United passenger's T-shirt alluding to lynching journalists stirs debate over on-board threats

[Eugene]

Source: CNBC

United passenger’s T-shirt alluding to lynching journalists stirs debate over on-board threats

PUBLISHED MON, OCT 14 2019 1:19 PM EDT UPDATED MON, OCT 14 2019 8:07 PM EDT
Leslie Josephs

A United Airlines customer has complained that the airline didn’t remove a fellow passenger who wore a T-shirt that suggested that journalists be lynched.

The passenger, who asked that his name not be used because he said he was worried about receiving threats, sent CNBC a picture of the other traveler who was wearing a T-shirt that said “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.” He said he told a flight attendant as he made his way to his seat and said that he considered it a death threat.

Jessica Sidman
✔
@jsidman
My brother is on a @united flight from LA to Boston and saw this guy boarding with a shirt that reads “Rope. Tree. Journalist. Some assembly required.”

Link to tweet

The issue shows how flight crews are tasked with assessing offensive or threatening passenger behavior or messages.

Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents around 50,000 flight attendants across 20 airlines, including those at United, blamed President Donald Trump’s attacks on media outlets for new challenges flight attendants are facing.

Friday’s episode on board the United flight “is not a focus of our training because no one would have guessed that someone would feel emboldened to do such a thing,” said Nelson, who is also a United flight attendant. “It is a direct result of the behavior of the president and those of us on the front lines of aviation are facing new conflicts and dangers at work because of it. It is inexcusable and we condemn the statements made against journalists.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/14/united-airlines-oks-passenger-with-lynching-journalists-t-shirt.html

[we can do it]

1. One more reason I don't fly United.

[thecrow]

5. One more reason I have stopped flying

The possibility of one of these raw idiots getting into a verbal or physical altercation with another passenger in a little aluminum tube in the sky

As my deaf departed cousin used to say, “Not my cuppa”!

[rainin]

2. Remember this?

https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/woman-wearing-romper-american-airlines-flight-asked-off-64269129

I don't believe they are unprepared to respond. They are afraid of right wingers. Apparently, they are unafraid of throwing a black woman off a plane...for wearing a romper.

I realize these are two different airlines, but all airlines are trained to handle threats and disturbances. There is just no fairness in how they respond.

[gratuitous]

3. "No one would have guessed . . ."

Sara Nelson, your wake-up call just called. From 1981.

[Initech]

4. Ugh, there is no end to the depths of their depravity.

[Major Nikon]

6. I met Sara Nelson two months ago

She is a very intense individual.

[2naSalit]

7. But people speaking

a non-English language, or with an accent, or wearing a turban or hijab could all get tossed off a flight if a white person is scared of them.

[MineralMan]

8. That asshole is free to wear his death threat T-shirt.

I'm free to introduce myself to him as a journalist and see what he says or does, too. I am a journalist, or was, at least, for many, many years. I'd say, "Hello, there. I see by your t-shirt that you think journalists should be executed. I am a journalist. Please explain what your shirt means. Do you think I should be executed? How about Sean Hannity?"

I'd be interested in his reaction to that. Very interested.

[maxsolomon]

10. "Hannity's not a Journalist."

And he'd be correct. He's a Propagandist.

[NoPasaran]

9. Sometimes I miss the old days

When men wore suits if they were traveling by air. Yes, they could have been chock full of hatred and stupidity inside, but at least they kept it to themselves.

[smirkymonkey]

11. K&R

It's sickening that he wasn't yanked off that plane for the safety of everyone involved. I would not have felt safe flying with someone like that.