Airport security - new levels of insanity

[HiltonP]

Received this eMail from a knifemaking friend (on his way to the CHICAGO KNIFE SHOW) this morning . . .

". . . reached London where security confiscated my under 3cm round nose scissors (there is a sign outside saying these are OK but what they mean is total length must be under 3cm, for dwarf fingers!), they confiscated my 2mm cable ties used for the bags since they can be used as restraints (one cannot use TSA locks in the UK since they do not have keys and simply break them or the zipper, so I use cable ties for UK trips) and to top it all they wanted to confiscate my brochures since they have knife pictures on them! PICTURES! . . ."

 

[gak]

You're lucky you didn't post a picture of a knife on the internet...

Hundreds of weapons have been taken off the streets of Glasgow six months after police started using the web to crack down on gang violence. Young trainee officers at Strathclyde Police search social networking sites for pictures of people posing with weapons, mainly knives.

Constable Holly McGee and Cadet Fraser Reed, both 18, carry out the work. “We’re looking for anyone who is brandishing offensive weapons or blades,” Holly told Newsbeat. “We take the date, the time, detail of what’s in the photograph, [then] a copy of the photograph is printed out and thereafter it’s all sent to the gangs task force unit.” That’s when more experienced officers in the Violence Reduction Unit at Strathclyde Police get involved.

‘The law’s been broken’

The man in charge of this, Superintendent Bob Hamilton, says there are two ways of dealing with people once they’ve been tracked down. If they were posing in a public place, like on the street or a park, the law has been broken and they’ll be arrested.

Even when pictures are taken in private, though, which isn’t technically breaking the law, he says the weapons are so dangerous his officers pay a visit to the people involved. “We have large kitchen knives, axes, samurai swords, baseball bats, a huge number and different type of weapons – in simple terms weapons that can kill.”

http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/01/29/glasgow-police-crack-down-on-internet-knife-gangshuh/

 

[HiltonP]

I have this vision of him running around a 747 trying to cable tie 400+ passengers thumbs together (because that’s about all you can do with a 2mm tie) while threatening them with glossy photos of his knives! . . .

 

[stefanj]

WOW, I am worried about getting my knife back since I used it to prime C4 charges and cut DET Cord. I think my flight back home when I go will be very interesting!