Video Shows Southwest Pull A ‘Karen’ After Cops Called On Travelers Whose Flights Were Canceled

One would think that with all the bad publicity Southwest Airlines has been receiving due to widespread flight cancellations and observably poor management that this airline would be trying to change the narrative of its image by doing its very best to accommodate its frustrated travelers.

Instead, Southwest is out here calling the police on them.

According to the Tennessean, a viral video has been floating around the Interwebs that appears to show a Nashville airport police officer threatening to arrest Southwest Airlines passengers for trespassing if they did not leave the secured section of the airport. These are would-be airplane passengers who were stranded at the airport due to their flights being canceled, and instead of doing its best to help them, Southwest Airlines reportedly went full Southwest Karen and called the cops to have them forcibly removed.

From the Tennessean:

Southwest Airlines personnel asked for an officer to escort passengers from the C concourse to the pre-security ticket counter the night of Dec. 25, according to a statement released by the Nashville International Airport.

The video, which was posted by 20-year-old Nashville resident Amani Robinson, captured part of the interaction between the officer and several people who were lined up at a desk outside a gate.

“If you have no ticket, you don’t need to be on the secured side,” the officer said in the video.

“But we have tickets,” someone in the group said.

“Your tickets just got canceled,” the officer replied.

Besides the fact that Southwest is dead wrong for going about things this way, why is it that cops so often feel the need to be so damn rude and condescending toward civilians? Certainly, this officer would understand the aggravation and confusion if he were the one who bought airline tickets and moved through the daunting hellscape that is TSA precheck only to be told his flight has been canceled and he needs to go back to precheck. So, why is this man treating these travelers like they’re teenagers loitering in front of a liquor store?

More from the Tennessean:

The video also shows Shelley Morrison, Robinson’s mother, asking the officer to clarify why they would be arrested for trespassing.

“If you don’t have a valid ticket and you’re on the secured side and you refuse to leave, you’ll be arrested,” the officer said. “Right now, Southwest is calling us because you guys are congregating right here, but they’re trying to close that gate.”

Morrison explained to the officer their flight had only been delayed, not canceled, based on text message alerts they received from Southwest Airlines. Before the officers approached, she said they spoke to an agent at a gate who directed them to the service desk, where two workers were trying to help a long line of people.

Like the other spurned travelers, Morrison was relatively calm while simply asking reasonable questions about why they were being threatened with arrest after already being stranded at an airport on Christmas.

“If you’re told to leave and you refuse to leave,” the officer said before Morrison interjected and asked if that’s the case even “with a valid ticket.”

“You don’t have a valid ticket,” the officer replied. “Your ticket got canceled.”

Despite the fact that Morrison did not refuse to leave and was only calmly making reasonable inquiries, the officer continued to be short and lowkey belligerent with her, likely because cops get their little blue undergarments in a bunch whenever people don’t immediately follow their orders without question. (Then there’s the fact that Morrison is a Black woman, but—nah, I won’t even go there today.)

Morrison told the Tennessean she tried to reach the airport to file a complaint on Wednesday but couldn’t get in contact with anyone. She said she still plans to file a written complaint.

“We’re not here to destroy someone’s life or destroy their career or suggest that the airport or even Southwest is some horrible company or anything,” Morrison said. “I just want there to be proper redress for that behavior and be confident that this will not happen again to our family or any other family.”

Seriously, there’s just no reason to treat people this way.

SEE ALSO:

Before Southwest Cancellations, NY AG Letitia James Warned Pete Buttigieg About ‘Escalating Pattern’

Amid Southwest Cancellations, Nina Turner Blames Pete Buttigieg For ‘Airlines’ Woes

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