Flier wins $240,000 settlement over t-shirt flap

[RamboLiberal]

Source: USA Today

NEW YORK (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union said Monday JetBlue Airways Corp. and the Transportation Security Administration paid $240,000 to a man who claimed he was discriminated against based on his ethnicity and Arabic writing on his T-shirt.

Raed Jarrar alleged that the TSA and JetBlue officials prevented him from boarding a flight out of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport in August 2006 until he agreed to cover his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in English and Arabic. Jarrar also claimed JetBlue eventually allowed him on the flight, but then made him sit at the back of the plane.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Jarrar's behalf in August 2007.

A JetBlue spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on the settlement.

TSA and JetBlue agreed to settle the case for $240,000 late last month and delivered the settlement to Jarrar on Friday, the ACLU said.



Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-01-05-jetblue-tsa-settlement_N.htm

---

Good and glad to see TSA is paying.

[keopeli]

1. LOL - that was an expensive moment of corporate racism. n/t

[DCKit]

3. Hit the haters in their wallet and we'll see change.

Prince William county, VA has enacted some really outlandish anti-illegal alien laws and are taking a real financial hit from the mass exodus from their tax rolls. In one elementary school, student/teacher ratios are now below 10/1. It's not sustainable and "good, Xian, white people" aren't flocking to fill the empty houses and apartments.

[L0oniX]

2. Gotta love it

:evilgrin:

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. My USAmerican landlady should read this - and think a bit - -

.
.
.

[Poll_Blind]

5. Great news! n/t

PB

[get the red out]

6. Wow - Terrorist Tee shirts

I guess we need to worry about those terrorist tee shirts. How idiotic. It is good they have to pay up.

[Xipe Totec]

7. My son was refused boarding at Harlingen Airport

until he removed a button, which the TSA considered inflammatory.

The button said:

"Stop the Violence"

[zelta gaisma]

8. i thought it was illegal to send dark/dusky skinned people to the back of the bus err plane..

[RC]

9. Dat's only black people.

We're talking brown people here.

[zelta gaisma]

10. oh well then, that makes all the difference...NOT

[kas125]

11. I have the same shirt, so do most of my friends. We got them

after that happened to Raed Jarrar, who is one of the best speakers I've ever heard in my entire life and he works tirelessly to end the war. I'm very glad to know that he finally got a small amount of justice.

[tomg]

35. While I've never heard him speak,

I've read his blog off and on for a few years. I have to admit, I haven't followed it lately ( so many great writers, so little time). He really is a worker for peace. I'm actually surprised that more posters aren't aware of just who the TSA decided to screw around with. Actually, I have a feeling that that is why he was harassed.

A snip from his bio on Huffington:

"Raed Jarrar is an architect and political analyst currently based in Washington DC. He was born in Baghdad and spent most of his life in Iraq, where he obtained his first degree in architecture at the University of Baghdad. His Master's thesis in architecture from the University of Jordan examined local methods of reconstruction in post-war Iraq. After the 2003 invasion, Raed Jarrar was the country director of CIVIC Worldwide, the only door-to-door casualty survey in post war Iraq. He also established an NGO called "Emaar" that carried out work in Baghdad and the nine cities of the south in coordinating with local authorities, community leaders and other NGOs
. . . Jarrar is also an analyst and contributing writer for Foreign Policy in Focus and a member of the steering committee of the NY-based coalition United For Peace and Justice."

[Swagman]

12. Passenger forced to cover Arabic T-shirt receives $330,000 compensation

Source: smh.com.au

Passenger forced to cover Arabic T-shirt receives $330,000 compensation

January 6, 2009 - 4:10PM
An airline passenger forced to cover his T-shirt because it displayed Arabic script has been awarded US$240,000 (A$337,000) in compensation, campaigners said Monday.

Raed Jarrar received the pay out on Friday from two US Transportation Security Authority officials and from JetBlue Airways following the August 2006 incident at New York's JFK Airport, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced.

"The outcome of this case is a victory for free speech and a blow to the discriminatory practice of racial profiling," said Aden Fine, a lawyer with ACLU.

Jarrar, a US resident, was apprehended as he waited to board a JetBlue flight from New York to Oakland, California, and told to remove his shirt, which had written on it in Arabic: "We will not be silent."

He was told other passengers felt uncomfortable because an Arabic-inscribed T-shirt in an airport was like "wearing a T-shirt at a bank stating, `I am a robber,'" the ACLU said.

Jarrar eventually agreed to cover his shirt with another provided by JetBlue. He was allowed aboard but his seat was changed from the front to the back of the aircraft.
***********************************
Airline bans Muslims from flight after misunderstanding
January 5, 2009
Nine Muslims, including three children, were ordered off a domestic US flight after two other passengers heard one of the Muslims make what they believed were suspicious remarks about security, US media reported Friday.

The passengers, eight of whom are US citizens, were in Washington Thursday afternoon on an AirTran flight bound for Orlando, Florida where they were to attend a religious retreat, and were eventually cleared for travel by the FBI, The Washington Post reported.
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/airline-bans-muslims-from-flight-after-misunderstanding-20090105-7a2h.html



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/travel/passenger-forced-to-cover-arabic-tshirt-receives-330000-compensation-20090106-7b15.html

[AllHereTruth]

13. For a t-shirt.

Quarter Million for a FUCKING shirt. Really?

Were they intolerant? Yes.
Should the accused be reprimanded? Yes.
Should he be given a few free flights be the accused airline? Yes.

Does ANYONE deserve quarter fucking million dollars for covering up a t-shirt? NO. NO. No.

Come on. Really?

[Connonym]

20. think of it the other way

it's not about the guy getting 1/4 million for the T shirt, it's about the airline being forced to pay 1/4 million for being dumbasses. It takes big money to get them to pay attention. And really, how much are you willing to sell your freedom of speech for?

[dcindian]

27. Not nearly enough for bigotry

They should spend time in jail.

[Lance_Boyle]

36. apparently TSA and JetBlue thought they should pay it

settlement, right, not an award? Although as an award it would be appropriate, too. Punitive, not compensatory.

[Richard D]

14. Ok, wow . . .

now, I'm doing some flying this summer. Where can I get that t-shirt????

[kas125]

16. It's this one -

https://codepink.rdsecure.org/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=1&products_id=123

[Sultana]

19. the TSA are dumb as hell

:crazy:

[Hawkowl]

15. As an airline captain

I applaud this decision! TSA just needs swastika armbands to make their uniforms complete.

[Sultana]

17. I need to get a shirt w/ arabic script that says "I love peace" or something

I'll be flying soon :D

[sandnsea]

18. You can wear an "I am a robber"

t-shirt in a bank. Some people just need to get a life.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

21. Be back later - I'm going to go buy some stencils

$$$$

[Monk06]

22. Nickelback sucks in Arabic. Sure winner and a legitimate social comment

And good for $330,000. Sweet !!!!

[cboy4]

23. The incidents are in no way related,. So why are you combining

the two stories in the same thread?

[trumad]

24. Uh ohhhh...

Here's comes our Muslim Bigot.

Of course they're related numnuts.

[cboy4]

26. I'm not a Muslim bigot. I'm however not a Muslim apologist

who feels Muslims cannot possibly make mistakes.

I think it was wrong to make the person cover the Arabic on his t-shirt.

But I don't think it's smart for anybody of any ethnicity to be discussing plane crashes on board an airliner.

[fudge stripe cookays]

28. They never discussed plane crashes.

They wondered where the safest place on the airplane would be, in case it crashed. BIG difference. And you seem incapable of understanding just how wrong profiling is.

[cboy4]

29. No that's not a big difference, especially if they used the

"crash" word, which I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

I don't think anyone should be talking about what they were talking about.

But you and others can't stand the fact that I refuse to approve everything a Muslim does, just because they're Muslim and to do otherwise would be anti-Muslim.

And in fact, it would indicate I favor profiling.

Of course, it just couldn't be the fact that I don't believe Whites, Blacks, Asians, Indians, Arabs, Latinos, Russians, etc., should be using buzz words that have gotten people detained in airport terminals well before 9/11.

Ha fudge stripe cookays?

Try using your head.

[trumad]

30. Making shit up again...

plane crashes?

[cboy4]

31. You are such an apologist.

:scared:

[trumad]

32. And you're a bigot.

[cboy4]

33. Oh I know....what's wrong with me for being opposed to people

talking about airliners falling from the sky?

[fudge stripe cookays]

38. You're not.

You're being opposed to Middle Eastern people doing anything on a plane. If a white person said something about sitting next to the engine, you wouldn't have batted an eye.

That makes you a bigot.

[cboy4]

39. You can't be for real.

:thumbsdown:

[fudge stripe cookays]

40. Oh, I assure you I certainly can.

And am. It's your bigotry that is unbelievable.

[cboy4]

41. Good, then you sit next to the people talking about planes

plummeting out of the sky if it bothers you so little.

I had no idea being opposed to plane crash talk on a plane is considered bigotry. :crazy:

[tavalon]

25. Excellent!

The only way TSA and the American "Homeland Security" fuckups learn is through paying for this stupidity.

[newtothegame]

34. This is freakin AWESOME! So all I have to do is be offended by something and I can be set for LIFE!!

[High Plains]

37. No, that's incorrect. Sorry, dude.