Tsa.gov

Well, you know, I decided to travel abroad, and I figured that I'd be safe re-entering the country. I was wrong. And apparently, the gist seems to be that I should've known better than to expect kindness from the TSA agents. (They eat human babies for breakfast.) I submitted a complaint to their website which outlined the horrific treatment I received in Newark, NJ as I reentered the country on November 14,2023. They haven't replied to it yet because they don't care. I assume though, that if money were involved, they would care. As far as feelings, they probably hope that I never recover. Here's what I experienced:

Re-entering the country in Newark, New Jersey, was nightmarish. I didn't realize that it's necessary to go through security again upon re-entering the country, so I wasn't prepared. My carry-on bag got tagged for having something in it. An obviously angry woman shouted, "Whose bag is this?"
Uh oh. I raised my hand and gave a small wave. She was looking right at me, but she didn't even see me waving my hand. I'm not making this up. She stared straight through me. She was then even angrier because she hadn't found the bag's owner. What was I supposed to do, grab some flags and perform semaphore? I'm too self-conscious for that sort of thing. Geez.
She stormed away, agitated. I followed her over to her counter and pointed to the bag.
"This bag is YOURS?" This seemed to make her even angrier. I had no clue why.
My mouth wasn't working. I nodded.
"Do you have anything sharp or hazardous in here?" she asked.
I shook my head.
She opened my bag and found the tiny bottle of water that I'd been given an hour ago on my previous flight. "NO WATER!" she shrieked. "NO WATER! NO WATER!"
I refused to look at her. She continued to seek out my gaze because she really wanted to shame me, but I just ignored her.
"DID YOU HEAR ME? MA'AM, I SAID NO WATER! NO WATER!"
I twiddled my thumbs and gazed at the ceiling.
She seethed, shoved my stuff toward me (sans the water, which she repossessed on behalf of the airline), and stormed away.
Then there was a walk-through metal detector situation where two employees told me and several other people to just walk through it, rather than stopping and raising our arms. I obeyed, only to have a man yell, "KEEP YOUR HANDS OUT OF YOUR POCKETS!" I'm sure that was my fault, because I should've known better. I'm sure I deserved to be treated like human excrement.
Then there was a woman who asked if I had any powder in my luggage. I couldn't tell what she was saying because she had a European accent, even though I was in the US. "Folder?" I asked.
"POWDER!" she yelled. She glowered at me menacingly.
"Oh! Uh, yeah." (I'd packed some teabags and cocoa in my luggage.)
"Is it more than six ounces?" she asked.
I had no clue. "Um… no?"
"Follow me," she ordered. She turned and stormed away. I wasn't sure if she'd said to follow her or not, so I erred on the side of safety. But several feet away, she turned and scowled at me, so I hurried to catch up with her. I had to go through another security line, which was ridiculous, because I didn't have any powder. (She'd used the word "luggage", but she'd apparently been referring to my carry-on bag.)
Going through another metal detector, I set it off, possibly because my pants pockets have zippers. The employees completely frisked me, and I was already shut down inside, so being violated felt good at that point. It was what I deserved because this was all somehow my fault. It would've been wrong if they hadn't violated me. I had this coming.
I walked right through the next checkpoint because the woman manning it wasn't there. And the only evidence that it existed was her small podium. "Ma'am. Ma'am. MA'AM! COME BACK!"
I turned and approached her.
"I need to see your ticket," she said. "Sorry I wasn't here."
Her apology seemed like a waste of words, since she clearly wasn't sorry, or she wouldn't have abandoned her post in the first place and then made her absence my problem. Also, this was clearly my fault, and I deserved to be screamed at.
I threw all my stuff to the floor and crouched over so I could unzip my carry-on bag and seek out my ticket. Finding it, I stood, placed it on her podium, and then leaned back over to rearrange my stuff again, zipping up my backpack, and so forth. When I stood again, she said, "I'll also need to see your passport." I hurled my stuff to the floor again and repeated the process, standing to slam my passport on her podium and then crouching to close up my backpack. When I stood again, she said, "You can take this to gate C-66 and–"
I grabbed my ticket and passport from her outstretched hand and walked away. The fact that she was trying to be helpful by pointing me in the right direction seemed hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. But hey, if it soothed her own ego and helped her believe that her pitiful existence had even a tinge of worth, then hey, more power to her. I don't want to take that from her.
Then, I approached a checkpoint that involved customs (I think) and my passport. A man told me where to stand, so I stopped there, dropped my stuff, and rooted around for my passport. I was trying to move quickly, but there was no one behind me in line, just one or two stragglers who hadn't reached the end of the winding pathway yet, like the kind you have at amusement parks. But I felt rushed by the employee, so I hurried to locate my passport and to get my backpack zipped up again.
Before I could even stand up, he pointed forward and yelled, "Go stand at that red line!"
I swayed on the floor. And the thought crossed my mind that if it took me a few seconds longer than he wanted me to take, I couldn't care less. I allowed myself to slow down, and I stood carefully and tried to regain my equanimity with my heavy backpack. Then I looked ahead to the red line. It was just a few steps forward. I could totally get there. Just one step at a time.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
I was shocked. But despite my shock, I wasn't fooled.
He seemed concerned. It was almost convincing. But what he doesn't know is that I'm a human lie detector. Thus, his pathetic question went unanswered. I completely ignored him. I did wonder, though, if he'd suddenly realized that he was treating me and everyone else as though we were animals who needed to be herded. It was inconceivable that anyone could live to his age without realizing that you shouldn't treat people that way. And it angered me that I had to share the planet with people who clearly were living throwaway lives with no value.

So, that has been my experience. Please consider supporting me by finding my review helpful. Thanks so much! And I hope that no one else ever has to go through this, but... no one cares. This saddens me greatly.