You know what, folks? No, they didn't overreact. Based on episodes I've known about over the years, one thing is obvious to me: Dating back long before the 9/11 attack, airport personnel are under strict, inflexible orders not to make judgment calls about who's joking and who's being serious, when it comes to making threats about explosives. I remember a news item long before 9/11 up in Maine, in a small plane, where a man was shuffling some things around on his lap and said "I'll put the bomb under my seat." Next thing you knew, the plane was making an emergency landing in the outer area of the nearest airport, the plane was evacuated, and the man was in handcuffs for making a bomb threat. I'm positive of this: Those TSA personnel would have been in very serious trouble if, after hearing a man refer to material in his bag as explosives, they had made the judgment that he was joking. TSA did what they had to do, the man has only himself to blame, and his lawsuit doesn't stand a chance. I'm very surprised that people think the TSA could have handled this matter any other way.
Afternote: Filing a lawsuit is his second moronic blunder, because when you file a frivolous lawsuit--lawyers on the board, please correct me if I'm wrong--aren't you in danger of getting slapped with exorbitant court costs?
Second afternote: The Queens DA was very generous in not prosecuting him. He's very lucky he's not serving serious jail time. In an airport, making a joke about having a bomb is making a bomb threat. The fact that he thinks he got anything other than generous treatment is just insane. He committed a crime! They were nice to him! Again, airport personnel have to take every bomb threat seriously. They would be committing a serious offense if they had dismissed him as a joker.
