llamas
If it is found, as
I suspect, that she was the victim of an inefficient and confusing security system, or simply made an honest mistake, will you eat your words publicly on this forum?
I don't know if you've ever spent time in jail for a crime you did not commit. I haven't, thank God, but if I had, I think I would be pretty pissed of at the system that managed to get me there.
If you can, just put yourself in her situation. If, perish the thought, you one day find yourself in an unfamiliar environment, on your way to a dream job, runing late, worried about making your connection and generally flustered, as air travel quite often makes people. Isn't it just possible that she may have quite understandably misread or misunderstood a security officer's instruction? Even if we assume that the security officers were not to blame, isn't it just possible that she made the kind of mistake that any of us could have made?
Did she really deserve to be thrown in jail? We know, in retrospect that she wasn't a terrorist. Isn't that something that could have been cleared up a bit sooner so she could be sent on her way?
I don't think for a moment that she deliberately circumvented the airport security. In my experience, it's usually the highly travelled business passengers who feel they virtually own the system and are too busy to be bothered with these boring repetitive security procedures.
I'm sorry if it looks like I'm being parochial in this thread. I'm not, I really like America and the Americans; I do live here after all! I just can't help thinking, though, that this wouldn't have happened in the UK. American law enforcement does tend to be a little heavy-handed, to say the least!
