Syracuse to Minneapolis (and back), connecting in 
Detroit both times.  I was not selected for the security inspection, 
even though I was connecting in Detroit.

I've had more security hassles in Syracuse than I have in Detroit.  
Although I've never been selected for the gate screening, where they go 
through all your carry on luggage, I have been "wanded" at the security 
checkpoint 3 times, and on 2 occasions, I've had to submit my backpack 
to be swabbed with some device that is then put in a reader of some 
sort.  Syracuse is also the only airport that I've been to that has made 
me take off my hat and put it through the x-ray machine.

response 20 of 167:

Apr 23 03:44 UTC 2002

no I'm not brown or evil looking or anything.  But I do have presently
long hair and a full beard, and my friend I was traveling with said 
jokingly that maybe they thought I looked too much like Charles Manson.
Sheesh.  Maybe if I was wearing a suit instead of blue jeans, I wouldnt
have been flagged.  Actually, there was an arab in line ahead of me who
had it worse.  When he was being searched, they called over a security
supervisor who grilled him about where he was going and demanded extra
identification and took possession of the man's cell phone.  Said the
stewardess had to hold onto it until the flight landed, and then he'd
get it back.  I did not have a cellphone with me, but was carrying my
discman, which I had to get out a cd and play it for the guard to prove
it was a working player and not a bomb in disguise.

I just got annoyed because they let two girls right ahead of me get
right on the plane, while I had to be subjected to this search.  Its
embarrassing having people walking by the gate seeing you being frisked
and having the wand waved under the bottoms of your feet, as if you
had something in your socks.  The wand they used was sensitive too, it
buzzed my pockets when I thought I had everything out.  Turns out I had
a couple sticks of gum in my other pocket and it picked up the tin foil!  Next
time I'll have to buy chicklets!

response 22 of 167:

Apr 23 10:59 UTC 2002

re20:  try going in drag.

response 24 of 167:

Apr 23 15:45 UTC 2002

They're profiling, of course, but they're also searching people who don't fit
the profile.  My parents worked the WTC scene for around a month (as part of
the Federal effort).  When they flew home to Detroit, they were wearing all
these law enforcement pins and stuff like that (people trade these things on
the scene), had federal IDs, NDMS patches on their bags, etc., and *they* got
selected for a search at the airport.  The searchers were kind of embarrassed
about it, and made a point of thanking them for coming to NYC to help out,
but my parents were cool about the whole thing.

Of course, they could have deliberately searched my folks to make a point to
the middle eastern people they were also searching that they weren't being
singled out.