DomAviator
Posts: 1253
Joined: 4/22/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Vendaval
So you would wear an EMD device or let anyone you loved wear one? And entrust complete strangers with the power of being shocked? That is your choice to make.
Given how often airport security misses potential weapons in baggage and how often baggage goes missing why should passengers entrust the airlines with EMD devices?
Ok first of all - Airport Security has NOTHING to do with the airlines or flight crews. The security screening is done by the TSA and / or TSA Contractors affectionately called "rent a cops". Half the time when I have an encounter with the TSA it is all I can do not to break his head open just to prove there is absolutely nothing in there.  Seriously, the TSA is the biggest collection of retards you will find outside of the Special Olympics World Jamboree. I wont bore you with TSA stories, but suffice it to say they were once deeply concerned that, despite being bagded for the airport system and wearing a pilots uniform, I might hijack a flight using a plexiglass ruler (chart plotter). They didnt seem to grasp the concept that I dont need to hijack the aircraft at ruler point if I am already going to be flying it. Please dont compare the TSA and airline flight crews. Recently a Continental flight out of IAH was delayed for 45 minutes because one of the assholes detained the first officer.
So now that we have established that the TSA is not the airlines. Many airline pilots are ex-military officers who have a four year college degree, a year of military flight training and depending on when they came in between 6 and 8 years of obligated active duty service. These men have been entrusted with MUCH more potent weapons than the button to a taser bracelet. Forgetting the fact that they flew armed fighters and attack aircraft, bombers with nucs aboard etc, they also flew with a 9mm pistol, a K-Bar knife, and several other "weapons" on their persons. After completing their military service - they go through an extensive interview process (it usually lasts 3 days) before a board of company pilots, they are given psychological tests, simulator checks, etc... IF selected they THEN start their training before being assigned to the line as a first officer. By the time someone is a Captain they have several years in with the company and have gone though countless checks, evaluations etc... If not going military, much to the chagrin of the civilian flight schools which will lie to people and tell them otherwise, you have to pay roughly $25,000 - $30,000 for 250 hours of flight time after which you can get a shit job instructing for MAYBE $10 an hour until you can then get a slightly better gig as a freight dog flying cargo all night,. then you can do charters, and eventually move to corporate jets and a commuter airline etc... All the way along this road, until you have roughly 3000 hours in jets, you are working in a relatively small industry where everyone knows everyone and people talk... Scratch that, they gossip like old ladies! When BrittneyLee tipped a Southwest captain three months later I heard about it from a Continental captain. Thus, everyone knows whose a fuckup or a slacker or whos "defective" and that will come out in an airline interview. SOMEBODY on that interview board will know - "thats the guy who landed under minimums in minneapolis!" or "hey that little fucker is the one who ratted out the captain when he was at NetJets."... Its harder to become a captain for a major airline than it is to become a neurosurgeon.
By comparison - your average cop - who carries a taser that has the exact same effect took a civil service test, went through the academy, and voila congrats officer get out there and do it to them before they do it to us. If its a reserve cop they got to go to the academy Thursday nights and alternate Saturdays. As I said, my volunteer fire dept has tasers on the trucks and ambulances. I had TWO hours of training on how and when to use it.
The fact is that a hell of a lot of "complete strangers" are entrusted with the power to shock you or one of your loved ones. The tasers are actually a good thing and they are less likely to hurt you than other methods.... One time on a paramedic call with the vol squad I caved some fucking drunks face in with a maglite when he grabbed a hold of me. If we had the tasers then, he would have sustained far less injury them he did by a paramedic, an EMT, and four firefighters beating him unconsious with flashlights and a medical oxygen D tank.(He would have sustained even less injury if he'd kept his fucking hands to himself and not tried to continue the bar fight he already lost with Fire/EMS.) Most of the people with access to tasers face far less screening than airline crews.
The flight crew already has the capability to injure or kill you in other ways. If they are unable to retain operational authority over the aircraft a fighter pilot will be scrambled to blow them from the sky before it can be flown into anything. So, whats better that your loved one POTENTIALLY be shocked with a non lethal device controlled by a carefully screened person OR that the aircraft they are in be blown to bits at 35,000 feet with no survivors? Tasers are unpleasant but I would rather have an taser on my wrist than a Sidewinder up my ass. You dont wake up from an AIM-9's to the engine...
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RE: Potential Electronic ID Bracelet for air travelers - 
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