4 ms·

While I agree that this was really harsh and inhumane - you have to understand that this is a normal behavior of the security officers. What if the guy was act

While I agree that this was really harsh and inhumane - you have to understand that this is a normal behavior of the security officers. What if the guy was actually a terrorist? Would you praise that woman because she was the one alarming the police? Instead of judging the woman, put yourself in her position - she panicked and reacted, if you had a child near you - would you have done the same? Don't generalize too early - this is an isolated case.

JamilD 10y ago
I always hear "this is an isolated case" when events like this come up. Truth is, it's not just an isolated incident. Similar events have happened multiple times on Southwest Airlines alone. Here's a Guardian article from November 2015 detailing some other cases: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/21/southwest-airlines-muslim-middle-eastern-passengers http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/21/southwest-air...
threwbacca 10y ago
If we're going to speculate, let's go ahead and flip the hypothetical. So you're on the plane with your kid, and a passenger freaks out because they overheard a scrap of a conversation in a language they don't speak. Security takes that very seriously, so of course they get everyone off the plane. You, along with every other passenger, are separately questioned about your activities, politics, and religious beliefs. Your carry on and checked luggage are both searched carefully. Your kid is interrogated to make sure that you're not lying about being their guardian, and that your stories add up. Of course, they find nothing. There are no terrorists on the plane (although a couple of teenagers are arrested for failing a breathalyzer test). But out of an abundance of caution, the airline elects to cancel the flight, and bar you all from further travel with them for 24 hours. You're refunded your original ticket price, of course, with no hard feelings! Does that still seem like a reasonable response to you? Or is it only when you're not subject to it that draconian security measures are an appropriate way to deal with a ludicrous imagined threat?
- bkovacev 10y ago
  To be fair - it does. Nowadays, you never know when someone will blow up. Take for instance the Turkey bombing. Guy causally walked on the street and suddenly detonated himself killing a dozen of people. I'm Serbian and I do not have a green card. I speak "buga, buga" language as my team mates call it. I look bulky since I do sports and weight lifting plus I have a shaved head and I have a beard. Typical criminal type looking. For the past six years I have been on an F-1 visa. Numerous times was my passport taken longer to "process", my I-20 and my emails taken longer to read. I was 10 finger printed every time, you know, just in case. I had to retake photos all the time. I am still looked down upon because my passport is not from the EU, but I'm European. People do not hear my accent. Once my I-20 was not signed by my school - I was taken to a separate room - interrogated for 45 minutes and then they finally called the school and the school verified. Once I took my shaker bottle and my protein with me in a carry on. I was moved aside to a separate room, interrogated for 20 minutes as they were running some kind of tests to the powder. In London I was denied a visa for a 24 hour stay, when British Airways was on strike so I have spent the Christmas Eve with a security officer at the airport. Have I ever called that racism/nationalism or whatever? No, not really. Police are there to protect you and are there to protect your interest. 9/10 times the police is wrong, but what about that 1/10 times when they're right? People just assume that cops will figure it out - they still have to do their jobs. EDIT: For the people that forgot - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia PS Oh man the downvotes, gotta love HN.
  - threwbacca 10y ago
    Where does it end? When the only people allowed to venture outdoors are those who pass a full military background check and submit to general anesthesia and a comprehensive cavity search, will that be excessive? After all-- anyone could explode at any moment, yes? No price can be too high. That's clearly absurd. But it became absurd well before then. If we are willing to grit our teeth and do the math, almost any cost is too high to prevent the statistical non-event of a fatal terrorist attack. In my country, good, innocent people, people with families and careers and dreams for the future, die every single day in senseless traffic accidents that could have been avoided if our incredibly safe public transportation were a little bit cheaper, or just a little less stressful. Every day, someone's son or daughter or mother or fiancee doesn't come home, ever again, because... "Anyone could be a terrorist." Sorry, I'm not buying any of this "that one time out of ten" bullshit. If the security forces are indeed tasked with helping us to feel safe, they are doing an admirably shit job of it.

JamilD 10y ago

I always hear "this is an isolated case" when events like this come up. Truth is, it's not just an isolated incident. Similar events have happened multiple times on Southwest Airlines alone. Here's a Guardian article from November 2015 detailing some other cases: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/21/southwest-airlines-muslim-middle-eastern-passengers http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/21/southwest-air...

threwbacca 10y ago

If we're going to speculate, let's go ahead and flip the hypothetical. So you're on the plane with your kid, and a passenger freaks out because they overheard a scrap of a conversation in a language they don't speak. Security takes that very seriously, so of course they get everyone off the plane. You, along with every other passenger, are separately questioned about your activities, politics, and religious beliefs. Your carry on and checked luggage are both searched carefully. Your kid is interrogated to make sure that you're not lying about being their guardian, and that your stories add up. Of course, they find nothing. There are no terrorists on the plane (although a couple of teenagers are arrested for failing a breathalyzer test). But out of an abundance of caution, the airline elects to cancel the flight, and bar you all from further travel with them for 24 hours. You're refunded your original ticket price, of course, with no hard feelings! Does that still seem like a reasonable response to you? Or is it only when you're not subject to it that draconian security measures are an appropriate way to deal with a ludicrous imagined threat?

bkovacev 10y ago
To be fair - it does. Nowadays, you never know when someone will blow up. Take for instance the Turkey bombing. Guy causally walked on the street and suddenly detonated himself killing a dozen of people. I'm Serbian and I do not have a green card. I speak "buga, buga" language as my team mates call it. I look bulky since I do sports and weight lifting plus I have a shaved head and I have a beard. Typical criminal type looking. For the past six years I have been on an F-1 visa. Numerous times was my passport taken longer to "process", my I-20 and my emails taken longer to read. I was 10 finger printed every time, you know, just in case. I had to retake photos all the time. I am still looked down upon because my passport is not from the EU, but I'm European. People do not hear my accent. Once my I-20 was not signed by my school - I was taken to a separate room - interrogated for 45 minutes and then they finally called the school and the school verified. Once I took my shaker bottle and my protein with me in a carry on. I was moved aside to a separate room, interrogated for 20 minutes as they were running some kind of tests to the powder. In London I was denied a visa for a 24 hour stay, when British Airways was on strike so I have spent the Christmas Eve with a security officer at the airport. Have I ever called that racism/nationalism or whatever? No, not really. Police are there to protect you and are there to protect your interest. 9/10 times the police is wrong, but what about that 1/10 times when they're right? People just assume that cops will figure it out - they still have to do their jobs. EDIT: For the people that forgot - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia PS Oh man the downvotes, gotta love HN.
- threwbacca 10y ago
  Where does it end? When the only people allowed to venture outdoors are those who pass a full military background check and submit to general anesthesia and a comprehensive cavity search, will that be excessive? After all-- anyone could explode at any moment, yes? No price can be too high. That's clearly absurd. But it became absurd well before then. If we are willing to grit our teeth and do the math, almost any cost is too high to prevent the statistical non-event of a fatal terrorist attack. In my country, good, innocent people, people with families and careers and dreams for the future, die every single day in senseless traffic accidents that could have been avoided if our incredibly safe public transportation were a little bit cheaper, or just a little less stressful. Every day, someone's son or daughter or mother or fiancee doesn't come home, ever again, because... "Anyone could be a terrorist." Sorry, I'm not buying any of this "that one time out of ten" bullshit. If the security forces are indeed tasked with helping us to feel safe, they are doing an admirably shit job of it.