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White mom sues Southwest for ‘blatant racism’...

White mom sues Southwest for ‘blatant racism’...

Old Aug 7, 23, 5:54 pm
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White mom sues Southwest for ‘blatant racism’...

Here's the entire article title: "White mom sues Southwest for ‘blatant racism’ after being accused of trafficking black daughter on way to funeral". This isn't exactly a TSA issues, other than training airline employees to root out human trafficking. I can't do anything other than hang my head in my hands because there is no politician out there who desires to fix this atrocity. The USG will never pay, but I want this young girl to be able to attend any university she wants scot-free after the airline and cops pay up.
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Old Aug 7, 23, 7:41 pm
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I hope the airline is forced to pay out a lot of money but I think it should go further.

Anybody who mistakenly have people detained whether it be passengers or flight crew should be personally liable. The risk of being dragged into court and potentially losing everything they own will make airline employees think twice before they have someone inconvenienced and humiliated.
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Old Aug 7, 23, 8:05 pm
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Easy to see how "if you see something, say something" gets out of hand.

A 14-year-old smuggling victim left an "I need help" note in the lav and an Alaska FA turned in a male pax. No comparison. He was well-dressed, she was disheveled.

I suspect the mother suing SWA won't 'settle' with a gag order.
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Old Aug 7, 23, 8:06 pm
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I'd like to hear the other side of this story. Human trafficking is essentially fatal to its victims. Some false positives are the price of mitigating it. There should be ways to reduce false positives, but these methods need to be kept secret from the traffickers and therefore from the public.

Lawyers making a case like to pretend that perfection is attainable or at least the objective. It's not. If you aim for 100% accuracy you are most assuredly accepting a large type 1 or type 2 error rate.

Southwest could be completely in the wrong in this case. But if this case results in airlines letting more human traffickers escape detection that's a disservice to victims.
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Old Aug 7, 23, 8:36 pm
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The FA said that Ms. MacCarthy demanded she sit with her child and that she’d instructed her child not to speak to anyone. MacCarthy says that's not true.

The boilerplate "we-were-disheartened" apology to the mother becomes critical. As does the complaint from a man removed for questioning while traveling with his Black daughter; same year, same airline.
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Old Aug 8, 23, 12:20 am
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Originally Posted by FliesWay2Much
Here's the entire article title: "White mom sues Southwest for ‘blatant racism’ after being accused of trafficking black daughter on way to funeral". This isn't exactly a TSA issues, other than training airline employees to root out human trafficking. I can't do anything other than hang my head in my hands because there is no politician out there who desires to fix this atrocity. The USG will never pay, but I want this young girl to be able to attend any university she wants scot-free after the airline and cops pay up.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...alled-n1283333

saw this before
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Old Aug 8, 23, 6:48 am
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This happened two years ago, but lawsuit now?
And if goes to trial, it will cause mental anguish for Mom and daughter.

If she wins, expect airlines to reduce efforts to reduce human trafficking.

If everyone thinks this makes sense, cool.
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Old Aug 8, 23, 7:21 am
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Quote from their lawyer: "Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling to use law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did."

Is there actually a law which says I or an employee can't report someone to the police for whatever reason (other than lying)? It's up to the police to decide what to do with that information.

Last edited by rrgg; Aug 8, 23 at 9:11 am
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Old Aug 8, 23, 10:29 am
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Originally Posted by LegalTender
Easy to see how "if you see something, say something" gets out of hand.

A 14-year-old smuggling victim left an "I need help" note in the lav and an Alaska FA turned in a male pax. No comparison. He was well-dressed, she was disheveled.

I suspect the mother suing SWA won't 'settle' with a gag order.
Also, there are lots of stories about TSA ID screeners taking on the trafficking interdiction job by asking kids to say their names and to identify the adult with them.
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Old Aug 8, 23, 10:30 am
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Did their last names match? (I notice in the article they only refer to the child by her first name).
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Old Aug 8, 23, 11:12 am
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There's video of the incident in the jetway on Good Morning America. The 10-year-old cries. Apparently asking others to move so they could sit together was the predicate. Obviously, that's in dispute.

The call to Denver PD will be interesting, if it was saved.




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Old Aug 8, 23, 3:44 pm
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Originally Posted by stevendorechester
I hope the airline is forced to pay out a lot of money but I think it should go further.

Anybody who mistakenly have people detained whether it be passengers or flight crew should be personally liable. The risk of being dragged into court and potentially losing everything they own will make airline employees think twice before they have someone inconvenienced and humiliated.
The airlines have been pushed to watch for child trafficking. Employees are required to take classes in what to look for. The problem is 98% of the time you are going to be wrong. Airlines should simply stay out of it. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Do we cause the massive inconvenience of a 3 to 5 minute interview when someone checks several of the boxes considered as potential trafficking indicators to save the 2% you might catch knowing the other 98% will sue you? So much for trying to do the right thing. This is a lose, lose, lose issue for airlines.
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Old Aug 8, 23, 3:49 pm
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Originally Posted by stevendorechester
I hope the airline is forced to pay out a lot of money but I think it should go further.

Anybody who mistakenly have people detained whether it be passengers or flight crew should be personally liable. The risk of being dragged into court and potentially losing everything they own will make airline employees think twice before they have someone inconvenienced and humiliated.
This is exactly why airlines should stay out of it. Inconveniencing someone by requiring a short under 5 minute interview is not worth the potential lives saved.
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Old Aug 8, 23, 4:00 pm
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Originally Posted by Jeff767
This is exactly why airlines should stay out of it. Inconveniencing someone by requiring a short under 5 minute interview is not worth the potential lives saved.
Or, put another way, should people in positions of authority be able to harass multiracial families due to their own beliefs without reprecussions? Or should there be consequences to race-motivated abuses of power?
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Old Aug 8, 23, 4:01 pm
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Originally Posted by rrgg
Quote from their lawyer: "Just as the police are constitutionally not permitted to stop-and-frisk young men of color based upon their race, corporate America is similarly not permitted to resort to such profiling to use law enforcement to stop and question racially diverse families simply based upon their divergent races, which is what Southwest did."

Is there actually a law which says I or an employee can't report someone to the police for whatever reason (other than lying)? It's up to the police to decide what to do with that information.
Yes, "Airlines are prohibited from subjecting a person in air transportation to discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, or ancestry."

DOT Discrimination

There is one thing if you report suspicious behavior regardless of race, but reporting a passenger solely based on race is discriminatory. The exact details will pan out in the lawsuit, so who knows exactly what happened.
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