The Black Vault

Playing Simon Says at Airport Security

by JOE SHARKEY
Published: March 28, 2011

IN general, I don’t take orders from anyone except (as a matter of prudence) my wife. So the last time I was in an airport and security agents started bellowing, “Freeze!” I simply carried on with my business of buying a box of chocolates at a pushcart a few dozen feet away from the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint area.

I was immediately upbraided, not by a security officer, but by a fellow passenger. Like dozens of other travelers near the checkpoint, he had abruptly halted in place, on command, as if playing a children’s game.

“You’re supposed to freeze!” the guy growled at me as he stood motionless in the frozen tableau of the reflexively compliant.

Source

The reason I'm citing this old article is because it's still happening.



This is obedience training, plain and simple.