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."
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
It's all intentional too. They want to muddy the waters, and make words like "grooming" meaningless. And they've largely succeeded.
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.
Also when could conservatives get things wrong, it's usually on purpose.
As the saying goes.
The cruelty is the point.
See The Sound of Freedom
I'm disinclined to acquiesce to your request.
Means "no".
See as in example, not endorse. I now realize my poor choice of words.
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.
Yes, American Airlines employees have human trafficking spotting training.
I cannot comment if it is any good.
Edit: Yes, I can. It is clearly lacking.
The trainig:
How common is human trafficking on commercial domestic flights? Seems like it would be one of the worst travel options for traffickers, for a lot of reasons.
Not uncommon.
You can go all the way across the country in a few hours.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is good info. Thank you!
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.
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!
I'm getting off on the next stop.
Because of the duty to report?
No, they're just skiplagging.
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.
It's okay, I was just making a joke.
Well, shit. Now, I've got egg on my face.
Can we still do r/whoosh? 😁
Sure. Woah! What was that thing that just flew over your head? Look it's on the ground now, looks like you dropped your gullibility!
🙏🌿
Hahahah We're now best friends!
You wanna go throw some disc?
I'm game!
My comment was deleted? Weird, I can still see it and didn't get a notification.
I know your comment has been deleted, but I'd like to just tell you in person to first, take a big step back… and literally, FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!
So this is kind of embarrassing… but… um
^I can't reach. is that normal?^
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.
If you're boycotting airlines for being shitty, you should probably just drive.
We need more trains. Trains are a solution.
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.
Username does not check out.
You can't drive over the ocean, silly.
Look at fancy pants over here, too good to swim alongside the rest of the squid.
Have you ever met those guys? Bunch of assholes.
Good work Johnson! Now sprinkle some crack on him and let's go.
Sad to see this happen to this black father. Racism likely played a role.
Good candidate for understatement of the year.
Gee, you think?
Their new motto:
If you see something… be racist.
American
AirlinesHistory X
Isn't this the second time this has been in the news this year but now another incident? What's with these airline employees?
This is a separate incident.
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WTF is going on with these airlines lately?
Air Canada passengers removed for refusing to sit on vomit-soiled seats
lately
You're kidding, right?
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.
Sue them for making false reports. They'll stop eventually.
Well wait… was the musician r Kelly?
