A retired police officer and his wife have filed a federal lawsuit against American Airlines, alleging that they were unjustly singled out for human trafficking investigation during their honeymoon flight from Phoenix to Miami. The incident took place on September 13, 2022.
Anthony Williams, 63, a Black retired law enforcement officer, and his white wife, 34-year-old Katsiaryna Shasholka, were traveling on American Airlines flight 2408. Another passenger reportedly became suspicious simply because the couple was interracial. According to the lawsuit, that passenger assumed Shasholka was being transported against her will and alerted the cabin crew.
Court documents allege the flight attendants made no effort to speak with Williams or Shasholka to clarify the situation. Instead, they relayed the accusation to the captain who alerted authorities. The newlyweds were instructed to remain seated on arrival in Miami as everyone else deplaned. They were escorted off the aircraft and interrogated by Miami-Dade police officers. They claim to have been humiliated and to continue suffering from sleeplessness, anxiety, and panic attacks.
The case highlights how airline and hotel employees are taught to use their prejudices to spot and report human trafficking, and this often works out badly. Flight attendants are told they need to be on the lookout, and you have to sympathize with the position that puts them in. Imagine if they didn’t say something when they could have stopped a bad situation? That would haunt them. So better to raise the accusation or flag innocent people for law enforcement to sort out. And that gives you situations like,
- An African American social service worker was traveling with a white baby and accused of kidnapping by an American Airlines flight attendant as a result. Delta accused grandparents of trafficking their mixed-race grandson.
- Armed Port Authority police boarded an American Airlines plane at New York JFK because a flight attendant saw an Asian American woman follow her hispanic husband to the lavatory (he was feeling unwell) and saw that they shared an orange juice. The flight attendant called for a sex trafficking investigation. It found their drivers licenses displayed the same home address because they were married, just different races. American accused a black musician of trafficking his mixed-race kids, too.
- Cindy McCain once fabricated a story about catching a toddler being trafficked at the Phoenix airport.
- Southwest Airlines demanded to see Facebook posts when a white mother checked in with her mixed-race son, claiming this was ‘federal law’.
This family is on a holiday weekend adventure to support @Kenzie4bs at @usabasketball U18 trials. 💙💛🐻 pic.twitter.com/cbAcRdKyhJ
— Lindsay Gottlieb (@CalCoachG) May 26, 2018
Hotel staff, too, are trained by the Department of Homeland Security to report guests with too many used condoms in the trash, as well as:
- frequent use of the “Do Not Disturb” sign (you’re tired and don’t want to be bothered)
- guests who avert their eyes or don’t make eye contact (you’re tired and don’t want to be bothered)
- people with “lower quality clothing than companions” (no one ever accused me of fashion)
- people who have “suspicious tattoos” (which just means you’re from Austin or Portland)
- having multiple computers, cell phones, and other technology (you’re a blogger)
- “presence of photography equipment” (you’re a blogger)
- refusal of cleaning services for multiple days (you ‘made a green choice’ or ‘fear Covid’)
- rooms paid for with cash or a rechargeable credit card (you have to unload your gift card purchases somehow)
- guests with few personal possessions (you refuse to check a bag because you’re a frequent traveler)
See something, say something, when you’re encouraging amateurs to do it, leads to so many false positives that real cases of sex trafficking seem likely to get less attention. Employees think they are ‘trained’ when they’re really using their prejudices – often, though not always, involving mixed race customers.
(HT: GUWonder)
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