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NEWS > U.S.A. > AIRLINE EXPERTS ADMIT METAL DETECTORS ARE LARGELY USELESS
AIRLINE EXPERTS ADMIT METAL DETECTORS ARE LARGELY USELESS
December 29 2009
Detroit, MI – In 1775 Benjamin Franklin offered a musing on the ongoing battle for safety when he said “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”. Franklin’s quote could have 
been just as relevant if spoken today, so universal is the battle between those two forces. In today’s world, the battle between security and freedom remains as vital as it has ever been with fear winning out more often than not.
Anyone who has travelled by air recently will attest to the direction the battle is heading, something that will be even more apparent in the coming weeks and months as airline security across the United States is ratcheted in the wake of the failed bombing attempt on a Detroit-bound plane. While recriminations have already begun with many pointing to the failure of security forces to follow basic protocols, much of the blame will also rightly be placed on the equipment being given to those people charged with protecting our safety. The frontline tool that has come under the most scrutiny, the now ubiquitous metal detector, has now been revealed as more or less useless with experts admitting that it doesn’t really detect much of anything.
“Metal detectors have become a catch-all for security concerns for both the public and
the people trying to catch the evil-doers. We are so used to seeing the arches not only in airports but in schools and stores as well that we just accept the idea that they are going to work but often they don’t, in fact they don’t catch much of anything at all the majority of the time,” said metal detector specialist Michael Belkin. “How many times have you walked into a store and found the beeper going off for no reason? As annoying as those incidents are they assure us that the tools are working but they are giving us a false impression of security, allowing us to depend on something that will, ultimately, fail us.”
Because the potential bomber had no metal parts in his bomb, it’s unlikely his plot would have been uncovered even if the metal detectors worked.
“I mean they are great for detecting people wearing belts or carrying cellphones but for stopping things like the bombing of a plane, well they don’t work so well in that
area but they give people a psychological crutch that they will in fact be safe on their flight, unfortunately that crutch also applies to security personnel,” continued Belkin. “Airports should really just get rid of the detectors in order to try and eliminate the laziness attached to them. Rather they should go back to things like hand patting and strip searches which have largely fallen away in recent years due to advances in technology and privacy concerns, but when it comes to security though such things should not be allowed to get in the way.”
It should be noted that Belkin has two assault charges in his past and is a registered sex offender.
“True, metal detectors are flawed but they are an important tool in fighting abuses but security people simply can’t rely on those basic tools to keep everyone safe. After all we are talking about protecting the bastion of democracy, thousands of years of civilization, and a little beep is likely not enough,” said Scrape TV Airline analyst Jeffry Johnson. “There is no clear answer unfortunately but we will find no truth in paranoia. At least we know now how ineffective these detectors are which will make grabbing something at Best Buy all the easier.”
Scrape TV News does not endorse shoplifting or the bombing of passenger planes.
Mike Michaels, American Correspondent
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