JetBlue and TSA pay $240,000 to man refused boarding because of Arabic writing on shirt
JetBlue and the TSA have settled a lawsuit brought by a man who was refused boarding on an airplane because he was wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it (the TSA said that this was like "wearing a T-shirt at a bank stating, 'I am a robber.'"). They've paid him $240,000.
Only 14 days until we get a change in administration. Maybe the new guys will appoint someone who understands that Arabic writing doesn't make airplanes fall out of the sky. Kudos to the ACLU for kicking ass and taking names on this one.
The lawsuit claimed Jarrar, 30, invoked the First Amendment but acquiesced after it became clear to him that he would not be allowed to fly if he did not cover his shirt with one given to him by JetBlue officials.TSA, JetBlue Pay $240,000 to Settle Discrimination Suit"All people in this country have the right to be free of discrimination and to express their own opinions," Jarrar wrote on his blog. "With this outcome, I am hopeful that TSA and airlines officials will think twice before practicing illegal discrimination and that other travelers will be spared the treatment I endured."
the latest
latest episodes
golly. i try to teach my kid to trust authority figures, but stories like this one make me feel silly for doing so.
i try to teach my kid to trust authority figures
Are you mad?
heh! the joke is it wasn't Arabic, just squiggles!
You're a tool, Kip! And you're an asshole, Chertoff!
I have a shirt that has Arabic writing on it. Do you guys think if I wear it next time I fly someplace I could get a large payout like this dude?
If you feign indignation, like it's happening to you for the very first time.
You must eradicate from your mind that you read this previous story. Then you'll get the payout.
Arabic writing doesn't cause planes to crash.
That's gay marriage.
Cool, $240,000 just for wearing a t-shirt.
Sign me up.
$250,000?
Somebody is a robber!
Is $250K enough to deter these Organizations from doing this sort of thing in the future?
Maybe 25 or 250 million would be more appropriate, make these guys really think twice...
"We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace!" (Leaflet 4's concluding phrase, which became the motto of the White Rose resistance).
"We will not be silent" has been put on t-shirts in many languages (among them Arabic, Spanish, French, Hebrew, and Persian) in protest against the U.S. war in Iraq. This shirt, in the English-Arabic version, led, in 2006, to the Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar's being prevented from boarding a Jet Blue airplane from New York to his home in San Francisco, until he changed his shirt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose
Yeah, but is a quarter of a million bucks worth the cost of being on the No-Fly list forever?
This is unfortunate and inconvenient if he visits family on the othr side of the Rockies every year or so; but it's loss of livelihood if his job involves regular visits to trade shows, sales conventions, academic seminars, or even a quarterly visit to the Head Office.
The TSA has arbitrary powers of extrajudicial punishment that have no appeal mechanism or expiry, and I suspect that other arms of government have acquired such powers since 2001. Maybe BoingBoing should list them all - if it's even possible to know them all.
Talk about insult to injury, they have to write the check with Arabic numerals!
small typo Cory : "writing doesn't ake airplanes fall out of the sky." should be "writing doesn't Make airplanes fall out of the sky."
"Only 14 days until we get a change in administration."
I think I've only commented once on BoingBoing, so I'm sure I will be relentlessly flamed for saying this, but aren't you a Canadian living in England, Cory? Whose administration are we talking about here?
Back on topic, people are stupid and this guy should have been allowed on the plane, but he certainly doesn't deserve $240K just because he wasn't.
I bought that t-shirt way back when and have worn it through security at least three times without so much as a blink. Of course, I'm a tall, pale, red-headed, Scottish-looking dude. This wasn't about the writing. It was racial profiling. I believe at the time someone used the term "inconveniently brown".
I've been wearing my t-shirt with "Infidel" in Arabic for years with no problems.
A new administration will not solve any of these problems that involve government employees. This is what happens when you put small people in jobs with large amounts of power over you. It's inevitable and there is nothing you can do about it. It is the script that they follow when carrying out their jobs. Not all contingencies can be accounted for so crap like this happens. You would expect that a supervisor would have employed some common sense but in the end he or she knows that refusing to let this person board the plane without the shirt being visible would not cost them their job. It is the same thing when school officials blindly follow the rules without thinking. Happens all the time. What are the odds of that changing?
TSA reminds me of the Chicken Little story;
"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
Stupid a$$holes!
That's no "...lousy T-Shirt"
Man, someone always thinks of the best scams before I do.
..."only 14 days until"...What?!? Yes, the Bushies will be out, but we've brought in the whole crew who recommended this mess that's been created. Why should we even consider things will be different?
The T-shirt was a local problem, caused by little morons backed by slightly bigger morons who have no real accountability to anyone. There has been no mention of any plans to fundamentally change the TSA - switching the talking head will not make things any different.
Spoken as a proud member of the soon-to-be placed on the No-Fly list.
Raed Jarrar works for the American Friends Service Committee as their advisor on Iraq in the D.C. policy office. He travels frequently to give lectures and interviews. The shirt he was wearing used to be available at the AFSC store but is not available any more. Here is AFSC's Website.
Please present evidence of *any* bank robber evar who wore a shirt that said 'I am a bank robber.'
So-called 'common sense' is usually conservative cover for being a paranoid racist duma**.
i remember when this happened feeling pretty good for the guy. I remember thinking
"this guy was just handed a lot of money, and the airline is going to get itself schooled"
DWITTSF said:
So I guess your point is that because no one has ever worn a shirt that says "I am a bank rober" that anyone that does wear such a shirt cannot be a bank robber?
As soon as we create a list of things that automatically exclude you from security checks (like your bank robber shirt example), then the bank robbers *will* wear just such a shirt.
Then again, if I could just get a shirt that says "I am not a tax cheat" and wear it to a Tax Audit, I guess they'll have to let me go...
You then went on and said:
Uhm, no, it isn't. It was faulty logic, and the judge agreed (rightly so, though I am troubled by the sum involved). Remember, the man was allowed on the plane and did get to his destination, but he had to suffer the indignity of wearing a JetBlue-supplied shirt over his own.
The folks that think this will change in two weeks seem to be assuming that there is some secret directive from the White House to harass certain individuals on domestic flights, and that the new administration will, immediately upon entering the White House, recind this secret directive... I agree with JOHNNYL and NONFORD150, the new administration won't change this.
Alas I doubt very much anything will change.
-abs is remarkably cynical where the TSA is concerned, after all they've proven they don't care about much something costs so why anyone would assume that lawsuit costs would stop or even slow them down is beyond -abs
While I think it is great he won the $240,000 settlement, and it is a kick in the balls to the Transportation Security Administration (and to a lesser degree JetBlue who is between a rock and a hard place with the TSA as airport security puppet masters), we have to realize as taxpayers, TSA is spending our money as payment for their idiotic actions.
#14 - Well, the rest of us also have to deal with the american administration, whether we like it or not. Heck, it often feels like your government has more of an effect on us than our own does.
Wow. Good thing they didn't know I was listening to oud music on my ipod last time I flew, because anything that comes from that part of the world is, you know. . . "suspect."
One of these days I'm going to have the guts to wear my old Vampire CCG shirt to the airport.
From the days when it was called Jyhad. That and the picture of the fanged skull on the front should go over swimmingly.
Off to go t-shirt shopping...
I work for the TSA for 5 years. Until last Jan 08. And we are soppuse to go threw training for things like this ( stuff that looks like IED'S But the seem to be more interested in teaching us on how to look for water bottles and anything that looked like for things that was over 3.4 oz with Liquids in them. Yes we had some training on IED's But if you request for the outcome of the test that they ran on us (the red team) we would only catch maybe 9 out of 10 at the most. And I'm telling you the truth and if you don't think I'm tellint you the truth. you can email and I will send you my phone number or set up an interview. And tell you hpw much mone is being wasted on stuff that has nothing to do with security. But I can tell you how they are wasting money on stuff that can be done buy someone else. tham by someone making at least $32.000 + These people can be on the check point and someone making $10.00 can do these other stuff. This stuff is not SSI stuff these are thing like taking pop can back to Meijers and taking stuff to the recycle center( the recycle center will come and pick up the recycle) I have alot more of this stuff going on. When they should be trained to look for IED'S
thanks for here me. But I sure hope someone Like the press or BOB BALL will read this and maybe someone will do some thing about this. Again My name is Guy Garver and hope the press will get with me.
...why thank you Guy, I'm sure someone will...