Activist thrown off plane for wearing "suspected terrorist" button
EFF co-founder and free speech advocate John Gilmore complains that he was thrown off a British Airways flight for wearing a small button saying "Suspected terrorist."
The steward returned with Capt. Peter Hughes. The captain requested, and then demanded, that I remove the button (they called it a "badge"). He said that I would endanger the aircraft and commit a federal crime if I did not take it off. I told him that it was a political statement and declined to remove it.
They turned the plane around and brought it back to the gate, delaying 300 passengers on a full flight.
Gilmore obviously didn't give a damn what his "right" to free speech meant for the other passengers. I don't see what favour anyone does by making provocative political demonstrations on airplanes, nor why a democratic society should need to accept such behaviour in the name of free speech. People are scared enough about flying as it is without such provocations.
Sorry, I respect a lot of what you've done, but I'd have you thrown off that plane too, John. Play games in your own time, in your own vehicle. British Airways owns that plane, and a passenger has as I see it no more right to make speeches on planes than I have to make speeches in Gilmore's home.
7:25:17 PM 
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