"At the risk of offending The Daily Telegraph and John Laws' talkback show, I do not need to record a conviction," she said.
"Just be careful, airports are very stressful places for a lot of people."
I worked in a terminal with pax for about seven years.
From many examples, I remember...
A woman returning to China with the ashes of her only son,
Several families travelling with severely disabled children,
A woman travelling with her paranoid schizophrenic teenage son, who thought the PA messages were demons and needed her constant reassurance,
A couple returning to New York after their nephew was killed in the WTC on 9/11,
Many, many people who had missed their flight (sometimes therefore missing an important personal occasion) and hundreds (thousands?) of other people dealing with air travel while undergoing appalling amounts of stress.
None of those people lost control to the extent of resorting to physical violence. Some were verbally abusive, and in the circumstances that was probably understandable, but NONE of them felt the need to punch a staff member in the face.
This is just the latest example of the lack of personal accountability seeping into our culture, where a person can physically assault someone, then jump back and say "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it!! I was very upset at the time...", then receive a pat on the head and a "there, there" from the judiciary.
It sends a message to all the erks out there that they can treat customer service people like serfs and escape any major repurcussions.
B A Lert I take your point about reading the transcript (I had a trawl on the net and couldn't find anything), but she did plead guilty to two counts of assault, and has been widely reported as having punched the employee.
Last edited by Worrals in the wilds; 28th Nov 2007 at 06:59.