Mom defends reaction to Iraqi passengers

[MikeNearMcChord]

Makes you proud to be an American
She was simply “protecting my tiny little family,” she insisted, adding that “all I could think of was 9/11.”
But yesterday, Leigh Robbins offered an apology to seven Iraqi men who were passengers on a plane scheduled to fly from San Diego to Chicago on Tuesday night. Robbins was also on the plane but was so terrified the men might be terrorists that she demanded to get off, causing a delay that prompted the airline to postpone the flight until the next morning.

The Iraqis, as it turned out, were consultants working with Marines at Camp Pendleton. They say they were humiliated when airport security, reacting to Robbins' concerns, took them aside and questioned them. They have hired a lawyer.
“I know they're upset, and they have every right to be,” said Robbins, 35, a Richmond, Va., homemaker. She said she was traveling with her two young sons that night and decided to err on the side of caution.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20070901-9999-1m1airline.html

[Liberal Veteran]

1. Idiocracy in action: They were brown and speaking a different language....

...therefore, they must be terrorists hellbent on hijacking a plane.

Stupid people shouldn't be allowed to breed.

[HereSince1628]

2. State Sponsored Fear + Xenophobia = Mistreatment

This is what we've become. I hope it makes someone feel more secure.

[Faygo Kid]

3. Bush, Cheney and Rove look almost human - and yet you can't judge them by that.

Freaking out about people because of the way they look is not a good idea. At all. Of course, there are exceptions. . .

[AlCzervik]

4. "Protecting my tiny little family,” please, someone hand me an airline sickness bag.

the next time my Iranian born now American citizen bil gets pulled out of line at the airport because he's speaking farsi i'll be sure to send her a thank you note.

[SammyWinstonJack]

38. Protect her tiny little family and inconvenience EVERYONE else.

How self serving of her. Is she a repug?

[ToeBot]

5. "How can you overreact when it's your children?"

I believe you've answered that question already.

[niyad]

6. I hope that everyon whose plans and obligations were delayed because of her irrational fears sues

her--did the airline at least put them all up at hotels?

[BlooInBloo]

7. Poor little bigot mommy.

[Turbineguy]

8. Err on the side of

Fox News.

[WritersBlock]

9. Let's hope she didn't pass along her stupidity gene to her tiny little family.

Stupid, bigoted, brain-washed bitch.

[griffi94]

10. i'm way more afraid

of stupid people than terrorists....i'll probly never have any contact with a terrorist
but stupid people are everywhere

[pink-o]

37. Not only that: I'm shit scared of crazy fundies

...far more than I fear the mythical "islamo-fascists. I'd rather meet an average Iraqi citizen in a dark alley than Lou Sheldon or Tony Perkins!

[AspenRose]

11. I think it's disgusting that she's using her family as an excuse

If she had been flying alone, would she have done the same thing? Probably.

Bigotry is not contingent upon your marital/family status, lady! :spank:

She's the type that would clutch her purse in an elevator if a black guy got on.....:eyes:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

12. My question: Why did the airline not just let Mommy bigot off the plane and then take off as planned

:shrug: MKJ

[AlCzervik]

13. "She demanded to be let off the plane" so i bet that was a scene and by that time it's

too late to try and unring the bell.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

19. Thanks for the answers, that clarifies the rationale for deplaning everyone.

I wonder what the other passengers will have to say about this. MKJ

[AlCzervik]

26. me too because she claims "They were looking at people so mean!" which i guess means

they had a mean look on their faces but it appears she was the only passenger that demanded to be let off the plane. I fly about 6-8 times a year, my husband fly triple that and my Dad is a pilot, in all my flying there was only time i ever said anything about a passenger, a guy next to me was shit faced and started puking so i got up, quietly told a flight attendant and they discreetly removed him.

[gollygee]

18. There's a security concern with letting people put their baggage on the plane and then

not having those people on the plane. It happens accidentally on the part of the airlines of course, but there can't be any chance of a person putting bags on a plane and then purposely not flying on it.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

23. Very understandable. Thanks.

That must have been a huge mess for everyone. MKJ

[pink-o]

40. I'm standing here in SFO right now working for my airline...

...and just to clarify, the baggage match rule is for international flights only. For destinations within the US it's okay if the bags go without the passengers because they are vetted, x-rayed and possibly even hand searched before they go on the plane. TSA has machines and personnel doing that once the bags go down the belt.

However, if a passenger demands her luggage back, then yes, the airline would have to pull all the bags from the cargo pits until hers are located...which could delay the flight. However, the only reason I could see where the airline would cancel the flight would be if they thought there was a security risk onboard...which means American obviously caved to the ignoamous's bigotry. Believe me, if I were the gate agent on that flight I never would have allowed that to happen!

[gollygee]

41. Ah ok

I fly international a lot, and when I heard about that rule I assumed it was for any flights. Thanks for the correction.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

42. Do you agree she should be on a no fly list from now on? She's demonstrated very disruptive

behavior.

Thanks in advance for, hopefully, answering my abrupt question. :toast: MKJ

[pink-o]

43. I wish I could put her on myself!

...But unfortunately, the airlines have no say about that. Homeland Security and State designate who goes on that list; we merely check folks in, determine they're not the terrorists who share their names (and believe me, no one ever is!) and make a special computer entry to show they've been cleared. But in the spirit of our completely incompetent government, if you're on the no-fly list, you have to go thru the above-described process EVERY TIME YOU FLY!!!!

We have no power to get you off the list. There's a phone number and an email address for Homeland Security that you can contact, but I've had passengers tell me it doesn't work (SURPRISE!!!).

Many of the names on the list are of course Arabic, but there are also a lot of Anglo names (Like Robert Johnson, if you saw that 60 minutes) and more than any other I've encountered: IRISH NAMES!!!! I guess Tony Blair had more influence over his master than we realised.

But back to Cuturally Ignorant Mom and her "tiny" American Family: Airlines have the capacity to ban a passenger from ever flying on their particular carrier--usually reserved for heinous behaviour like what John McEnroe did to a United Airlines agent in SF, or that guy who took a dump on the liquor cart flying home from Buenos Aires. If I worked for American, or this incident had happened with my airline, I would be pushing for such a ban for this woman. I have denied boarding to people who've espoused racism (well, actually, I've persisted with a supervisor to do so--I'm just a lowly ticket agent), you wouldn't believe some of the stupidity these morans spew.

But anyway I hope that answers the question.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

46. Fully answered, thanks so much. :-)

I can't even imagine how much grief you endure when things don't go as planned.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. :-) MKJ

[Igel]

30. That was the plan.

Except that the airport had an 11:30 pm cutoff for takeoffs.

By making the plane turn around, she delayed the flight. Had it been 10 pm when she demanded to get off the plane, there'd have been no problem.

I doubt she knew about the 11:30 pm drop-dead rule.

[Malikshah]

14. Then she is the WORST Mother

“protecting my tiny little family,” she insisted, adding that “all I could think of was 9/11.”

By bigotry, ignorance, and hate? Would that she were sterile.

[fed-up]

15. tinfoil time-maybe she did save us by publicizing a Blackwater terrorist attack-timing is right..nt

[uppityperson]

16. Hey Mommy, Timothy McVeigh was a white boy.

If all she could think of was 9/11, she isn't capable of much rational thought. Poor little family.

[AspenRose]

17. Ditto Eric Rudolph

It's just disgusting.....

[uppityperson]

24. I wonder if she is the sort that would approve of Eric Rudolph?

Not wanting to jump to any conclusions, just wondering.

[MountainLaurel]

36. I wouldn't be surprised n/t

[Oeditpus Rex]

20. I wish there were a way to quantify the degree of irrational fear in a society

I'm pretty sure Red Mer'ka would "win" easily.

[gollygee]

21. I travel with my child pretty often

and I live in Michigan, where we have a large Islamic population, and I frequently have Islamic people on flights with me. Being a mom doesn't make her behavior OK.

If she's that afraid of flying she needs to take the train or drive.

[knitter4democracy]

34. I entirely agree.

I live in Battle Creek, and my favorite restaurant in the Detroit area is La Shish. The best one is the one in Dearborn on Michigan. Great, great food.

When I fly, it's usually through Detroit, and I always see people of all colors, backgrounds, languages, and cultures. So what? That's travel. No big deal. I'm safer in the plane than I am in a car, at least.

That woman needs help.

[VP505]

22. Ya, she is

an idiot, never mind that for 7 years "Americas Finest" (Bu$hCo):sarcasm: have been telling us that they (those crazed radical Islamic terrorists) are coming to get us and we should be afraid, be very afraid. :sarcasm:

[TahitiNut]

25. If she's NOT on the "no-fly" list by now, it's criminal stupidity compounded.

:grr:

[TheMadMonk]

32. Nah. The SSSS list. Let her see up close and personal just how...

...she is being protected.

[REP]

27. Don't forget: one of them "insulted" her unruly child

They must be terrorists - everyone else loves her kids!

[Bonhomme Richard]

28. Sometimes I think we have become a nation of

Cowards.

[HughMoran]

29. This is entirely driven by the ass hole Bush & Cheney fear mongering

Heck, I loath flying now because I have no idea what to expect since these scum-sucking pigs have made fear the rule of the day. I hate giving money to people for travel who feel free to treat me like crap if they so desire.

[HuffleClaw]

31. the 'readers comments' following the story are appalling

"If these guys are really Americans, they should understand, and not make such a big deal out of this..."

"This lady did the right thing absolutely. More people need to stand up and do this rather than sit on there butt and wonder while in mid-flight..."


- and it gets worse.

[proud2BlibKansan]

33. Wow what a great mom - teaching her kids to be bigots!!

Quick, how do we nominate her for mother of the year?? :sarcasm:

[slampoet]

35. She probably doesn't fly with Jews either.

Bigotry is bigotry.


Child Services needs to visit her house.

[Jed Dilligan]

39. When did mommies and their feelings become a cornerstone

of rightwing policy? I thought they were always accusing us of that.

[Forkboy]

44. Mom is a total smeghead.

[Withywindle]

45. Land of the free, home of the chickenshit.

What have we become?