Two people on a plane to Britain, apparently Asian or Middle Eastern, were taken off the plane because other passengers, racist to the core, thought they were acting “suspiciously.” The two weren’t, and even the Brit version of Homeland Security thought the other passengers to be insane.
The Conservative homeland security spokesman, Patrick Mercer, described the incident as “a victory for terrorists”.
“These people on the flight have been terrorised into behaving irrationally,” he told the Mail on Sunday.
“For those unfortunate two men to be victimised because of the colour of their skin is just nonsense.”
Had this happened here in the States, Homeland Security no doubt would have made it a flashing red terror alert and Cheney would have used it as an excuse to attack Democrats.
My question: Were the hysterical racists who delayed the flight questioned? And maybe arrested? If not, why not?
Having vigilante passengers take over planes is a really bad idea. That they were clueless racists scared silly by all the phony terror alerts just makes it even worse. Flying is enough of a pain now with all the security checks, Will we now have to worry about our fellow passengers going berserk with fear too?
Terrorist attacks happen. But we don’t have to live in fear. Nor buy into the diseased crap spread by politicians wanting to exploit terrorism for their own manipulative ends. Could an attack happen here in Los Angeles where I live? Sure. However, what’s the point in living in fear about it? That’s what the racists on the plane were doing. Living in fear. Fear clouds your judgment and then you do stupid things, just like they did. If you stay out of the fear, then your ability to cope and deal with situations increases dramatically.
“Paranoia strikes deep/ into your life it will creep/ it starts when you’re always afraid…”
Lets not forget that fear grips the paranoid on land too, as middle-eastern people cannot even appear to be filming tall buildings or landmarks without being flagged as potential terrorists and have their tapes confiscated. Truly retarded paranoia. I even joke to a friend of mine who believes all these measures are actually making the world safer that it will come to the point that people will start flying naked in order to “improve” security. Retarded idea, but were this government given 8 more years it might just as well happen.
What is deeply worrying is that the passengers who objected may not have been dyed-in-the-wool racists, but ordinary people who, through fear have been made into racists by the terror hysteria, which shows no signs of abating.
There have been other similar cases, and some noble ones of aircrew telling the objectors to bugger off, like this guy.
Will the war on terror bring back segregation?
If this were to happen in the states, sources tell me that it would be ignored by any press. In Britain, this sort of thing is taken rather seriously and reported (out of proportion, perhaps), whereas in America, the obsession is still the young Ms Benet-Ramsey.