The American Mind

A man is going to federal prison for getting too cozy with his girlfriend on a flight:

A California man may pay with prison time for a public display of affection on a plane.

Carl Persing was convicted Thursday of interfering with flight attendants and crew members after he and his girlfriend, Dawn Sewell, were seen “embracing, kissing and acting in a manner that made other passengers uncomfortable,” according to a criminal complaint.

According to assistant U.S. Attorney John Bowler, Persing will likely serve jail time for the federal felony conviction, the Associated Press reports. He was convicted after a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Va.

According to an FBI indictment, Persing’s face was pressed to Sewell’s vaginal area during the September Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Raleigh, N.C. When a flight attendant gave them a second warning, Persing reacted angrily and the couple, both in their early 40s, were arrested when the plane reached its destination.

Persing was convicted under the Patriot Act. Yes, the law giving law enforcement more abilities to gather anti-terrorist intelligence also has a provision giving flight attendants legally-binding power. If you disobey an order from an attendant expect to be arrested upon landing.

Here are two more horror stories:

Flight attendants, with their increased power, definitely seem to be getting more sensitive to all types of behavior. Emily Gillette claims that she was kicked off a plane last month for nursing her baby on a flight between Burlington, Vt., and New York City. A spokesman for Freedom Airlines, which was operating the Delta commuter flight, says that Gillette was ejected because she declined an attendant’s offer of a blanket.

One passenger on a Delta flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City was arrested for leaving his seat to go to the lavatory less than 30 minutes before landing (due to the incident, air marshals ordered all passengers to put their hands on their heads for the rest of the flight). And an Orthodox Jewish man was kicked off an Air Canada flight for praying, which attendants claim was making other passengers nervous.

I’ve flown into Washington, D.C. and can understand why passengers have to remain seated 30 minutes before landing. But I don’t understand a similar policy for flying into Salt Lake. Are the Mormons under greater risk of terrorist attack?

Airlines must hate these stories. It will only frustrate passengers and encourage them not to deal with the hassles of flying. The smart airlines better train their attendants to make common sense the rule. All passengers know the story of United 93. U.S. hijackings are a thing of the past. Passengers will fight back. Along with that prosecutors need to use their brains instead of wasting time prosecuting members of the Mile High Club.

“California Man May Go to Prison for Inappropriate Touching on Plane”

UPDATE: Steven Taylor comments:

Despite one’s views about passengers who place their heads in the laps of their female companions, it is patently absurd that an anti-terrorism law would be used to put someone in jail (let alone have to incur the expense of a three-day trial) for so doing.

Not only is there the issue of punishment fitting the crime, there is the more significant issue of what happens when we empower petty bureaucrats in the name of safety (and in this case, the flight attendants are acting like petty bureaucrats–indeed, petty tyrants).

While we clearly don’t want people making the friendly skies too friendly, the punishment ought to fit the crime and ought to be based on laws designed to deal with the actual behavior in question. Whatever this behavior was, it clearly wasn’t terrorism.

Regardless of one’s views of the Patriot Act, it is clear that the law was not passed to stop men from getting too close to the nether regions of their flight companions.