Interrogated for Flying While Brown

[Newsjock]

Last edited Thu Aug 22, 2013, 08:37 PM - Edit history (1)

http://varnull.adityamukerjee.net/post/59021412512/dont-fly-during-ramadan
By Aditya Mukerjee

... The TSA agents and police escorted me to a holding room, where they patted me down again - this time using the front of their hands as they passed down the front of my pants. While they patted me down, they asked me some basic questions.

... She left the room, again, leaving me alone for another ten minutes or so. When she finally returned, she told me that I had passed the TSA’s inspection. “However, based on the responses you’ve given to questions, we’re not going to permit you to fly today.”

.. "How many times a day do you pray?" he asked. This time, my surprise must have registered on my face, because he quickly added, "I’m not trying to offend you; I just don’t know anything about Hinduism. For example, I know that people are fasting for Ramadan right now, but I don’t have any idea what Hindus actually do on a daily basis."

... I sat back down and waited some more. Another time, I looked up and noticed that a different officer was guarding the door. By this time, I hadn’t had any food or water in almost eighteen hours. I could feel the energy draining from me, both physically and mentally, and my head was starting to spin. I went to the door and explained the situation the officer. “At the very least, I really need something to drink.”

... "You’ll have to understand, when a person of your… background walks into here, travelling alone, and sets off our alarms, people start to get a bit nervous. I’m sure you’ve been following what’s been going on in the news recently. You’ve got people from five different branches of government all in here - we don’t do this just for fun."

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Horrifying, unbelievable, though I do believe it. K&R

[msanthrope]

6. Yeah--except that he was in custody only 4-5 hours after setting off the explosives alarm.

The OP's headline is incorrect and misleading.

[indepat]

2. 'murika, 'murika

land of the free, home of the brave, and melting pot of the paranoid.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. This is a chilling narrative.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Disgusting and frightening.

The ignorance shown by the idiots in power at the airport is astounding.
Yet, stupid as they were, THEY have been given the right to screw any passenger over.

[msanthrope]

5. Your headline is incorrect and misleading--he was in custody for 4-5 hours after

setting off the explosives residue alarm--another fact that you forgot to mention in your OP.

He sounds like a very nice young man, who probably had the residue of cleaning fluid and bug spray on him, and that set off the alarms. He wasn't in custody for 18 hours----you need to read your source more carefully.

It sounds like he was inconvenienced, but treated properly.

[Newsjock]

7. Thanks for pointing out the error

Title has been corrected.

I will, however, respectfully disagree that this type of interrogation constitutes being "treated properly."

[msanthrope]

10. He set off the explosives alarm. However accidental that was, do you really think that if you set

off the explosives alarm at an airport, you are not going to get pulled into a side room and questioned thoroughly?

Now, think about this Newsjock--you are the guy behind him. Do you want to get on the plane with the guy who set off the alarm and WASN'T interrogated, or the guy who WAS?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

15. I know people who set off the alarm and weren't held incommunicado for 5 hours.

One instance probably due to HIV medication and another instance because their husbands used the luggage for a hunting trip prior to the Mexico trip.

The nice suburban white ladies were sent on their way after ACKNOWLEDGING guns and ammunition had been in contact with the bags.

The brown Hindu (thanks for 9/11, Hindu!) gets detained for not knowing what set the alarm off.

I guess the next brown guy should just say his spouse had gunpowder in the bag - yeah that should work!

[HardTimes99]

16. That's a funny (in a black-humor sort of way) sub-text to this, the U.S. agents'

conflation of Hinduism and Islam.

I think Mark Twain said war was Americans' excuse to 'learn geography'. I think these LEOs were absent the days they taught the unit on comparative religion.

[msanthrope]

19. It's also a quick way to question the subject without seeming to. Interrogation 101--

feign ignorance so the subject then instructs you and hopefully, slips up.

That's why you never, ever, talk to cops.

[HardTimes99]

21. These weren't really cops, though, were they? Oh sure, they kidnapped the

passenger in question under force of arms, but law enforcement they weren't, save in a malignant Keystone Cops kind of way.

[msanthrope]

18. If you read the whole blogpost, the guy didn't know why he was setting it all off. I mean, I cannot

get inside the heads of the TSA agents involved, but in the case of the HIV meds, the person probably had the HIV meds, right? And was able to name them?

Gunpowder you can swab for pretty quickly and confirm.

Note that this guy had no idea what it was he touched, and had to give a list of cleaning chemicals and bug spray.

5 hours is a long time to cool your heels. I've done longer at the DMV, but it's still frustrating.

What this really comes down to is the issue of 'profiling.' Is it permissible to profile based on people's appearance at an airport. In this case, you had a young male, setting off an explosives alarm. I think that's enough to continue investigation.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

20. You don't have to "get inside the heads of the TSA agents"

They spelled it out pretty clearly.

"In this case, you had a young male"

No, you had a brown Hindu male. Because we all know Hindus pray 5 times a day and caused 9/11. How many Sikhs are we up to on the "shot by loony right wingers" list now?

I DID read the whole post. It's quite clear his appearance AND his religion were what caused him trouble.

Those alarms go off every day. That they are using the non-expert's inability to explain the false alarm is beyond stupid. What's to prevent a REAL terrorist from naming a known OTC cleaning supply false alarm trigger as the likely source? And why wasn't a 20 minute pat-down and inspection of the bag enough to send him on his way?

Naw, they got themselves a brown one and decided to make a day out of it.

[limpyhobbler]

8. Just wow. It's worth reading the whole thing.

[leftstreet]

9. This 'blog' is bullshit

The doofus set off the explosives residue alarm but couldn't figure out WHY?

Meh. Just another anti-union (TSA) screed

[HardTimes99]

12. Hunh? Where do you get anti-union out of this? Did you read the

full blog entry?

[leftstreet]

13. TSA 'scare stories' are often cover for anti-union screeds

Yes I read the 'blog'

I don't believe a word of it

[HardTimes99]

14. Wow! OK, you think the entire entry is a fiction? I suppose you're entitled

to that belief.

[Posteritatis]

17. That's the kind of stretch that would make Gumby cringe. (nt)

[HardTimes99]

11. Kafka lives! I no longer recognize this country. Really surreal, too much so to even be scary, more

just disgusting and enraging.

I hope he sues the fuck out of Jet Blue and the TSA. Needless to say, I shall not fly Jet Blue until it issues an apology and pays reparations to him.