Is an irate mother aboard a plane who spanks her child a terrorist? Are the feds going too far charging people on planes with acts of terrorism? Could be.
By Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae
Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Los Angeles and Oklahoma City — Tamera Jo Freeman was on a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver in 2007 when her two children began to quarrel over the window shade and then spilled a Bloody Mary into her lap.
She spanked each of them on the thigh with three swats. It was a small incident, but one that in the heightened anxiety after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks would eventually have enormous ramifications for Freeman and her children.
A flight attendant confronted Freeman, who responded by hurling a few profanities and throwing what remained of a can of tomato juice on the floor.
The incident aboard the Frontier flight ultimately led to Freeman’s arrest and conviction for a federal felony defined as an act of terrorism under the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law enacted after the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.
“I had no idea I was breaking the law,” said Freeman, 40, who spent three months in jail before pleading guilty.
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Bad case law comes from bad cases. This moronic application of the statue and prosecution of these cases stupid little cases will cause us to lose the statute or have it altered in a way as to make it an unusable tool in investigations. Beyond that airline employees have gotten to the point that if you break wind around them, they have an emotional melt down. The attendants are service personnel for gosh sakes, if they can’t handle grouchy customers, then they should get a new job. Really, busboys and waitresses take lip all the time on the ground, you put them on a plane and their special?