Upon reading the title of this article, Flight on 9/11 anniversary ends in handcuffs for housewife, I knew I would have conflicting emotions. An Arab-Jewish woman was taking a plane home on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and caused suspicion upon being seated next to two other Indian men. This with the fact that both Indian men spent "an extraordinarily long time" in the plane’s bathroom caused all three to be detained. Reportedly, the men on board who alerted the authorities didn’t hold the woman in suspicion and were surprised when she was arrested. Nevertheless, all three were put in holding cells, questioned one by one, and strip searched.
On one hand, I can understand the suspicion. Even non-racists can’t help looking at a group of people dressed a certain way and acting a certain way and imagining what sort of people they might be. Also, the whole country was waiting to see what disaster was going to befall the nation on the anniversary of one of the worst attacks on our homeland. Can you really blame the guy for making judgments on Middle-Eastern people?
However it’s the procedures that followed this suspicion that I disagree with. Sure, I could see landing the plane, and even questioning the three people under suspicion. It is, again, the 10th anniversary of 9/11. But treating them as if they had already committed a crime was wrong. In the United States we are innocent until proven guilty. There was simply so need to “yank” them out of their seats and handcuff them. Everything aside from questioning them was completely fueled by post 9/11 anxiety and fear.
As American’s protecting our rights, we have to take notice when these rights are stepped on. Those three people had their rights taken from them simply because of where they were from. In the fight to keep our country safe, we have to be very careful not to cross the line into taking away other citizen’s rights.
