Airport Security, Past and Post 9/11 Essay

Only from incidences of air piracy, terrorism, and changes in the social and political climate worldwide has airport security slowly morphed through the rulings of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). However the attacks of September 11th 2001 had changed airport security vastly in the matter of days. Michael Chertoff, the assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division at the Justice Department during the attack of 9/11 stated, â€Å"Like many people at the time, I thought it was a pilot error. † Chertoff was the head of Homeland Security in 2005 to 2009. To his thinking, since the end of the Cold War, three developments have profoundly changed the world and therefore the world of security threats. One was that globalization radically changed the potential impact of a network or even an individual, offering the ability to travel, communicate, and exchange money. Two, the technology revolution has allowed people to cause massive destruction with just the push of a button. The third was the increase of â€Å"ungoverned space† where there is no true rule of law, has enabled terrorists to recruit, plan, and train undetected. During a discussion, Chertoff outlined the shift in the nation’s approach to security, one he argued happened before the attacks of 9/11. The actions of that day only served to highlight â€Å"something we hadn’t recognized and which the law had not adequately accounted for,† and underscored the need for a new framework aimed at combatting terrorism. What are the events that had shaped airport security before the attacks of September 11th 2001? Airline hijackings were very frequent in the mid to late 1960s. They most commonly were committed by individuals seeking transport into Cuba. This caused airlines to apply policies of screening all passengers and bags before they are to board the aircraft. The FAA applied this new policy in an effort to avert the carrying of weapons used to compel hijackings. During the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, multiple high-profile terrorist hijackings and attacks were carried out overseas and shocked the traveling public and the airlines, arising potential problems of acts of terrorism toward the airline industry within the U. S. However incidents in example of those were still perceived as an event that would never happen to or in the United States. This perfectionistic thinking was shattered in 1987 when a Pacific Southwest Airlines’ ex-employee made use of an expired identification badge to pass through security, board a company jet liner with a weapon and shoot his supervisor, the pilot and co-pilot leaving the aircraft to go down with 38 people aboard. Not only was this not a terrorist event, but it came from within the ranks of the airline industry itself. This event, attached with the 1988 bombing of PanAm Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, demanded attention to the need for additional airport security measures. This stimulated the President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism (1989) and the following passage of the Aviation Security Improvement Act of 1990. Since these incidences, the FAA has applied numerous measures to protect against this and other types of acts of air piracy and terrorism in the U. S. Some of the measurements were practical while others included physical and electronic security measures. The Abundance of the focus had been on regulating the access of persons into the operations areas at airports, therefore limiting access to aircrafts. In 1989, the Federal Aviation Regulation was written into law. It mandated that an airport must be able to implement control over an employee’s right to gain access to the airport’s operations area using an access control system. In detail, this regulation states that any airport with a regular passenger aircraft service (one flight per day) that consumes 60 seats or more must be able to; (1. Ensure that only the persons authorized to have access to the secured areas by the airport operator’s security program are able to acquire that access. (2. ) To ensure that such access is denied immediately at the access points to the individuals who do not obtain the authority of access. (3. ) Set apart persons who are authorized to have access to only particular portions of the secured areas and persons who are authorized to have access only to other portions of the secured area. (4. ) Have the capability to limit an individual’s access by time and date. This then new regulation produced an outbreak of airport access control systems. Systems in which were designed to incorporate unified access control and photo ID systems that operated as a single common database to accomplish the requirements of the Federal Aviation Regulation. Regrettably, the requirements had pushed the envelope of the technology available at the time, and many of the systems that were installed had provided less than satisfactory results. ? The FAA also is in the process of formulating a rewrite of FAR 107. A Notice of Proposed Rule Making has been issued that includes language that could significantly impact access control at airside. If passed as now proposed, the rule would require airports to be able to immediately assess alarms from monitored doors at airside and to create a log of the alarm, alarm verification and the response to each alarm. Short of placing law enforcement officers on each concourse, the solution is the installation of large numbers of CCTV cameras that are integrated with the access control system to provide automatic call-up at the monitoring location. Other future security issues being addressed with regard to airside operations security center around handling and screening of passenger baggage and air cargo. One area of major concern and concentration is on addressing the threat of unscreened/unaccompanied baggage. President Clinton created the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. In the wake of the crash of TWA Flight 800 he asked the commission to focus its attention first on the issue of security, including an action plan to deploy new high-technology baggage screening and explosives detection systems. One system that will be implemented to protect aircraft against bombings is the electronic passenger/bag reconciliation system. Such systems have been in use in Europe for several years, but probably are several years from being implemented throughout the aviation system in the U. S. They utilize an electronically encoded tag or barcode that is attached to the luggage, and a magnetic strip, barcode or other scanable medium on the back of the boarding pass, to match the luggage with passengers boarding the airplane. As a passenger boards the aircraft, the boarding pass is swiped through a card reader, which supplies passenger information to the system database. If a passenger checks a bag and does not board the aircraft, a computer resolves this mismatch in the tracking database and issues an alarm indicating this disparity. The bag then is retrieved from the aircraft and scanned for content. This system prevents anyone from checking a bag with an explosive device onto a flight they do not board. The new Terminal One international facility at JFK Airport in New York will be one of the first U. S. acilities to be equipped with this type of electronic passenger/bag match system. Another area of baggage security that is changing is the screening of bags and parcels that are loaded onto aircraft. In the past, general screening of baggage for domestic flights has not been performed. Until the last several years, advanced electronic screening of international outbound baggage was limited. But an increase in terrorist acts, including the bombings of the World Trade Center and the federal building in Oklahoma City, has convinced government and industry that additional bag screening is necessary. As technology improves, this screening someday could include not only explosives, but also devices that present other types of threats. Since the machines are too expensive and large for airports/airlines to provide enough equipment to scan all bags with high-tech screening, a three-stage screening process has been established. Stage one utilizes more conventional high-speed x-ray scanners to look inside luggage and parcels. In stage two, suspect bags are routed to conveyor queues while x-ray images are re-evaluated. They then are routed either to a bypass conveyor or to third stage screening, which consists primarily of one of two types of advanced technology screening equipment. One type uses computed tomography, a scanning technology similar to a medical CAT scan. Another type uses dual-energy x-ray scanning to produce a three-dimensional image of the contents. As machines become faster and less expensive, airports will have enough machines to scan all luggage. New airport terminals under design are providing space for multiple machines and will be the first facilities to provide 100 percent screening of all bags. Since space requirements for these machines are so significant, the security consultant should be involved in new building design early on to ensure that adequate space is provided for the machines and baggage staging. One method or system being considered as a means to streamline the need for extensive bag screening is passenger profiling. This methodology utilizes a passenger profiling database containing certain passenger criteria to classify luggage for screening, thereby eliminating the need to scan all bags with high-tech screening equipment. Use of this database information could classify a passenger as low risk and may eliminate the need for advance bag screening of bags checked by that person. One major airline has developed software for this purpose which has been tested at a major hub airport location, but the system is very controversial and may or may not be implemented for general use. If and when the system is implemented, it will have extensive systems integration impacts that will require integration of airline common use erminal equipment host computers, bag handling equipment, airport security systems and explosives detection systems. This will require the security consultant to interface security systems with airline operations systems that in the past have been a non-issue when designing airport security systems. Since most of the systems mentioned above are information technology based, it will require the consultant to become increasingly knowledgeable about local area networks, wide area networks and the world wide web. Changes also are taking place with technological advances in systems utilized at the security screening checkpoint where passengers and their carry-on baggage are screened prior to boarding the aircraft. One such advance is in the method used to watch the exit lane. New systems are being developed which will assist with the arduous task of watching the exit lane in order to improve security at this portal and to decrease operating costs. Presently, this task is done manually with a posted security guard, but a person in this position is subject to distractions, can daydream or at slower nighttime periods may fall asleep for short durations. New systems use electronic detection to supervise the direction of traffic through the lane and produce alarms when a person enters the lane from the wrong direction. These systems may be used to supplement the existing guard post or may replace the guard position, thereby decreasing the operations cost. What are the major focuses of landside/non-regulated security issues at airports now and through the year 2000? A primary area of concern is parking facilities. Security concerns and public safety awareness has increased with the rise in crime over the past several years. Crime in parking facilities has risen proportional to crime rates in most cities. Parking facilities present opportunities for crime since vehicles are left for extended periods of time, and people traversing to and from their vehicles are subject to isolation and are more vulnerable. Crime concerns at parking garages include vehicle theft, vandalism, vehicle break-in and crimes against persons. Security directors at colleges, hospitals, shopping malls, manufacturing plants, sports facilities and other places with large parking facilities have been focusing on security in this area for the last few years. In order to provide increased public safety, airport operations and police departments are beginning to take a more serious look at the need for implementing additional security methods and systems in their public and employee parking facilities. What types of systems will be installed to reduce crime in airport parking facilities? Systems similar to those that have been installed at parking garages and lots associated with the other types of public and private sector facilities previously mentioned. There is and will continue to be a very heavy emphasis on CCTV systems because they act as a good deterrent to crime, as well as a tool to verify alarms. But with so many cameras required to watch large parking garages having multiple parking levels and many aisles, integration of other systems will be required to automate and simplify the process of trying to watch and utilize large numbers of cameras. Systems that already are widely used in other types of public parking are becoming more common at airport parking facilities, including emergency phones, ambient noise alarms and wireless personal assistance alarms. Additional systems including such items as intelligent video motion detection are in the process of being developed and will be used in the future to further assist with automated camera watching. Other areas of concern for improving landside security at airports include supervision of roadways, security at station platforms for automated train systems, security for vendors, protection of ATMs and guarding of toll plaza booths. In concert with both landside and airside security issues are the expansion and improvements to the communications and emergency operations centers that monitor and control most of the systems mentioned in this article. Upgrades to these facilities generally require relocation of or modifications to nearly all these systems.

Reality and Crash Essay

I would like to start by saying that, I really enjoyed watching the movie CRASH, some of the things shown in the movie are very realistic and much of it can’t even be put into words. Two of the behaviors that I noticed most, are prejudice and stereotyping. It was the cause of where all the events eradicated from. These behaviors are viewed as thoughts and feelings that almost everyone has felt more than once. This movie shows us the different point of view of people in our society; it gives us an insight of the stereotypes that have built within our society and within the world. It invites us to see and understand how such a small stereotype and negative attitude can go a long way and affect people differently. In the movie Crash it is apparent that emotions run high with racial and ethnic inequality such as frustration, aggression, and authoritative personalities. According to Diana Kendall in Social Problems In a Diverse Society, the frustration-aggression hypothesis is â€Å"Individuals who are frustrated in their efforts to achieve a highly desired goal tend to develop a pattern of aggression toward others (51). † In other words, when people feel as though they are being prevented from achieving a goal, their frustration will usually turn into aggression. In the movie Crash, Farhad, the Iranian/Persian storeowner tried to live his best to pursue the American dream by running his own store. He hired a Latino locksmith named Daniel to have the lock at his store changed but conflict emerged between the Sas 2 two and in the end, Daniel didn’t change the lock. Later, the store gets robbed and trashed. Farhad was already a frustrated middle aged man who struggled to make ends meet, and now having his store robbed has him act out aggressively without anyone to blame. So, he decides to lash out his anger towards Daniel, hoping it would help him feel better. Expectations of Arabs to be violent terrorists, Farhad is not even Arab. Technically, he is Persian, but what the shop owner expects from him, he eventually gets when Farhad â€Å"shoots† the little Hispanic girl. Farhad believes the Hispanic man is ripping him off so when his shop is looted, the Hispanic man is blamed although he had nothing to do with the destruction. Crash is full of many other sociological concepts, examining issues of race, social class, and gender, as well as many others. In this movie, we can see the theories of Durkheim and Marx for sure as well as many other concepts. Crash is one of those movies that make us rethink even what we think we know about the world we live in. Another sociological concept that Crash demonstrates is the Thomas Theorem. Basically, this theorem tells us that if we believe situations to be real, they become real to us. Our own subjective reality becomes our objective reality. It follows then that if we believe certain things about an individual, he/she begins acting in exactly that way. It also follows that certain crimes or problems do not have an objective realities. Using drugs would be one example of that sort of victimless crime. The best example of this in the movie might be when Jean Cabot grips her purse when passing by Anthony (Luda cris) and Peter on the street. She believes black people to be a threat. Her subjective reality becomes real in the next minute when the two young Sas 3 black men carjack them. What the characters believe about others has become real in these instances. Another sociological term demonstrated in Crash is the theory of micro-aggression. Microaggressions would be defined as â€Å"Microaggressions are subtle insults (verbal, nonverbal, and/or visual) directed toward people of color, often automatically or unconsciously. † While the individual effects of these particular instances may be small, the cumulative effects can be devastating. In Crash, I believe the character that most exemplifies this is the film director. Examples of these subtle insults would be things such as people telling him that he just isn’t really black to them or the comments about language on the set of the movie. He advises him to tell the black character to make his language â€Å"more black. † These are subtle but insults nonetheless. These kinds of comments, combined with the powerlessness he feels when his wife is sexually assaulted lead to the blow-up where he almost gets himself killed. He has endured these subtle forms of racism his whole life, and he reaches a breaking point where he just isn’t going to take it The last concept that is displayed in Crash is the sociological concept of ethnocentrism. This means that we judge other cultures by the standards of our own. Not only that, but we also believe that our own culture is superior to everyone else’s. Graham and his Latina girlfriend fight and he pokes fun at her culture by calling her Mexican even though she isn’t. Asian Americans speech patterns are made fun of, like the term â€Å"blaking† for braking. These characters don’t celebrate or even accept the characteristics of other cultures. They only mock them, assuming the superiority of their own culture. They fail to try to understand one another through Sas 4 ethnocentrism. Officer Ryan makes fun of the name Shaniqua, a more common name of African American culture. All in all, Crash is a movie full of sociological concepts. Many more could be analyzed in cry, sometimes at almost the same time. When we laugh, however, we must question the underlying sociological assumptions or concepts that make us laugh. Are we laughing at some of the racist jokes because of our own ethnocentrism. Are we failing to see the microaggressions directed at members of minority groups all the time. Are we as guilty as Jean Cabot at making our own realities our truths? Do we have beliefs about certain groups of people and essentially make them come true for ourselves? Crash asks us to question all of these things.

The Significance of Kafka's The City Coat of Arms Essay

The Significance of Kafka's The City Coat of Arms - Essay Example The essay "The Significance of Kafka's The City Coat of Arms" analyzes a short story "The City Coat of Arms" written by Franza Kafka. It unveils layers of concepts and phenomena. It is unimaginable yet brilliant how such a miniature of the textual piece may have such a broad range of interpretations. The significance of the story ‘The City Coat of Arms’ lies in the multitude of phenomena it touches upon ranging from a diversity of human existence to common purpose of living to even larger than life realities, and yet converging the ideas in a simple notion of creation which is the essence of human existence. In other words, the significance of the work of Kafka lies in the connotation and explanation of the idea of creation and further explaining how every individual in this world is indulged in the act of creating something. The idea centers around a diverse array of an issue like how humans are divided along a range of societal and other logistical identities. The stor y touches upon how when this diverse array of individuals are engaged in some common act, there are difficulties and differences, yet the common ground is reached at a point often by virtue of consensus. Also, the story talks about larger than life realities, for instance, the construction of the Tower of Babel is itself an extraordinary idea since its purpose is to reach heaven. This serves an immense philosophical purpose since various arguments about bureaucratic culture can be explained with the help of the ideas propagated in the story.

Choose one of the following and write a two-three paragraph post Essay

Choose one of the following and write a two-three paragraph post - Essay Example The main point is that men have been forced, in the past at least, to conform to a very limiting stereotype and they have been ridiculed if they dare to step outside of this narrow concept. By defining the word with a perspective of looking back in time, I would hope to encourage people to think about a different approach for the present and the future. Robert Jensen’s technical definition of masculinity is certain psychological or social traits that inherently come with being biologically male and he summarizes this in a more informal form with the phrase the tough guy. The negative aspects of this definition are quite clear to Jensen, and he describes the â€Å"toxic† effects which prevailing ideas of masculinity have on men today. Jensen stresses the cultural values attached to gender divisions, and advises that we do not need the extremes of masculinity and femininity any more, and we should concentrate instead on humanity, which can be shared by people of any gender. I think this is quite unrealistic and that masculinity as a concept is likely to last for a very long time. Rather than banning the use of the term, I would rather see it transformed with new and more positive

Judging Women Case Points Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Judging Women Case Points - Essay Example The case is about Elena Kagan who was sworn in as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. There is also a comparison done by Lisa Belkin to show how appointment of women in such positions has changed over time. This is shown by the first two women who were appointed in the Supreme Court O’Connor and Ginsburg who were both married and had children by the time they were appointed in comparison to Kagan and Sotomayor who are single and childless. This shows that time variation played a huge role in their appointment. Despite the fact that there are four women in the Supreme Court it is evident that there are numerous challenges facing women in the workforce. This is discussed in the themes discussed hereunder.Imperative themes were depicted in the case in regard to women in the workforce. Some of the issues discussed are discussed herein.Despite the fact that women have been appointed as Supreme Court justice, there are numerous factors limiting their potential. It is extremel y hard for women to reach such a position without sacrificing a lot in their lives especially their family lives. This is depicted in the number of Supreme Court justice members in that out of nine members; only four of them are women. This simply shows that such positions are left foe men discrediting the fact that even women have the same chances regardless of their qualification and experience. Women in such positions show how the world has improved, but cases of glass ceiling are still prevalent. This is attributable by the fact that for a woman to attain such positions, they must do away with their family lives and focus on delivering. This is a huge challenge because it seems if a woman is well qualified to take up such a position and has a family, then she cannot be considered as a legible candidate because they will not have full concentration towards their work. This is an acute case of glass ceiling which many people fail to notice because there is no direct discriminatory aspect depicted (Brantner n.pg). The glass ceiling theme is imperative in the present labor force, since it will be able to show many people that despite the increase number of women in the workforce, it is hard for them to be considered in the top management positions. Stereotyping and Discrimination Stereotyping and Discrimination forms one of the main issues being faced by women in the workforce. Attitudes and perceptions formed by people in workplace about women are a major contribution

Managing change - case study analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Managing change - case study analysis - Essay Example This essay stresses that according to Lewin's model, the restraining force is the management hierarchy which delays the decision-making process. The management thought that the situation will change as there will be â€Å"ups and down† in every industry.But the price decline continued for a long period. Sensing the deterioration of the company profitability and assets the management has opened for the thought of revamping the administrative structure to suit the current requirements and decrease the decision making process time. The driving force was the change in the management thought that the decision making authority should vest with few to enhance the decision-making rate. As the change was forced the CEO with a team of seven others formed an apex committee to speed up the decision-making process. The management team has focused on the identified need to deal with a possible long-term decline in commodity prices, set the achievable goal of simplifying the management struc ture to foster accountability and communication. In conclusion, communication is the key to implement the ideologies of the management. There should be a smooth and distinctive flow of information right from the managers to the ground staff down the line who form the core of the employee group. The discrepancy in the information will elevate the decisions in the other way and could change the trajectory of the desired results. The right form of information will guide the person to the desired output.

The Guernica Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Guernica - Essay Example It projects a heavy emotion through its dismal, grim nature. The Guernica also shows the morphing of humans and animals - a clear opinion from the artist of how war creates a situation where humans and animals seem to be alike. The Guernica depicts a mood that is most likely to be associated with a house of horrors, full of distorted, morphed characters carrying a heavy, dark mood full of gloom and grim. Picasso's opinion of wars is clearly expressed through the Guernica. The complexity of its content makes it a unique work of art. Thus, I have always believed that a work of art is a reflection of how the artist sees the world. It is the artist's expression of the circumstances that occur around him. It is the artist's creation of something that holds underlying symbolisms and mysteries within it, that each person has their own view and opinions towards it. In my point of view, it is the Guernica that best represents a work of art. Its uniqueness is brought about by the unconventional style of depicting characters, and its symbolism cannot be interpreted in a single angle. It gives room for everyone to have their own interpretations and ideas formed - a true mark of a work of art. For me, that is what is considered to be a work of art; and the Guernica is absolutely one of its kind.