Airplane row is racism says knife Sikh (NZ)

[struggle4progress]

... Jarnail Singh and a group of Sikh priests visiting from India got through security wearing their kirpans under their shirts at Auckland's domestic terminal without any problems and boarded their flight to Napier on Sunday afternoon.

Mr Singh said a woman sitting behind him spotted his kirpan sticking out and began shaking. "She said I had a knife and got panicked," Mr Singh said ...

The woman's husband notified cabin crew and the pilot asked the men to hand over their kirpans until they landed in Napier. They were given them back once all other passengers had got off the plane in Napier.

"Air New Zealand was very fair. It's just disappointing when one lady reacts like that and makes an issue out of it," Mr Singh said ...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421035

[struggle4progress]

1. Daggers taken onto domestic NZ flight

The Ministry of Transport says there is no reason to change the security policy which allowed a group of Sikh priests board a flight wearing ceremonial daggers.

The Civil Aviation Authority will investigate how the priests got on the Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Napier undetected.

The ministry's safety and security group manager Bruce Johnson says passengers are not screened before they board planes with fewer than 90 seats.

Mr Johnson says policy was decided after the 9-11 attacks in the United States because our domestic flights carry little risk.

http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/NewsDisplay/tabid/209/articleID/19550/Default.aspx

[Bonobo]

2. Here is a kirpan.

I'd be scared too.

[bananas]

12. I'd feel safer

Sikhs have been defending themselves from Muslim terrorists for a long time.

[Bonobo]

13. That's a scary knife, you got to admit.

[nemo137]

16. That's a bigass Kirpan.

Most of the ones I've seen have been ornamental, dull, and about the size of the little sock-knives people wear with kilts.

[Warpy]

3. Too many people are pig ignorant and see a turban

and can think of nothing but bin Laden and his gang.

The crew was great. Having them turn over the knives until the end of the flight was the most tactful way of handling the situation. Quite possibly, Sikh passengers will be requested to do that when they board planes from now on.

I'd be a whole lot less afraid of a Sikh with a kirpan than I am of loud drunks and air marshalls with guns.

[Donnachaidh]

4. if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck

A DAGGER is a DAGGER. Last time I looked it was a form of a knife.

Hey DUDE -- everybody else has to give up their sharp pointy objects. Asking you to do the same is NOT racism. It's the wonderful world of REALITY in air travel today.

[LeftyMom]

5. Of course it's not a racial issue.

Anybody with a wicked-looking knife ought to make a body nervous, excluding obvious work/utility knives worn by people who seem to have good reason to have them.

Since there's no reason for anybody to have anything bigger than a swiss army knife (and I think even those are forbidden) on an airplane, nervousness is a reasonable thing, especially if one weren't familiar with the Sikh religion or the kirpan. (I happen to be, since the central valley has more Sikhs than anyplace outside of India, but many people probably aren't.)

[Poll_Blind]

7. When you say "exclusing obvious work/utility knifes"...like boxcutters?

Reason why I bring this up is that boxcutters weren't just used on 9/11. In bigger cities, and sometimes in smaller ones, boxcutters have been used in lieu of a traditional knife because they're very easy to conceal and people don't have the same reaction to say a wicked-looking curved ceremonial knife. They're just as nasty, though, as their bigger cousins. Knife wounds are hideous and it doesn't have to be a big blade to cause life-threatening wounds which could cause a person to lose consciousness faster than some types of gunshots.

PB

[LeftyMom]

9. As I said, with people who have an obvious need to carry them.

I don't live too far from areas where people still farm. I don't think anything of a farmer or an FFA kid having a knife, because they carry and use them all the time and are as much a part of their daily routine as a keyring would be for most people. I wouldn't think anything of a utility/multitool thing in somebody who appears to work maintainance or construction. If somebody with clean hands and nice shoes had a knife, I'd pay attention.

But not on a plane, people aren't allowed to have them there no matter what they do.

[Poll_Blind]

10. Sorry, I totally misunderstood the context in which you expressed...

...the ability to be comfortable in the presence of a knife-carrying person. I thought you were still talking about on a plane, not just walking around on the street or what-have-you.

PB

[Poll_Blind]

6. Well, would she have reacted differently if it had been a Scotsman...

...in full regalia, including kilt and sgian bubh(pronounced "skeen do")? Knives are part of their ceremonial dress as well.

  I think she would have. Definitely complained about the knife but probably not shaking so bad while reporting/seeing it. For decades we've all been exposed to movies where Arab terrorists are the bad guys. After the Soviet Union collapsed the motion picture industry had to develop another villain for us to perpetually fear in all forms. Part of living in New Sparta is always being on a war footing, even when consuming entertainment. Psychologically, we accept war more easily because so much in television and media constantly portrays us at war, overtly or covertly with someone or something. Americans love a war-boner, especially after we refused to accept the complexities behind our loss in Vietnam.

  I might have missed something about Mr. Singh's description of events. I think he only has a point if others would be allowed to carry a knife with them on a plane which neither the story nor my own knowledge supports.

PB

[Cleita]

8. I'd feel better if ceremonial pointy objects were kept somewhere

else other than the passenger cabin during a flight. Maybe the priests wouldn't have used them but another passenger could have relieved the Sikhs of their daggers and used them.

[Poll_Blind]

11. I agree- that goes for the Pope's hat, too! n/t

PB

[Cleita]

14. Oh, funny!

:rofl:

[Evoman]

15. I think that they should put a big butcher knife attached to the back of every seat.

Think about it....if everybody has access to a big ass butcher knife, then terrorists would find it a lot harder to take over a plane. Plus, they aren't as dangerous on a plane as a gun, which could cause a decompression if it put a hole in the window or hull.

Who wants to take over a plane, knowing that everybody around them has an instrument capable of killing you?