Maybe Just One Woman's Bad Day -- But Possibly More Than That
Free speech is essential to a free country -- to maintaining a democracy.
Free speech refers in a constitutional sense to freedom from government control.
However, another kind of free speech is vital, too, and that's the ability to say stuff in public without losing everything -- or at least being punished for it in some way.
Increasingly, people are being punished on college campuses for making jokes or statements that don't fit in with the social justice narrative -- typically.
And in general life, we see more and more people being met with consequences -- even for the most mild humor, as in this case.
Patrick Clarke writes at MSN:
A Southwest Airlines passenger was removed from a flight at Sacramento International Airport last week after jokingly asking a flight attendant if the water being handed out was vodka.According to KTXL, the May 8 flight from Sacramento, California to Austin, Texas by way of Los Angeles had been delayed for several hours because of a maintenance light and the subsequent need to refuel when flight attendants began to pass out water to passengers.
"He said something [like], 'They should be passing out vodka because we've been waiting so long,'" passenger Peter Uzelac told KTXL, referring to the unidentified man's witty remark.
Uzelac said the flight attendant, who he described as young, was not amused.
She got on the phone and "everal Sacramento County sheriff's deputies came on board to escort him off."
Again, maybe just one unreasonable woman's bad day. But...maybe part and parcel of a speech-policing shift in this country, and not just in our institutions.
I could easily believe this if it had happened on any other airline. The flight attendants by and large are a bunch of humorless scolds. Southwest, up until now, has been the notable exception.
I really think she will probably be fired because I suspect that she lied about what had occurred in order to call in law enforcement. The lying thing, in order to bring the law down on someone, seems to be a trend lately.
Isab at May 18, 2019 5:28 AM
Where was the captain?...he was the legal command authority on the aircraft, and he obviously wasn't busy flying the plane.
David Foster at May 18, 2019 6:29 AM
There is a general problem that there seems to be nothing in between annoyance and potentially lethal force. When they dragged that guy off the United flight 2 yrs ago he got really injured. Any time you call the cops, if the person resists (or even doesn't) there is the chance that he will go to jail or even be killed. Eric Garner was selling single cigs and died during the confrontation. People who had a wreck because they passed out (diabetic coma for example) are routinely roughly dragged from the car and beat for not obeying a command (that they cannot obey). So calling the cops on kids selling lemonade or boys shoveling snow (2 items from last year's news) is a potentially serious thing to do.
cc at May 18, 2019 8:59 AM
Wow—i’d Be in jail for life if smart-Alec remarks were grounds for arrest.
KateC at May 18, 2019 9:05 AM
Powerless assholes exerting power over customers trapped with no options.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at May 18, 2019 4:06 PM
Love to hear her side of the story
NicoleK at May 18, 2019 9:10 PM
So would I, NicoleK.
But then, we can't be sure she would tell the truth.
In a remote way, it reminds me of cashiers who are having a bad day and, when they make mistakes, take it out on the customers.
From an old thread, elsewhere:
Why do cashiers ask "do you want your change"?
It usually happens when the change is less than a nickel. Again, there are times I don't quibble - such as in a cheap, open-air produce market where it says "3 lbs. for 99 cents." (Though in the market I go to, most such signs have been replaced with "3 lbs. for $1.") However, when we're talking about an indoor store with electronic scales and modern cash registers, aside from the obvious rudeness in such cases, haven't the cashiers ever heard of a little word called "bookkeeping"?
P.S. I heard one student from a prestigious university tell how that happened to her at the CVS next to the campus - she said when she asked for her change, the cashier glared at her as if to say "what does a privileged kid like YOU need it for?"
lenona at May 20, 2019 1:45 PM
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