French Miss.

• Author: Morrow, James
• Position: Rant - Airport security in Europe and the U.S. - Brief Article

Going Continental won't make air travelers safe.

THERE'S A CERTAIN type of American sophisticate who rhapsodizes about how wonderful and civilized Europe is in comparison with his own land of the free. Like high school French Club presidents who pompously describe the day's cafeteria offerings as lacking "a certain je ne sais quoi," such people can't stop talking about how magnifique it would be if the United States got in line with the Continent on everything from government-mandated maternity leave to long, winesoaked luchesn.

Since September 11, members of the Beret of the Mooth Club have discovered a new fault in the American way of doing things. The country's airports, they complain, have been guarded all these years by poorly skilled workers employed by private companies. When Europhiles head over to Paris or Rome for their annual vacations, one of the first things they notice on the ground is the number of armed police swaggering around the airport with automatic weapons.

"America's airport security is shockingly lax," Gregg Easterbrook declared in The New Republic shortly after the attacks. In contrast, he wrote, "Within sight of security checkpoints in most European airports are police with assault rifles, wearing armor vests... Once, in France, I was asked to turn on my sniper-bullet-shaped pocket flashlight to demonstrate that it really was a flashlight." A nice story, but it's hard to believe that even before September 11 the most Illiterate minimum-wage-screener in the U.S. wouldn't have raised an eyebrow if you had thrown faux ammo in the dish with your change.

Easterbrook's widely echoed feeling that he is safer in Europe is only a feeling, one that is demonstrably misguided. In Europe, governments set standards for aviation security (just as in America). And private companies actually do the work of screening passengers (just as in America--at least until recently). It's worth noting that French cops--public employees, every man Jacques of them--allowed would-be shoe bomber Richard C. Reid to board on American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami in December. What's more, the French police's OK came after the private employees of American Airlines demanded further scrutiny of their oddly acting passenger (who paid for...