Last week, a strange event happened at the Fort Lauderdale Airport. Here’s a law professor from Florida explaining what went down:
At approximately 12:45 am, my partner and I were in the baggage claim area in terminal 3. We had just arrived from Chicago and were waiting for our bags when an announcement came over the intercom. It basically said that “a man who lies with another man as he would a woman is subject to death.” We couldn’t believe what we heard, and then it came over the intercom again a few minutes later. We were shaken by the announcement because it specifically said “subject to death”.
What was that all about? The person making those comments has been identified, and the Miami Herald reports the following:
The man is Jethro Monestime, 23, a skycap for Superior Aircraft Services.
Monestime said it was meant as a prank, airport officials announced at a news conference Monday morning.
It was not immediately known if he would be disciplined and if so, in what way.
A prank? Hilarious. Really.
Why that isn’t immediate grounds for firing, I don’t know. If I go through security with a bottle of water, all hell breaks loose. But someone says a group of people should be condemned to death… in the middle of an airport? They’ll get back to you about that…
Actually, Broward County officials stated that Monestime would have been fired if he had worked for the airport. But he does not. Rather, he works for a company that is a subcontractor, so his fate is in the hands of Superior Aircraft Services.
Ed Brayton adds a good point:
Do you think there would be the slightest hesitation to fire him if he had announced that all black people were “subject to death”? He’d already be gone. And he should be gone.
(Thanks to Logos for the story)
[tags]atheist, atheism, Fort Lauderdale Airport, law, Florida, Chicago, gay, homosexual, Miami Herald, Jethro Monestime, Superior Aircraft Services, Broward County, Ed Brayton[/tags]