Deborah Wolfe, a Canadian citizen who was breast-feeding her son and changing his diaper while en route between Houston and Vancouver, says her "subversive" actions led to her being threatened with detainment, police involvement and legal charges for terrorist action against a U.S. citizen in international airspace while on an American flight during a time of war.
Wolfe says it started during the final leg of a trip back to Vancouver from Florida, when a man seated near her on the Continental Airlines flight took offence to her nursing her 4-month-old son and complained.
Continental Airlines spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said the airline does not have a policy that prohibits breast-feeding on board. But Wolfe says a flight attendant told her that if someone - anyone - complains, the mothers are supposed to change diapers in the bathroom and nurse at the back of the plane. This has its own unpleasant connotations, never mind the fact that passengers must stay in their seats during takeoff, landing and turbulence.
Wolfe began to nurse the baby again, using her own bib and blanket. She says the man got out of his seat, walked over to hers and stood staring at her. She says she approached him afterward and twice asked if he had a problem with her feeding her son.
"He marched past me and to the very back of the cabin to talk to the flight attendant," she wrote. "He told her, 'This woman just assaulted me.' ... He then explained that the asking of two questions by a 'foreign national' in international airspace made him feel the victim of terror and as such he wanted to file an assault charge."
She says the flight attendants also began to call her and her travelling party "foreign nationals in international airspace on an international flight during a time of war." And she was informed both of the complaint and that it could be upgraded to a Level 3 (having passed through levels 1 and 2), which meant possible mandatory detainment by U.S. authorities for 24 hours, police involvement and criminal charges for an act of war upon an American.
Wolfe says, in the end things were resolved when she signed a document promising that she would neither break Continental's rules about such things, nor speak to American passengers.
--- Alright I get it, you don't want a diaper in your face, in the next seat, across the aisle, that's fine. You also don't like seeing a woman's breasts being used for what they were originally intented for. That's fine, I get that. But to consider her a terrorist? Either this guy just enjoys abusing the rights he has been given in place of his privacy being violated the past years... or he is seriously uptight and in need of something relaxing...
I'm in that situation myself; seriously uptight and in need of something relaxing. People have suggested hot baths but that's no good. I know what works for me and it's a lot dirtier than a bath...
Still, it doesn't make me go around seeing terrorists.
Raine - volunteering to help?
ReplyDeletebigzellbo - yes...