Imagine returning from vacation with your granddaughter only to be treated like a criminal thanks to a nosy passenger and a reactionary police officer.
Last year I wrote about a man who was falsely accused of human trafficking on a United Airlines flight, ostensibly because he had dark skin and his baby had light skin. Earlier this week, another incident occurred, this time on Southwest Airlines.
A man (62) and his partner (52) were traveling from Baltimore to New Orleans on July 15th with their granddaughter, who they have legal custody over and are raising.
During the flight, a man sitting behind them began asking a series of questions about their granddaughter. Where was she from? Where does she go to school? What grade is she in? Sadly, this was not just small talk. Shortly thereafter, he walked to the back of plane, returning a few minutes later to his seat. Turns out he had not used the lavatory…
When the plane landed in New Orleans, the man behind them was asked to move to a bulkhead seat and wait. When the three stepped off, they were met by three Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Deputies. They were asked to stop at the end of the jet bridge. When asked what was wrong, the officers refused to explain.
Detention After Landing
One man was separated from his partner and granddaughter. The sheriffs were skeptical about the relationship between the three. The man explained that he and his partner had custody of his granddaughter and had been taking care of her since she was seven weeks old. The sheriff responded that someone had tipped them off to potential human trafficking and asked for ID plus paperwork demonstrating the couple had custody of the girl.
As it turns out, perhaps in fear of precisely this kind of incident, both men had two forms of ID (passport and Global Entry card) and also had the custody paperwork. The three were returning from vacation in Canada.
But that wasn’t enough. Despite having IDs with matching addresses and paperwork which appeared to be in order, the sheriff’s treated the men as guilty until proven innocent, refusing to return their ID and barking at them to wait until a supervisor arrived.
The supervisor arrived, separated the men from their granddaughter, called one of the men “boy” for asking why he was being detained, and threatened to detain them if either one said another word. He added he would not let them go until a background check was performed. In case you are wondering, the couple is white, not black.
A half hour passed, the supervisor returned, handed the IDs back, and walked away. No apology or even explanation for the way they had been treated.
The family is now afraid to get on another flight. They were returning from a trip to Canada and had experienced no problems at the Canadian or U.S. border.
Please Encourage This Family To Go On The Record
I want this couple to go on the record with their names. I have a family picture and the names, which I am not publishing out of respect for their wishes. But stories like this need to be told.
Can we say for certain it was because they were not young parents or because they were homosexual? Well, it has to be one of the two or both, doesn’t it? Because no one would ever stop my wife and me with little Augustine. And in either case such suspicion was not justified.
Are Southwest flight attendants so timid that they cannot show a little discernment before reporting a family to the police?
In this political climate, many feel emboldened to resist change. But there is a great dignity deficit in this country that seems to be worsening. No matter your views on what a proper family should resemble or the definition of marriage, all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. All people should be presumed innocent until proven guilty. And we must always treat others the way we would want to be treated.
No one should live in fear of man because of their sexual orientation.
Please leave a comment below and encourage this couple to go on the record. More people need to hear their story.
image: Tomás Del Coro / Wikimedia Commons
I believe this should be the other way… ¨All people should be presumed guilty until proven innocent.¨ 😉
Indeed. I’ve made the correction! Thanks.
“A half hour passed”? I’m not inclined to think they were treated that poorly. Nosey neighbor is an idiot but what if the situation was actually an attempted trafficking issue? Imagine the outrage if the couple was of minority origin! (Yes I am minority myself). Hardly exclusive. I would presume the TSA does worse on a daily basis. Yawn.
Yes, what if I relieved myself of common sense, developed homophobic tendencies, and reported anyone and everyone? It’s nice to be comforted by a “what if” scenario devoid of rationality and decency. Thank god there are people like you to provide examples things that are just so much worse that makes this inconsequential in comparison.
You might want to slowly pull your head out of your butt. Don’t worry, it’s self guiding. Just the fact that the sexual orientation of the two accused was mentioned completely invalidates this whole story. No one cares if they’re Caucasian or African-American either. It seems the major point of this article being written actually has nothing to do with the real issue. Flight attendants have to act on these types of communications, commonsense dictates that anyone could be a potential harm to a child. If that were my child in an actual kidnap or trafficking situation I would be forever grateful to the passenger who tipped off the flight attendant, The flight attendant, and the law-enforcement involved. Just saying…
PS. A gay couple i know go through this all the time. They are prepared with documentation. Is it a hassle? Sure. sometimes they are stopped/flagged by customs and not the “nosey neighbor” in this situation.
“No matter your views on what a proper family should resemble or the definition of marriage, all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”
I agree. In a perfect world, law enforcement would have been efficient and professional in dealing with this situation.
As far as who gets hassled, I know one couple turned away from entering Mexico. The baby’s birth certificate didn’t list a father. The mother was travelling with a man (they were not married) and the agents were worried about kidnapping. The couple (and the baby) were middle class and white.
“Because no one would ever stop my wife and me with little Augustine.” Not exactly the same but my then 4 yo son was grilled by an aggressive boarder control agent upon entering Puerto Rico from the British Virgin Islands. We are a married (white) couple and our son looks exactly like his father/my husband. It happens.
Yep. On the record. I guess I don’t blame them for not wanting to, but silence = acceptance, and this isn’t something that should be tolerated.
The cops should not have been rude, but if you’re arguing that two old guys with a little girl shouldn’t be questioned by authorities if someone with good intentions suspects human trafficking may be involved, I’m going to disagree.
I just got back from Israel. They definitely stereotype certain travelers and subject them to more security in the airport. Is it inconvenient? Yes. Is it effective? It sure appears to be. I’m ethnically Chinese with a US passport and was subject to additional screening for 20 mins because I had UAE and Turkey stamps on my passport. I get it, it makes sense.
In a perfect world, a gay couple wouldn’t be bothered just because they are gay. Then again, if there is a perfect world, why there would be a gay in it?
Could you keep your homophobic comments to yourself?
They need to go on the record.
We also need to defend them. “First they came…”
I’m sure there is more to the story like usual however I would find it a little bit odd for two old men to be traveling with a young girl regardless of race or anything else. Sounds like an impolite cop but beyond that I think it is better safe than sorry when it comes to human traffic issues. If my young granddaughter was kidnapped and being taken out of the area by two old men I hope someone would ask a few questions at least. I’m surprised the FA’s didn’t catch this on their own actually.
Calling a man of any age a “boy” isn’t always racist. There is an odd language barrier in the New Orleans area with a mix of Southern and Cajun.
I agree with the above. A rational response.
Shocked at the number of apologists leaving comments on this post. This entire situation is indefensible..
There are two possible outcomes: (i) someone innocent is wrongly investigated and inconvenienced, and (ii) a child becomes a victim of human trafficking. We can all agree that (i) is likely to happen more often than (ii). That’s not a reason to risk (ii).
Police definitely need some training on the subject; talk about rude and obnoxious.
I’m with you Lance. I’m putting this in the homophobia category. I can’t believe it’s agism.
They showed their Id’s and paperwork. They should have been apologized to and let go. Instead they were threatened with arrest, bullied, separated and detained. When these cops couldn’t find anything wrong they just walked away. Let’s see all these, “Oh they shouldn’t complain” people ever get treated in this manner and just say take it in stride.
Disgusting.
I encourage this couple to please step forward. They will be shining a light on some very despicable behavior that obviously is tolerated by far too many.
Yes, please go on record! Let love win, stand up to hate and discrimination by standing tall in who you!
And to the author, the end of your article says “All people should be presumed guilty until proven innocent” but I think you meant it “All people should be presumed innocent until proven guilty.”
That’s indeed what I meant. Thanks Kenz.
New Orleans was a pretty unfortunate place for this to happen. The cops there are not helpful and are generally rude. (Once in NOLA, I was punched by a drunk person in the chest for not buying him frozen yogurt [yes, seriously], and the cop standing outside said “why don’t you just beat him up.” He was serious.). Obviously, the police were abusing their authority in this “Terry stop.”
That said, there is obvious stereotyping going on here. I’m not sure it’s reasonably suspicious just because two men were traveling with a young girl. I don’t think human traffickers are generally so obvious. It seems like it would be easy for the airline to make some discrete inquiries that would have dispelled the notion that these individuals were traffickers. Certainly, the police did far more than was necessary to end the reasonableness of the detention.
The South is anti-gay…plain and simple.
In their minds they see two men who are gay and the obvious thought is men molesting children. Because in the South – that’s the obvious view of gay people.
Sad that this couple have to travel with “proof”. When they showed the “proof” to the obviously biased law enforcement officers, they should have been treated respectfully. I understand protocols of separating the couple for questioning – but it should have been done respectfully.
Sad.
Nothing is ever as “plain and simple” as it appears.
I am gay, and I’ve lived in Atlanta and San Francisco with my husband for 15 years and 17 years, respectively. I do not believe that Atlanta is any more anti-gay than San Francisco. The difference is that people don’t feel quite as safe expressing their anti-gay views in San Francisco. Regardless, Atlanta is a much better place to live. San Francisco has been completely ruined by all the self-obsessed techies.
To the couple who suffered this.
Please come forward. Your treatment was inhuman and unprofessional. You’ve done nothing wrong but the police who treated you soo poorly certainly have and unless you step into the light they will continue to be thugs in uniform. They will continue to abuse those whom they have power over and the fact they are getting away with it will embolden them.
I can understand why you would prefer to remain anonymous. But if you can muster the courage to stand and fight you will find friends you never expected standing with you. Your courage may prevent this from happening to someone else.
The problem with this article, is that it doesn’t acknowledge the high rates of human trafficking that happen in the US. Trafficking is highest around sports events, and the highest rate of trafficking is at golf events. Who’s at golf events? Old white men. I think there’s nothing wrong with a nosey neighbor stopping to make sure the little girl was okay. Even the police have certainly seen their fair share of fake IDs and wanted to make sure this family was legitimate . I have a mixed-race son and if I ever travel alone with him make sure I have all the documentation I need. I would rather be stopped because that helps me know that real traffickers are being stopped in the mix as well. Another problem with this article is that by not addressing the real issue of human trafficking, it’s kind of relegating it to the world of Hispanic or perhaps gang affiliations, which in and of itself is racist.
I say error on the side of caution first in regards to human trafficking, however that doesn’t mean treat people like crap. There’s a better way to get the information they needed to confirm everything.
I am the grandfather in this incident. The 4 police officers were immediately given Passport cards, and Global entry cards on all three of us. In addition, our Louisiana drivers license was supplied. It should have been over at that point. “Have a nice day, Sorry for the delay” Instead, we were detained for 35 minutes all the while being told we were not being detained. We were separated from our granddaughter who was upset. She tried to come to us and was hollered at by the supervisor to go over there and sit. Bottom line, we never want her to go thru this trauma again. Airlines need a system in place to protect unorthodox familes from being falsely reported. It should not have gotten to this level when we are known to the airline ie, frequent flyer and a customer for 30 years.
@Bill: Please come forward. You and your family deserve a proper apology because this should have never happened.
Disgraceful and shows that the reality of marriage equality is a ‘name only’ deal. I can understand that they value their privacy but they should be encouraged to ‘go public’, to send a clear and unequivocal message to these busybodies and martinets that there are limits to what is tolerable….and these people way overstepped the mark.
I’m more interested in what happened to the passenger who reported this in the first place.
If he reported this, then he should have to remain there with the family and explain to them why he feels they were worth reporting.
If we’re going to waste people’s time then everyone should be subject to it.
I just got the police report. Phil, the man asked not to be identified but said he was a former law enforcement officer. He reported that we appeared to be using drugs, and my granddaughter was listless, dishelved, and out of place, How he can make that observation with her headphones on and consumed with a game on her ipad the whole flight, is crazy. From his angle behind us, he could not see anything about her except the back of her head and her Bose earphones. Nothing in the report states any Southwest Staff member agreed with him, nor did the police report indicate the police agreed. Lots of unanswered questions for Southwest. Waiting on their reply.
I”m not sure in what world a 52-year-old is too “old” to be traveling with a child, and a 62-year-old man is hardly “old” himself. And how is traveling with grandpa suspect anyway? Isn’t flying to visit your grandparents a very common reason to see children on planes anyway.
Regardless, the United States is theoretically a free country, and I see no reason a police officer should ever treat anybody that way. I hope the couple does decide to come forward. This has nothing to do with “the South,” and everything to do with police officers thinking they have more power than they really do. Jefferson Parish is a nice part of metro NOLA, which is a pretty tolerant city to begin with. JPSO shouldn’t get off the hook for this one. Local and national media will certainly come to the aid of the subject passengers.
I’m honestly disgusted by the people who have left comments to the effect that we should accept bigotry because it’s more convenient. As a federal employee who has been through a LOT of mandatory training on the subject, allow me to explain. People are not suspicious because of WHO THEY ARE. They should only be treated as suspicious because of WHAT THEY ARE DOING. I hope the difference is clear. Two men with a child is not suspicious. Does the child appear to know the men? Does the child appear in distress?
Gay families are used to traveling with documentation proving our relationships because we expect to be judged because of who we are. That is unfortunate, but not by itself a problem in day-to-day life. The actions of the police were absolutely unacceptable, and unconstitutional. You may be stopped by the police if there is suspicion that you may have committed a crime. Providing evidence of custody over the child would have alleviated suspicion, thereby obviating the right of the police to further detain the gentlemen and their granddaughter.
There are several types here, it really takes away from the seriousness of your piece.
Maria , please explain
I see your typo Maria. But where are mine?
Here’s one: “A half four passed…”
Your welcome.
Thank you for “you’re” help!