The Pay-off
Flying. The great crap shoot in the sky. When you go through the gates, you never know if you are going to get picked to be the terrorist target of the day. And now, in a twist of poetic justice, you just might hit the legal lottery if you're picked on.
The Boston Globe reports, in Jury awards airline passenger $400,000 , about a Portuguese man who was de-planed merely because he was seated next to 2 Israelis (who apparently had that terrorist look -- meaning they looked Arab), even though he did not know them. Even worse, he was then refused the right to reboard the plane after he was cleared by police.
The Boston Globe reports, in Jury awards airline passenger $400,000 , about a Portuguese man who was de-planed merely because he was seated next to 2 Israelis (who apparently had that terrorist look -- meaning they looked Arab), even though he did not know them. Even worse, he was then refused the right to reboard the plane after he was cleared by police.
Talk about being judged by the company you keep!
As the piece noted:
Political correctness? I guess under the new world order, discrimination is OK in the air, no matter what. See e.g. You Offend Me. Raising any objection to racial profiling (and doing a lousy job of it, I might add) is merely being PC?
And the complaints of the pilot ignore the fact that the airline denied him the right to re-board even once he was cleared after a security check. Still no civil rights? When do we get them back?
A federal jury has ordered American Airlines to pay $400,000 to a computer consultant who was pulled from a flight at Logan International Airport because of security concerns, then denied reboarding even after he had been cleared by State Police.Not only were there no apologies for this (mis)treatment, the pilots are angry at the verdict, according to the Boston Herald, Pilots blast court’s ‘outrageous’ verdict: Defend ejection of suspicious passenger, saying “Pilots have not forgotten” 9/11, said Capt. Denny Breslin, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association. “It’s a sad day when you lose to political correctness.”
"I felt like I was being treated like a terrorist and there was no way I could prove I didn't do anything or say anything at all," said John Cerqueira . . . . "I'm grateful to the jury for sending the message to American Airlines that just the use of the word security isn't an excuse for unlawful behavior."
Cerqueira, who was born in Portugal and is a US citizen, was returning to Florida after spending Christmas with his family when he boarded a non stop flight to Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 28, 2003. But before takeoff, Cerqueira said, the flight crew called police because of concerns about two Middle Eastern passengers who were seated beside him.
Cerqueira said he didn't know the men, who were Israelis, but believes he was taken into custody with the men because he looked like them.
After State Police interrogated him for two hours, Cerqueira, a Stanford University graduate with a degree in international relations, said a trooper told him, "You're just the poor chap who got seated next to these two other guys."
Police determined that none of the men was a threat after questioning them, evacuating the plane, and rescreening all baggage. Yet, Cerqueira said that American Airlines refused to let him reboard that plane, or catch another flight, even though State Police assured the airline that he wasn't a threat.
Political correctness? I guess under the new world order, discrimination is OK in the air, no matter what. See e.g. You Offend Me. Raising any objection to racial profiling (and doing a lousy job of it, I might add) is merely being PC?
And the complaints of the pilot ignore the fact that the airline denied him the right to re-board even once he was cleared after a security check. Still no civil rights? When do we get them back?
(Via AMERICAblog)
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