How can one best illustrate the ineffectiveness of airport security? By pointing out that serial stowaways are a thing:
The woman known as a “serial stowaway” for her years-long history of sneaking onto airplanes was arrested once again at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport early Sunday — just two weeks after she managed to board a flight to London from the same airport.
In an attempt to divert attention away from the failure of the airport security team, a member of the local sheriff’s department made a statement that actually made them look even more incompetent:
The sheriff’s office had advocated for special treatment for Hartman, according to NBC Chicago.
“Releasing any seriously mentally ill person without support and treatment is never a good idea,” Cara Smith, the sheriff’s policy chief, told NBC Chicago on Thursday. “This order seriously reflects many things wrong with the criminal justice system.”
“We have a woman who is obviously suffering and in need of significant services,” she said, according to the station. “Without the help she clearly needs, history is likely to repeat itself.”
Not just any woman managed to board two flights but a woman who apparently doesn’t have full faculties.
Security theater continues to be a joke. Its existence only serves to ease the fears of ignorant flyers. Anybody who has read the seemingly ceaseless stream of stories about airport security failures is left to realize that airport and security are currently mutually exclusive terms.