this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
480 points (98.6% liked)

News

23014 readers
5 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

One of the nation's biggest airlines has been called into the spotlight after a Black father was accused of trafficking his own children on a flight from Atlanta to Los Angeles earlier in September.

David Ryan Harris, a musician who has collaborated with the likes of John Mayer, Carlos Santana and the Dave Matthews Band, recently took to social media to tell his story, and ask for people to "do better" after the incident rattled his family.

Harris says that he was aboard an American Airlines flight two weeks ago, heading to LAX with his two biracial sons, Truman and Hendrix. As they were de-boarding the plane, they found four police officers waiting for them at the gate.

"Apparently, a flight attendant had called ahead with some sort of concern that perhaps my mixed children weren't my children," Harris said in a video posted on his social media accounts. "We are met, embarrassingly so, by this AA employee and police officers. They questioned my kids."

all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 121 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This is what you get when right-wingers hype child trafficking bullshit as culture war. Child trafficking is real and terrible. But it looks nothing like what the internet tells them it is. They see it everywhere because they have distorted ideas about what it is. See The Sound of Freedom

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago

It's all intentional too. They want to muddy the waters, and make words like "grooming" meaningless. And they've largely succeeded.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's fucking sad. When liberals get shit wrong, it's embarrassing. You worry about it delegitimizing real situations. You question what led to where you are now. It's a big deal.

Conservatives just double or triple down. Fuck the real victims. Fuck the falsely accused. Fuck getting better. Fuck shame.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also when could conservatives get things wrong, it's usually on purpose.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

As the saying goes.

The cruelty is the point.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

See The Sound of Freedom

I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request.

Means "no".

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

See as in example, not endorse. I now realize my poor choice of words.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even if they weren't his children, that still doesn't mean they're being trafficked. What kind of mental gymnastics does someone have to do to reach that conclusion? All because their skin color didn't match? In 2023?? Man fuck American Airlines! I will never fly with them anymore. Not that they were good to begin with.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you're boycotting airlines for being shitty, you should probably just drive.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

We need more trains. Trains are a solution.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not the person you spoke to, but I do. If it's less than two days of driving, I will do that rather than put up with flying.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Username does not check out.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can't drive over the ocean, silly.

[–] Zink 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Look at fancy pants over here, too good to swim alongside the rest of the squid.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Have you ever met those guys? Bunch of assholes.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Do flight attendants have, like, a duty to report? Do they get training on how to spot human trafficking? Is this just some twat waffle trying to be the hero in their own story?

I'm getting off on the next stop.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Yes, American Airlines employees have human trafficking spotting training.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-service/about-us/combating-human-trafficking.jsp?anchorEvent=false&from=footer

I cannot comment if it is any good.

Edit: Yes, I can. It is clearly lacking.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

How common is human trafficking on commercial domestic flights in the first place? Seems like it would be one of the worst travel options for traffickers, for a lot of reasons.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Not uncommon.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can go all the way across the country in a few hours.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

But in the process you’ve alerted authorities in advance of where you'll be traveling and with whom—and you’re disarmed, so you can be easily apprehended and your victims can escape without fear of violence. Plus you and your victims are confined for hours in close quarters with dozens of other people who have plenty of time to notice any erratic behavior.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Disarmed lol. It is comically easy to sneak a gun past the TSA. I don't remember the specific numbers, but there was a test done, and something like 85% of the trials made it through with the weapon.

Feel free to look it up if you're interested.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What matters in this case isn’t so much the fact of being unarmed, as it is the behavior of the victims and law enforcement who might feel empowered to act based on the belief that the trafficker is unarmed.

Traffickers presumably don’t actually want to end up in a shootout—they just want the perceived possibility to serve as a deterrent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Tons of people are shit-scared of flying and are visibly anxious. Tons of people drug themselves with benzos before flying.

But regardless of those two points, when the victim is at the point where they would be in an airplane with their pimp, controller, whatever you want to call them, they're likely going to be well under their thumb, or happy thinking about that wonderful American business opportunity as a secretary or whatever they think is on the other side of the flight.

Sometimes it doesn't play out like that, but often it does.

Many times they don't use commercial air flights like you suggest, they drive. That's why there are apps that allow you to take a 360° view of your hotel/motel/hostel so they can match them up with known sexual abuse videos.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

This is good info. Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, I work for a private jet company and the FAA has mandatory training we have to take and the gist of it is, if you see something suspicious; report it. It usually doesn’t end up like this, they usually just surveil the target to get more info from what I understand.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks! I have my own world view and it's lovely to know someone else can fuck up my perspective and broaden it!

I appreciate ya!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm getting off on the next stop.

Because of the duty to report?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

No, they're just skiplagging.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry, I could a been more clear. I don't think the flight attendant has any idea what trafficking looks like and was merely looking to become a hero in someone's story. And, I'm kinda over people fucking up good people's days.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's okay, I was just making a joke.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Well, shit. Now, I've got egg on my face.

Can we still do r/whoosh? 😁

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago

Good work Johnson! Now sprinkle some crack on him and let's go.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sad to see this happen to this black father. Racism likely played a role.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago

Good candidate for understatement of the year.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Gee, you think?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Their new motto:

If you see something… be racist.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

American ~~Airlines~~ History X

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

lately

You're kidding, right?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

Of course it was American Airlines. Whenever you read a story about an airline doing something terrible to a passenger, odds are it will be them. I stopped flying on them a decade ago after a bad experience with power tripping flight crew, and every time I see a story like this I continue to not regret that decision.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Sue them for making false reports. They'll stop eventually.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well wait.. was the musician r Kelly?