A man had taken some pictures while onboard an American Airlines flight. The flight was over, and he had departed the plane. The flight attendant had one of the officers prevent him from going further and made him return to the plane, so they could inspect the photos on his cell phone.
I had stepped into the jetbridge and the FA (flight attendant) had what I think was the pilot or FO (First Officer) block me from going further. Then they brought me back on the plane and the FA demanded I open my phone and show them the last several photos and then took the phone out of my hands to inspect them.
I don’t think so.
The flight attendants and the flight deck officers have authority on the plane. They do not have shit for authority off of the plane. You want to stop me from going somewhere? I don’t think so. I am not getting back on that plane without a fight, and I damned sure aren’t showing you shit on my phone. Go ahead, call the cops. I am not showing them shit, either.
Dwyer-Lindgren says that the staff cited policies about not taking photos of staff without consent, which later turned out to be untrue.
Taking pictures is not a crime, it is not reasonable to assume that someone who took a picture is committing a crime, even if that picture is of you, a flight attendant. I don’t give a shit what policies you think your company has. True or not, company policy cannot and does not grant you the authority to use force on anyone.
Try and force me to get on your plane, and we are about to have a fight, and if that means some people wind up with broken bones and some missing teeth, that is on them. I won’t be holding back. The airline will be paying my medical bills and anything else my my lawyer can come up with.
There was a case years ago where a loss prevention officer at a K-Mart tried to ‘arrest’ a woman who had just left the store, but that he believed had been shoplifting. She ran. He tackled her. It turns out that he was mistaken, but in the process of tackling her, she sustained a broken arm. K-Mart wound up paying her $12 million. Even in cases of false imprisonment, K-Mart once lost a case where loss prevention detained a woman who hadn’t stolen anything and wound up paying her $175,000 in damages when she sued.
8 Comments
Aesop · November 12, 2022 at 11:05 am
Without knowing the jurisdiction or the specific state, that’s at least five major criminal complaints right there:
Unlawful detention/False imprisonment. Felony.
Kidnapping. (The minute they moved him from Point A to Point B under unlawful detention. Fucktards.) Federal felony.
Theft by bodily force. Misdemeanor.
Unlawful search and seizure. Misdemeanor.
Conspiracy. Felony.
Without looking, but given the venue of a common passenger carrier, I’m pretty certain that multiple of those crimes also qualify as the exact black-letter definition of terrorist acts under federal statute, and would file that federal complaint as well.
Those are all clear black-letter law criminal complaints.
If the flight crew left the state afterwards, that’s unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Another federal felony.
That’s before we get to civil penalties.
They’re looking at the ass-end of 10-50 years of state and federal hard time, and all he has to do is file the complaint(s), at the state and federal level.
The investigation alone will cripple those defendants, and should.
The flight crew, as future felons all, should be immediately placed on the lifetime “No Fly” list.
I imagine that will give them and 10,000 other flight crews a wee wake-up call.
And adversely impact their career options.
Pretty sure the pilots will have their pilot’s licenses suspended or revoked on legitimate complaint of criminal behavior.
So their flying days are functionally over.
The conga line of contingency lawyers who’ll take this case will probably settle on something in the eight-figure range.
And if I were the victim, I’d pe pushing to max the fuck out of every last one of those responsible criminally, and then go after American Airlines itself for something in the 9-figure range, pour encourager les autres.
I’d drop the civil request to 10% of that, on condition of a full and complete written apology by American Airlines, and full admission of acceptance of responsibility for wrongdoing, with the stipulation that those particulars and the facts of the case be read aloud to every single member of their entire company, from janitors to CEO. If they refused, then full boat, and a jury trial for damages.
And I’d still want the criminals that did it prosecuted to the full extent of state and federal law.
Jackasses, one and all.
Who’ve gotten too used to acting with impunity as jello sheriffs on every flight.
Apparently, they never heard about “United Breaks Guitars.”
It’s clearly long past time they were re-acquainted with the story, in criminal court.
Big Ruckus D · November 12, 2022 at 12:03 pm
His mistake was choosing to fly in the first place. He consented to being fucked as soon as he bought the ticket. The existence of TSA assured as much.
Stuff like this will continue to go on unabated until and unless a critical mass of people learn to make the sacrifice of not utilizing anything that is unfit for purpose. Commercial air travel, as it presently exists, is unfit for purpose, as is a nearly endless of other intrusive and insulting bullshit.
Facebook, Disney, fast food, subscription streaming video services, and on and on. All are monetizing, or outright charging people money that is then used to fund a business which actively and willfully damages its own paying customers.
But people will suffer all manner of indignity for a little (perceived) convenience. The soma must flow. And they will hate on those like me who point out the fact they go on giving defacto consent to being abused, they are paying for it after all.
Some people will bitch about woke and abusive corporations, but they’ll be damned before they forego a big mac combo meal, waiting in line at Disneypedoworld, binge watching the latest garbage on Netflix, and posting about it all on their instaho.
Americans are largely not a serious people, That will be the basis of our destruction. And taking a 40,000 foot view of where we are at today, I’d say that destruction needs to take place so something better has a chance at taking root.
Divemedic · November 12, 2022 at 12:12 pm
There are times when there is no other option than flying, unless you want to simply forego travel altogether.
Plane trips I have taken in the past 5 years:
Florida to Puerto Rico- ???
Florida to London- ???
Florida to Las Vegas- take a 6 hour flight, or drive for 36 hours. Flying makes a five day trip to Vegas possible.
Florida to Bangor, Maine and back. How else can you go to Maine when you only have three days off?
Florida to Niagara Falls. Again, how else do you do a weekend trip there?
Danny · November 12, 2022 at 2:04 pm
Several years ago, my wife and I were driving through western Virginia – the edge of the Blue Ridge mountains. There was a chemical plant there – Celanese Corporation to name it. The weather was misty and gray and I pulled over across the road from it to take some “artful” photos of the scene. Some bozo security guy of some sort raced up the side road – or track – in a pickup truck jumped out, informed me I wasn’t authorized to take photos of the plant. I said very well, got in the car and left. I was armed and I don’t like to lose my temper that way.
During this drama, my wife got some very nice photos of the plant from her window without having gotten out of the car. I still have them somewhere around here.
Big Ruckus D · November 12, 2022 at 3:31 pm
Yes, I relaize that. But for most people, it is still the case that they would sooner suffer the insults and abuse imposed upon them in order to fly, rather than to face the disappointment of foregoing trips for fun and leisure by not flying. And that was my whole point.
I have siblings with younger kids. Like me, they will bemoan the filth and degeneracy that has overtaken our culture, including the sexualization of children. And yet they have taken trips to disneyworld twice in 5 years. I point out that they are funding their enemies, who are destroying the culture, and who are known to be chock full of pedofags, and their reaction is either to get butthurt, or crickets.
Again, plenty of capacity for complaining, but to suffer the inconvenience of doing without something they want is unthinkable. Functionally no different than a drug addict who knows their life sucks because of drugs, but keeps going back to the needle anyway. Gotta maintain the trappings of an upper middle class normiecon sheeple lifestyle, so here’s another $7000 and a week of our lives sacrificed to the devilmouse.
Aesop raises some salient points about the law regarding the incident in the OP. These would be perfectly valid observations in a setting where rule of law actually existed as we wish it did.
In fake and ghey clown world, the application and enforcement of law is entirely selective and subjective, which means this guy has limited chances of prevailing via lawfare. And it still will cost him handsomely just to try. Plus, the airline in question would problaby no-fly list his ass if he attemped to do so, just out of spite. Another case of BFYTW.
Yeah, I’ve gone full black pill. As it stands, if one wants to avoid abusive bullshit from an airline, the only solutions are either not doing business with them to begin with, or killing the fuckers right where they stand as soon as they overstep whatever boundaries one has set as unacceptable to cross. Very few will do the former, and virtually nobody will do the latter. But the voiciferous bitching about it will go on, no doubt. It’s the American’t way.
Divemedic · November 12, 2022 at 4:40 pm
Refusing to fly accomplishes exactly nothing. Look to the left to see how to get shit done. That is how you do it- we need to learn how to badger them into bending the knee. Say what you want about the left, they have gotten business after business to bow to their demands.
Locking yourself at home and boycotting doesn’t work.
Danny · November 12, 2022 at 5:43 pm
I’ll drink to that.
Brutus · November 12, 2022 at 6:04 pm
I wouldn’t say it accomplishes nothing. It just accomplishes very little. As for boycotting Disney, I agree with that.There’s no point in funding your enemies. And turning kids into Disney fans only serves to give the enemy a pathway to corrupting them. I understand the desire to show kids some older classics, but that can be done by hunting for second hand tapes/dvds.
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