By Accur81

A police officer or firefighter usually receives a funeral with full honors (generally a formal motorcade and speeches by multiple politicians) when they are killed in the line of duty. Following the first ever death of a TSA agent, Gerardo Hernandez, who was killed during the LAX shooting, he is set to have a funeral where he will receive full honors. A number of politicians are scheduled to attend including US AG Eric Holder. It is likely that enhanced gun control will also be on the agenda. Concerned about the propensity of the federal government to continually honor itself and whatever it does, I let my supervisor know that I was not happy that the TSA agent was being treated like a police officer . . .

His words, in essence, where for me to drink the Kool Aid (translation: follow the orders received). Needless to say, I won’t be attending the funeral. I do not consider TSA agents to be especially honorable or even necessary. While the shooting event was indeed tragic, I rue the fact that the incident is likely to be used as a political platform to further empower TSA agents, and is also likely to promote the civilian disarmament agenda.

As a peace officer, I will be including instructions upon my death to prevent politicians from speaking about gun control, or using my death to further any political agenda. I have no need of a formal motorcade. In fact, I’d rather no politicians be present at my funeral at all.

Carry on, veterans, and thank you for your service.  Semper Fi.

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102 COMMENTS

  3. looking down the line at this photo . . . . embarrassing. Can they organize weight watchers or something at the office? What about pride in your looks?

    • It is with great personal shame that I admit this. A few years back I became desperate for any job that offered the prospect of retirement. I tested for the TSA. I didn’t hear back from them until much later when they offered me a spot at Phoenix Sky Harbor. I turned it down because it started out as a part time position with the potential to go full time. I still don’t have a job with a retirement, but at least I have some of my dignity intact, which is more than I’d have if I’d taken the job and had those individuals in the photo as my peers.

  7. As prior service myself, I find it galling that a censured Attorney General in contempt of Congress, a President committed to the destruction of our Constitution who created a program which to this day claims lives in Mexico, and a Vice President who authored one of the worst gun control laws ever enacted at the Federal level gets to not only command our military, but preside over the funerals of our lost.

    That a dead TSA agent is receiving honors doesn’t infuriate me.What does is that our nation is commanded by unprosecuted and untried criminals,who dare judge themselves worthy of pretending to be leaders.

    If you’ll pardon me, I have an appointment with the liquor cabinet.

  8. Accur81,
    Agreed. While I also think his death is sad, this is akin to a full military honor funeral service to someone who never served but watched saving private Ryan on TV.

    Good grief.

    • I once played Halo the whole night through without flagging.

      I’m looking forward to my gun salute at Arlington national cemetery.

  9. I love how real vets have to wait years to get their benefits or disability, but some TSA guy gets killed and because it’s politically expedient, he gets full honors.

    Cute.

  11. Some of those salutes look more like shielding your eyes from the sun. Poor saluting is a pet peeve of mine.

    • Especially the tall guy closest to the camera. He’s not saluting, he’s looking for his car.

      Cub Scouts salute better than these jokers!

      Accur81, I look forward to buying the first round when you tactically retreat toward my neck of the woods.

      • I’ve got some 18 and 20 year old scotch that hasn’t been taken up by any TTAGers other than one. Although I live in SoCal so I’ll probably have to register or sell all my scotch that is older than 10 years.

  14. They are just pissed that the average boot in OIF and OEF has bagged more terrorists than their entire agency.

  15. Damn its hard to keep your chin up when these bastards use death to their advantage, something that should be sacred enough to be left alone.
    Damnit man. it bothers me so much that this happens.

  16. “I do not consider TSA agents to be especially honorable or even necessary.”

    …. Over glorified mall cops if you ask me.

  17. I’m sure while Holder is out west he’ll swing by Arizona and pay respects to where Brian Terry was murdered.

  18. I guess all security guards will be getting burials with full-honors from now on.

    The airport parking attendants (of which 99% are useless turds) will probably be next on the list!

    Hooray for libtards! Wasting money and demoting military personnel since 2008.

  19. Yes.

    Unfortunately it’s worse than the simple fact that body inspectors are being treated as peers of cops and soldiers, to receive funerals with ‘full honors.’ It’s just one step along the way, an opportunistic step, to the conversion of the TSA into yet another part of that void Obama said we must fill, “we need a domestic army.” Holder and the President won’t be content until the TSA staffers, local hires selected more by social affiliation than education or skills, have federal police powers based on the ever-serviceable Commerce Clause, and carry guns. It’s that simple and that horrible. These pols aren’t stupid. They know what they want. They know what they think is wrong with America. And the sad truth is that all Obama and Holder needed in order to gain command of the US defense and security establishment, and the health industry, was to convince a segment of female voters that Republicans don’t care about issues those female voters do care about. When is this reality going to sink in? After the 2nd Amendment is gutted because anti-abortion views are considered as important? My wife isn’t going to have an abortion. If others want to… “what difference does it make?” When Romney deprecated the “47%” that didn’t make sense either, since it obviously belittled 20% of those considering themselves decent middle-class people. I pray the day comes when the relatively conservative learn political arithmetic.

  20. Military salutes by LEOs and other civilian agencies has always been a pet peeve of mine. If you’re under the jurisdiction of the UCMJ it’s appropriate, otherwise you’re a civilian.

    • Many, if not most LEO organizations operate on a military basis with ranks and subordination. While I’m not a huge fan of it myself, I think as long as that is the case a salute isn’t the biggest issue.

  21. man i hate to use this but this whole thing seems eerily like something out of nazi germany…like we are witnessing the rise of some new grand unified domestic army / federal police type thing loyal to the feds and not to any local authorities….that will handle all sorts of domestic “security”. whole shooting was wayyyy too damn convenient honestly.

  22. It does not matter that they have no idea what they are doing, it’s simply another milestone towards the graveyard of Liberty and the birth of Death as a political system.
    No Veterans have been released from their oath to the US Constitution.
    Carry On!

  23. Could you imagine one of those fat ladies trying to arrest you? I would honestly probably be laughing my ass off.

  24. Even Regan chose to forgive the SS; It’s a Christian thing, best observed from a 50 year distance.
    As for the TSA VIC.
    “He was as Human and Faultless as I” (and YOU)

    • Not 50 years, only 25 give or take a few.
      Human yes, faultless no.
      There are no faultless humans on earth.
      There has only been one in the history of mankind.

  25. Full honors for…. molesting children who look suspicious?

    It really sucks this guy got killed, but that doesn’t mean he deserves full honors. The TSA is a staple of oppressive government. They look at you naked and molest you. Honestly it is sick how the politicians will, yet again, use a body to promote their agenda.

    • We don’t know for sure he violated the rights of anyone.
      To assume such would be unjust.
      Who can rightfully judge the deceased that cannot defend them self?
      That said, I cannot disagree with the later portion of your comment.

      • He worked for the TSA terrorist organization. It’s pretty safe to assume he violated people’s rights, since that’s literally part of the job description.

        • Thanks for putting the ‘hyper’ in hyperbole.

          The TSA is a clusterfuck and certainly does nothing good for our rights, but can we avoid the ‘terrorist’ moniker unless it’s a bit more reasonable? Don’t you hate when the mainstream media takes a drive-by of some gangbangers and calls it a “mass-shooting event?” Same idea.

    • “It really sucks this guy got killed, ”

      Sorry guy but I have no sympathy. I don’t see the “really sucks” aspect of this as you state.

      • May people say the same for you if someone walks into your place of employment and blows you away just because you work there.

        This guy may have been a bully, or he may have been a guy trying to make rent money and make sure no one takes a bomb on a plane.

  26. It’s tough to gather much sympathy for the TSA while their agents are squeezing my balls in one hand and confiscating my nail clippers with the other. That said, I feel sorry for the poor guy and his family, but I also recognize that the feds will do here what they always do in response to a senseless tragedy: exploit it for yet another opportunistic power grab.

    Whether they can successfully use it as a springboard for more gun control is unlikely (doesn’t mean they won’t try, natch), but I have a feeling that, in any case, public transportation is definitely about to start sucking even more.

  27. I’ll admit that it galled me when me they played Taps at the funeral. I’ve not served in the military, so I thought maybe my reaction might have been an overreaction. It seems as though that those who have served are also put off by the whole thing.

  28. Full honors for what??? Unbelievable. Where else can a pervert gain employment from an agency which has no Constitutional basis except in this country.
    After this guy got waxed, the head of his union made a statement that TSA agents are the target of assaults “daily”. Hello, union head……..your guys make passengers the target of assaults “daily”.
    What goes around…….

  29. Surprised there’s honor amongst molesters and those who’d make a 2 year old in a wheel chair crawl across the floor.

  31. Wonder what the protocol is for fallen DMV workers? Animal Control? Prison Medical Staff? FBI Cook Staff? Pentagon Janitors?

    Just wondering if this is just the beginning of a line of official funerals for their fallen comrads. Can’t this guy just get a normal funeral?

  32. I find it offensive that these glorified security guards are being elevated as much as they are by the criminals in Washington. This is just another example of the ineptitude of our government and the sheeples gullibility in letting them get away with it all. I sometimes feel a bit guilty when I wish for the shit to hit the fan so we can reset this mucking fess! When the hell is that massive solar flare hitting?!

  33. I realize a lot of you guys aren’t into conspiracy theories, but they are swirling around this airport shooting. It is always hard to verify some of the claims put forward, but there are some very strange images circulating that call into question whether this event even occurred.

    Specifically there is a helicopter video of what appears to be TSA agents pushing a “man” in a cart or swivel chair with the leg dragging at an impossible angle, making it appear to be a dummy. Then there is an alleged photo of the shooter after being taken out, which also appears to not be a real person.

    There are also photos of a TSA agent laughing and joking with no blood on him, then suddenly he seems to have been shoot in the thigh, the implication from the sequence of the photos being that his injuries were indeed staged. Later in the series, he appears to be cheering, with blood all over him.

    All of this stuff seemed to come from raw coverage. The only thing I really questioned was the photo of the shooter, everything else was of journalistic quality and clearly from the media. The photo of the shooter shows him covered in blood with an AR on the floor, but his arm looks “flattened” (like there is nothing in his sleeve) under his body. It is all very strange.

  34. Some guy dies and we’re her trying to judge what “honors” he deserves. I’d say none of us are fit to judge unless you know the guy personally. Guy goes to work, guy doesn’t come home. Who the hell cares if employer wants to honor him. I think we all know TSA is not SF detachment delta or Navy Seals so who cares.

  35. I do not like the TSA, feel they’re a wasted effort. But they’re not scooping people off the streets and strip searching them for entertainment. If you encounter the TSA it’s because you volunteered to stand in their lines and submit to their rules. Not only volunteered, but paid for the fun by purchasing an airline ticket.

    If you hate the TSA and what it stands for, then don’t trravel by air.

      • The only time I’ve encountered the TSA is at the airport. Not on the highway, not at the grocery store. This is one area where the citizens can absolutely strike back and not fire a shot. Don’t fly. Get the airline industry on the brink of collapse and see if the TSA isn’t removed or their rules changed greatly.

        Or go on innerweb sites and complain. Your choice, it’s still a freeish country.

  36. I think full honors should be reserved strictly for the military, no disrespect to police, firefighters, or whomever else, but the military are they only ones deserving of full honors.

    There’s a vast difference between signing a personal check for a set amount of years, payable to your country, for up to and including your life, anywhere in the world. And, having a job down the road from your house, one you can resign from tomorrow just because you don’t like your boss or hours. If you can quit without going to prison and/or you have a union, you don’t get full honors.

    Could we not relegate full honors to a morbid, adult version of a participation trophy-my condolences, yes, full honors, no!

  37. Would everyone take a real good look at these fat disgusting examples of “authority”. What a disgrace.

  38. So now we have a new branch of law enforcement created for our pleasure.
    Nice.
    Cuffs, guns, tasers and helmets are not far behind.

  39. Man those are some sloppy looking troops. Bags or rags. Plenty of fatties. Is the tall guy a scout looking in the distance or is he trying to mimic a salute? Pathetic looking. Sloppy troops – sloppy work.

  40. I am a former INS Inspector and then we joined US Customs and became a single agency as US Customs and Border Protection. I am also a former US Army officer. I am retired now. I am used to high standards and I do not know what are the requirements for TSA officers but physical fitness or academic standards must be so low you to look up to see the bottom. I remember when TSA came on board and we had to basically teach their supervisors how the inspection of passengers was carried out. Yes it is tragic than some died but it goes to show you that security at most airports are just an illusion. No body can prevent this sort of event unless you lock down an area completely and doing that in an airport requires imposition of martial law and lots of money that is not available. Besides, who can predict the actions of a psychopath with a gun. Illusory as it may be, we can adopt the German model where their Bundesgrenzchuts (border police) patrols the airports with sub-machineguns and sharp shooters at the ready. Even then, you cannot be 100% secure, specially in the case of bombs. The Frankfurt international airport in Germany is a good example when it was the target of several bombs in the 1980’s. I know because I was there. The worst thing our goverment can do is too bend to political pressure and react by enacting too restrictive regulations for “safety”. You militarize everything and there is no way back from a more restrictive society where individuals are treated like the enemy first and citizens second. Security measures must make sense and be acted upon by well trained professional with good ethics and must be overt and covert giving a sense of security in practical terms but not overconfidence. Security is proactive, if you have to react, then you are too late. The TSA officer’s death shows what happens when security measures are more cosmetics than real and how politician take advantage of a tragic event to further their own agendas.
    It continues to happen and the common fat and dumb citizen is the unknowing victim.

  41. I’m sorry for the man who was killed and his family.

    If he had any self respect as a human being and an American, he would not have that job. That’s not to say that I favor violence or murder of these despicable people.

    The TSA is seizing this opportunity to continue to put forth the agenda that people who snoop through your personal belongings need to be armed and should be considered as brave and important as firemen or policemen. It is absurd. That we don’t require them to wear clown makeup is a courtesy to them.

  44. I’ve never seen so many people all scratching their eyebrow, adjusting their glasses, fixing their hair, using a cell phone, and thinking real hard, all at once.

    On a side note: I bet inside the casket of a dead TSA agent is the best way to smuggle drugs and guns through an airport. Just sayin’

  45. Personally, I don’t have a problem with TSA agents. I read some early cases of baggage screeners doing stupid things like making a woman taste breast milk to make sure that it was poisonous or explosive, but the times I’ve interacted with them, they’ve been professional. I’ve never seen a TSA employee do anything out of line, but it’s true that I only flew ten times last year. Maybe those who fly more frequently can provide some examples.
    Last year when I was standing in line at Pittsburgh airport waiting to get screened one of the TSA guys saw my battered old duffle bag with my name still stenciled on it and thanked me for my service. He was sincere, probably a stand-up guy.
    If you despise the TSA, don’t fly. Or suggest an improvement. How do we keep terrorists from carrying weapons or explosives onto a plane if not with people searching through bags? Seriously, suggest a better plan.
    And last I heard, there weren’t plans to arm all TSA agents. I don’t support that because I don’t think it could possibly make a difference. It’d be a knee-jerk response that lacks any logic. Anyone got a legit source supporting a plan to arm baggage screeners?

      • On August 19 of this year, one of the editors of TTAG had a positive experience with TSA agents.

        Obviously, they’re all about tyranny. That’s why they didn’t confiscate Mr. Leghorn’s PMAG’s … because tyrants and their servants always go out of their way to make sure that the people they are oppressing can keep their 30 round magazines and the ammunition that goes in them.

        http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2013/08/foghorn/a-special-thank-you-to-the-tsa/

        As for the funeral honors… I do understand the guys who feel that should be reserved for military personnel and emergency responders. Some would argue that it should be reserved only for military personnel, period… end of discussion. Understood, and I can respect where they are coming from. A soldier who spends months or years away from loved ones and then dies in a foreign land, never to set foot on the banks of the Mississippi or the pavement of NYC or wherever else he or she called home – that is a very real sacrifice and I get the argument that it should be treated with a sacred reverence.

        But… this guy is dead and he’s getting full honors. And that’s that. It’s done.
        By making this an issue, we as gun owners make ourselves look like small, vindictive, petty people. I know the majority of us are not that, but this is the face we’re putting on ourselves. This is the internet and what you say can live forever and travel anywhere. This can be circulated to show what a bunch of bigoted, hateful people gun owners are… and it just might be. Do you really want to give the other side ammunition to use against us in the court of public opinion? I don’t.
        And it does matter. We already don’t look like victims when we show up with 1911’s on our hips, packing AR’s, and festooned with 30 round magazines full of XM-193. We’ll never get sympathy, even when we’re legitimately being persecuted just for merely insisting that our rights be respected. The best we can hope for is understanding, respect, and a little trust from the public. But it’s hard to gain anything like that or keep it when we have people who insist on hopping up and down and attacking a dead TSA agent who very well may have taken pride in the idea that he was helping keep travelers safer.

        Bear in mind, I think enough of holding government accountable and protecting the RKBA that I bother to post on TTAG.
        So if even I find this kind of beneath us, what are we communicating to casual gun owners or people who don’t own guns yet? We need to behave with a little class.

        Many of you guys do behave with a lot of class in general and legitimately have a point on the funeral thing. So all I’m saying is… think before you speak. And think even harder before you type.

        • First point, dramatic instance. Second, the existence of the TSA is unacceptable here regardless of if they do their job nice or not. Such organizations have no place in our Republic; funded by public funds, and created by government power. Too many acronym agencies of which, the TSA is but one.

          I do agree with you about moderation in reference to the individual himself. There’s no evidence out there that indicates he did anything other than work for an agency. Were he alive, I would likely have not-so-nice things to say about him. However, it takes a lot for me to speak ill of the dead. I’m against TSA agents receiving military honors but I highly doubt he had a choice in the matter so that’s not on him. It’s on government.

    • Well for starters they could stop confiscating nail clippers and the Starbucks you actually purchased at the airport. They also don’t need to look at my naughty bits just because I’m flying.

      How about drug dogs and bomb dogs? Have dogs sniff everything. Use good old fashioned metal detectors. Heck, eliminate the TSA completely and have private security from the airports themselves protect their valuables and assets. Dunbar Armored, Loomis, Brinks, etc. are private armored trucking agencies, and they are able to handle their own security just fine. When you have multiple different agencies providing their own security, they all have incentives to innovate and create an environment that is both secure and convenient for travelers. Or the checkout can stay at the same location and airports can compete amongst themselves with thorough and efficient checks.

      The government generally sucks at speed, innovation, and efficiency whereas many private agencies do not. Think DMW vs Starbucks or public golf course vs private golf course. Healthcare.net vs amazon.com. The list goes on.

      • Your point about privatization does make some sense and generally, I’m not so keen on government intermingling with a private industry. And you’re right that competition can fuel innovation and improvement.

        Having said that, security on airlines doesn’t just affect the people on the plane. Once the plane is airborne it can become a guided missile. A guided missile with tanks full of jet fuel that can be piloted directly into a building full of people or a high-value national security target isn’t the same thing as an armored car. It’s an impossible situation for the government – do nothing and be criticized when someone crashes a plane into a skyscraper or the Pentagon, or do something and be criticized when a government employee sees a traveler’s happy parts on an X-ray machine.

        Not that criticism is a bad thing – our system of government is positively dependent on disagreement and checks on power if it’s to work correctly. So I don’t agree with everything you say, but I’m still glad you say it.

  46. Notice how TSA uniforms used to be white shirts and now they’re blue, more similar to a police uniform? I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll be wearing all black before too long. Incrementalism. Do it gradually and people won’t notice much the militarization of the TSA.

    • ^ True
      Just think if the Founding Fathers could see America today, their first thoughts would be “How did it get to this? This is not what we intended when we created the freest country the world has ever known.”

  47. We’ll said! I’ve pulled over my share of TSA types haulin ass, late to the airport in those god awful blue shirts. They expect us (professional cops) to treat them as equals??? Uh..NO! My shield was earned, not issued! Okay TSA stooge: “quit treating the citizenry like they are the enemy, press hard; four copies”.

    No they are not professional LEO’s and thankfully most Americans know that. The full honors funeral is a bit irritating and offensive to the full time coppers of this great nation who do REAL police work.

    • Some cops are professional, others, not so much.
      For instance, the officer who told emergency responders that Hernandez was dead when he was actually just seriously wounded. Hernandez went on to bleed out and die 33 minutes later.
      So that officer who didn’t check Hernandez’s pulse and let him die.. not exactly what I’d call a paragon of professionalism.

  48. The badge the TSA agents wear clearly are not law enforcement officer badges. You people — including you law enforcement officers who are in a twit over this — get over it — and get a life.

    And, you are nuts if you think there is not a need for TSA agents. They are trained beyond two days — I don’t know where in the world you get your information. They are sent to school. Maybe not the police academy — but they are not law enforcement officers, and they do not pretend to be. But they are trained to spot and detect security concerns — before you board the plane. And they are putting their own personal safety on the line every time they do that — because there are emotionally and mentally unstable persons who resent their presence — and TSA agents are not armed.

    You airport police — you resent the uniform change for TSA agents? Then guess what — you can have their job! Yeah — that’s right! If you are that upset over this, then lobby to take over their job. They are not just screening passengers — they are doing their best to ensure that you and your family, while you are off duty, will not have to go through what so many did during 9/11 when you fly.

    As far as I am concerned, any uniformed, sworn police officer who has a problem with this, has not business being a law enforcement officer — because your badge is totally about your own ego — and as a citizen, I do not want an officer with a gun with an ego; he or she needs to be balanced and to be focused not on his/her ego — but on the service of others. The new TSA uniforms and badges are only tools to help TSA agents exercise the authority which the Federal Government has given them. And I for one have never confused them with law enforcement — anyone can clearly see they do not carry guns or weapons of any kind — and when I look at a law enforcement officer, I do not look first thing for his badge — I look for his gun. As far as I am concerned, it is his gun — not his badge — that gives a law enforcement his authority to enforce the law.

    So you folks who are in such a huff over this — police, military, and civilians alike — get a grip, get a life, and get over it.

  49. In Paris we saw bombs on belts, everytime a TSA agent pat downs anyone they put their lives on the line like every service member, and they are first respondents believe it or not. It is well deserved.

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