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Mid-flight sexual play lands US couple afoul of anti-terrorism law

US | November 14

AFP - A couple's ill-concealed sexual play aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles got them charged with violating the Patriot Act, intended for terrorist acts, and could land them in jail for 20 years. According to their indictment, Carl Persing and Dawn Sewell were allegedly snuggling and kissing inappropriately, "making other passengers uncomfortable," when a flight attendant asked them to stop.

Ian - No, the Patriot Act isn't a bad law. Really!


Chickadee November 15, 2006 - 2:26am
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( categories: AgonistWire | USA: Homeland Security )

Some stories just leave you speechless

If the judge they stand in front of has, a lick of sense, this case will be thrown out with an admonishment to go forth and sin some more.

"Lord! What fools these Mortals be!"

Doug Richardson November 15, 2006 - 8:27am
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But if you read the story,

you'll discover that that couple was arrested because the man "threaten[ed] the flight attendant with 'serious consequences'" after being asked, a second time, to cease & desist.

If the judge has a lick of sense, the guy will draw some unpleasant community service, and hopefully learn that the Earth does not revolve around him.



"If you can’t trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and
not have to say why, then whom can you trust?" - Garrison Keillor

Rick November 15, 2006 - 8:39am
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If you read the story you

If you read the story you will discover that the man "only threatened the flight attendant with reporting him to his superiors on landing."

The problem with a ridiculous law like this is that it gives wildly inappropriate power to mischarge to people who shouldn't have that sort of power in the first place. I know lots of nice and competent FA's but for every couple of those there is at least one prone to hysterical distortion of their own sense of power.

hvd November 15, 2006 - 9:33am
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He said / he said.

I didn't mean to sound snarky; I wanted to point out that the arrest was for the meanness and not for the boinking. It's a typically titillating and misleading news headline. Talk about people in the position to misuse power - headline writers!



"If you can’t trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and
not have to say why, then whom can you trust?" - Garrison Keillor

Rick November 15, 2006 - 10:53am
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FBI investigates 40 year olds in-flight shenanigans

"The comment was enough to have the couple, both in their early 40s, arrested when the plane reached its destination in Raleigh, North Carolina, and charged with obstructing a flight attendant and with criminal association."

Hmm. There was boinking? Story doesn't say so. And where does the "criminal association" part enter into things? As for "serious consequences", I suppose the seriousness of such a threat is entirely relative and could range all the way from "Go to your room" to "Nobody move, or else". Certainly a consumer should be able to "threaten" someone with reporting them to management, without literally creating a federal case. Anyway, IMHO, there just might be more menacing things to pre-occupy the FBI, the airlines and, for that matter, the other passengers, than the in-flight hanky panky of a couple of 40 plus year olds, n'est pas? We should be so lucky!

Chickadee November 15, 2006 - 6:29pm
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Man fined for saying four-letter-word on flight

REUTERS - A 65-year-old Australian man was fined S$10,000 ($6,423) by a Singapore court for uttering the word "bomb" on a flight to Indonesia, The Straits Times reported on Wednesday.

Riccardo Paulin, a retiree, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to having asked a flight attendant "Where do you keep the bomb?" on a flight operated by Singapore regional carrier SilkAir to the Indonesian city of Surabaya, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said he made the remark after trying to find space in the overhead lockers.

Paulin was charged under the United Nations anti-terrorism regulations, which carry a maximum fine of S$100,000 or up to five years in jail or both.



"If you can’t trust a Methodist with absolute power to arrest people and
not have to say why, then whom can you trust?" - Garrison Keillor

Rick November 15, 2006 - 11:09am
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Woman kicked off plan for breastfeeding baby

BURLINGTON, Vt. - A woman who claims she was kicked off an airplane because she was breast-feeding her baby has filed a complaint against two airlines, her attorney said.

Emily Gillette, 27, of Santa Fe, N.M., filed the complaint with the Vermont Human Rights Commission late last week against Delta Air Lines and Freedom Airlines, said her attorney, Elizabeth Boepple. Freedom was operating the Delta flight between Burlington and New York City.

NBC

Chickadee November 15, 2006 - 7:23pm
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If it doesn't come from the beverage cart,

you can't have it.

"Lord! What fools these Mortals be!"

Doug Richardson November 16, 2006 - 7:48am
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It's an attitude

caused by the GWOT.
Look up H.R. 5533 and this.
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/resources/newsletters/liberty.shtml
http://www.909shot.com/ActionAlerts/S1873.htm
http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/wb/wb/xp-39477
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/009816.html
http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2005/12/cloaking_barda.html
Hello, Remax, I'm looking for a remote David Koresh style compound, can you help me out?

Lasthorseman November 15, 2006 - 8:23pm
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