White mother accused of child trafficking own biracial child

[no1novice]

White mother claims Southwest Airlines thought she was trafficking when traveling with her Black daughter, according to lawsuit
By Jamiel Lynch, CNN
Updated 10:39 AM EDT, Tue August 8, 2023


A mother is suing Southwest Airlines for racial discrimination, saying she was accused of human trafficking when traveling with her biracial child.

Mary MacCarthy, who is White, traveled from California to Denver with her daughter, who is Black, to attend her brother’s funeral in October of 2021, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday.

“Unbeknownst to Ms. MacCarthy, while they were in the air, a Southwest employee called the Denver Police Department to report Ms. MacCarthy for suspected child trafficking for no reason other than the different color of her daughter’s skin from her own,” the suit alleges.

As MacCarthy and her daughter were walking down the jet bridge, they were confronted by Denver police officers, it continues.

“The officers began questioning Ms. MacCarthy and made it clear that they were given the racially charged information that Ms. MacCarthy’s daughter was possibly being trafficked by her simply because Ms. MacCarthy is White and her daughter is Black.

After significant questioning, during which Ms. MacCarthy’s daughter began to break down in tears, Ms. MacCarthy was eventually allowed to leave by the officers, but not before this display of blatant racism by Southwest Airlines caused Ms. MacCarthy and her daughter extreme emotional distress,” the lawsuit adds.


MacCarthy believed the officers in Denver were there to tell her about another death in her family but were told an employee of the airline had reported her as a possible human trafficker, according to the lawsuit.

In an interview with CNN following the incident last year, MacCarthy shared an email she sent to the airline asking for an apology.

In her email to Southwest’s media team, MacCarthy said she wanted a written apology from the airline, immediate reimbursement of the full price of their tickets and “additional compensation to account for the trauma imposed on an innocent family, and especially on a grieving 10-year-old Black girl.”

At the time, Southwest said they were “disheartened” by her account of the events.

“We are conducting a review of the situation internally, and we will be reaching out to the customer to address her concerns and offer our apologies for her experience traveling with us,” Southwest Airlines spokesperson Dan Landson said in a statement to CNN in November 2021. “Our employees undergo robust training on Human Trafficking. Above all, Southwest Airlines prides itself on providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for the millions of customers who travel with us each year.”

A spokesperson for Southwest said they had no comment on the pending litigation.

MacCarthy is asking for an unspecified award for damages, including emotional distress, mental anguish, suffering and inconvenience.

edition.cnn.com/2023/08/06/us/southwest-airlines-lawsuit-trafficking-accusation/index.html

There is video of the staff speaking to her

edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/08/08/mother-daughter-southwest-airlines-lawsuit-trafficking-denver-police-cnntm-vpx.cnn

[lindsaywhit]

At the beginning of this news report, they said the mother and daughter were questioned because of their behavior when boarding the plane. If that's true, it's significantly different from the sole use of race as a red flag.

There probably should be more extensive training and protocols in place (I have no idea what the training/protocols are now). It's horrible this happened to this mother and daughter; It would be more horrible if it was human trafficking and nobody said or did anything because they were afraid of a lawsuit. 

Here are some warning signs from an article on CNN:

1. A traveler’s clothing

You might notice that a traveler has few or no personal items. Victims may be less well-dressed than their companions. They may be wearing clothes that are the wrong size, or are not appropriate for the weather for their destination.

2. A traveler is traveling alone, but doesn’t seem to know details of who will be meeting them on arrival

A trafficker may have bought the traveler a ticket under the pretense that they have a modeling job, or something similar, awaiting them at their destination.

3. They have a tattoo with a bar code, crown, bags of money possibly the words “Daddy” or “Property of”

Many people have tattoos, so a tattoo in itself is obviously not an indicator. However, traffickers or pimps may mark their victims as a sign of ownership, so a barcode tattoo, or a tattoo saying “Daddy” or even a man’s name, could be a red flag that the person is a victim.

4. They can’t provide details of their departure location, destination or flight information

Traffickers employ a number of tools to avoid raising suspicion about their crime and to keep victims enslaved. Some traffickers won’t tell their victims where they are, where they are being taken or what job is supposedly waiting for them. This makes it harder for them to escape.

5. Their communication seems scripted, or there are inconsistencies with their story

Sometimes traffickers will coach their victims to say certain things in public to avoid suspicion. A traveler whose story seems inconsistent or too scripted might be trying to hide the real reason for their travel and merely reciting what a trafficker has told them to say. The same applies to the suspected trafficker – they may provide inconsistent details about the victim’s name or age.

6. They can’t move freely in an airport or on an airplane, or they are being controlled, closely watched or followed

People being trafficked into slavery are sometimes guarded in transit. A trafficker will try to ensure that the victim does not escape, or reach out to authorities for help.

7. They are afraid to discuss themselves around others, deferring any attempts at conversation to someone who appears to be controlling them

Fear and intimidation are two of the tools that traffickers use to control people in slavery. Traffickers often prevent victims from interacting with the public because the victim might say something that raises suspicions about their safety and freedom.

8. They seem to be afraid of uniformed security personnel

They may be fearful of revealing their immigration status. Therefore it can be worthwhile for airport officials to dress in plainclothes when approaching potential victims.

9. Child trafficking

A child being trafficked for sexual exploitation may be dressed in a sexualized manner, or seem to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

A child may appear to be malnourished and/or shows signs of physical or sexual abuse, such as bruises, scars, or cigarette burns.

This list was compiled with help from the following organizations:

Airline Ambassadors International: Offers a human trafficking awareness program to educate airport staff about the problem.

Polaris: Works to combat and prevent modern-day slavery and human trafficking.
Free the Slaves: Campaigns against modern slavery around the world.

International Justice Mission: Works to protect the poor from violence in the developing world.

[no1novice]

Well it's her word against their & the questioning needs to be robust incase the child is being trafficked.

If she agrees this she might not have grounds/evidence to have the refund of both tickets & an apology.

[notoriousmkg]

Wait, were they delayed for basically a few minutes or something? I know it's stressful, but I don't think it's worthy of a lawsuit.

[no1novice]

I think that as white people we see it very differently to POC. I know that when I have talked to my brother about stuff I am shocked about how he is seen and treated.


I also found this report of the first report.

A California woman is accusing Southwest Airlines of racial profiling, saying she was accused of human trafficking while traveling with her biracial daughter.

Mary MacCarthy of Los Angeles told CNN she and her 10-year-old daughter, Moira, were flying to Denver on October 22 after receiving news that MacCarthy’s brother had suddenly died.

MacCarthy said they had a brief stop in San Jose and boarded another Southwest flight but realized then that they couldn’t be seated together.

“I asked flight attendants if we could be seated together but they told us we’d each have to take a middle seat,” MacCarthy said. “So with their permission I asked other passengers if they would kindly move so we could be together, especially as my daughter was grieving, and they did. People are nice.”

When they arrived in Denver, MacCarthy said, she and her daughter were met on the jetway by two Denver police officers.

“I got quite a shock; having lost my brother the night before, I thought that someone else in my family had died and that police had been sent to deliver the news!” MacCarthy wrote in an email to Southwest Airlines’ media team, which was included in the police report.

“As for my daughter, she was terribly frightened: she was already experiencing the trauma of her uncle’s death, and she is scared of police due to constant headlines about how police treat Black people (she is Black). She began to sob and was inconsolable,” her email said.

The officers assured her nothing was wrong but said they wanted to question her and her daughter, MacCarthy said.

“They said they were here because my daughter and I were reported for suspicious behavior, acting suspiciously before boarding and while boarding,” she said.

“I took out my phone and immediately started recording. I told (the officer) who we were and that my daughter was crying because she had lost a family member,” MacCarthy said.

According to a report from the Denver police, “Both Mother and child were cleared.”

The report also noted that officers were responding to a “possible Human Trafficking reported by South West flight attendant” – but MacCarthy says she only found out two weeks later that she was suspected of human trafficking.

“I got a call from Denver Police human trafficking unit letting me know they were following up on the incident,” she told CNN.

CNN reached out to the Denver Police Department on Sunday afternoon about MacCarthy’s claim but has not received a response.

MacCarthy accuses Southwest Airlines of racial profiling. She says she’s retained an attorney and wants the airline to be held “fully accountable.”

“I gave the airline plenty of time to contact me and apologize – over two weeks later, I’ve yet to receive anything more than two brief automated responses. The time for an apology is long past,” MacCarthy said.

In her email to Southwest’s media team, MacCarthy said she wanted a written apology from the airline, immediate reimbursement of the full price of their tickets, and “additional compensation to account for the trauma imposed on an innocent family, and especially on a grieving ten year-old Black girl.”

Southwest Airlines said it is “disheartened” by MacCarthy’s account of the events and plans to reach out to her.

“We are conducting a review of the situation internally, and we will be reaching out to the Customer to address her concerns and offer our apologies for her experience traveling with us. Our Employees undergo robust training on Human Trafficking. Above all, Southwest Airlines prides itself on providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for the millions of Customers who travel with us each year,” Southwest Airlines spokesperson Dan Landson said in a statement to CNN on Sunday.

“Had this been a White child, there would not have been a raised eyebrow,” MacCarthy’s attorney David Lane told CNN.

[lindsaywhit]

Well, right or wrong, the mom is pissing me off here. All this indignation but in every account it looks as though authorities handled this as delicately as possible.

Yes, it's upsetting but weighed against the actual scourge of human trafficking, I'm calling it a money grab. And as far as the daughter's trauma, as a parent, this could be presented/explained in a way that could actually make this little girl feel safe.

[beeyotch]

Well, I'd say it's hard to tell unless I saw the incident myself. But I have no trouble believing that people feel far more free to mistreat people--and even be cruelly insensitive to crying little girls--if they're any shade of brown. In ways you wouldn't believe until it happens to you. So if it's true, then I say good for the mother.

[notoriousmkg]

Mrs Mo's parents lived with us when our kids were really small and even into young teens. It was a great experience because they are really nice and completely changed their style of disciplining when they became grandparents. Anyway, it's only lately that our kids have told us how many times that people though my MIL (who would pick them up from school or events when we could not) would be assumed to not be related to them -- especially when our son still had really fair skin and bright-blue eyes. But when someone looks like the age of a grandmother, I think people ascribe a lot less nefarious purposes as to why she would be with the kids.