82 year old arrested. Called Black flight attendant a racial slur, poked her, said she was "too fat"

[Demovictory9]

A flight attendant was harassed and insulted for being a Black woman while working.

White Man Gets Arrested After Calling Black Flight Attendant a Racial Slur, Says She's 'Too Fat'

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During a flight from Philadelphia to Fort Myers, Fla., last week, 82-year-old George Francis Alexander approached the American Airlines flight attendant, who remains unnamed, from behind as she was serving drinks. He poked her in the back and told her to move, the News-Press reports.

According to the arrest report, he then called her a racial slur. And when the flight attendant asked him to stop, he said she was “too big for this job; you’re too fat for this, overweight.”

After the plane landed at Southwest Florida International Airport, Lee County Port Authority police arrested Alexander. He was charged with suspicion of battery and interference of aircraft operations.

Alexander, of Fort Myers, was released on bail, which was set at $1,000. He is scheduled to appear in court on June 26.

https://www.diversityinc.com/white-man-gets-arrested-for-calling-black-flight-attendant-a-racial-slur-says-shes-too-fat/

[raccoon]

1. I wonder if he has dementia or is just a rude, hateful old racist. Nt

Last edited Tue Jun 8, 2021, 06:00 PM - Edit history (1)

[Treefrog]

2. He really doesn't look all there.

Unfortunately, aggressive or abusive behavior can occur with dementia.

[Maru Kitteh]

17. That may very well be the look of disbelief that everybody is making a "big deal"

out of what he's considered his GAWD-given rights since grammar school - to spit racist invectives at minorities and comment on women's bodies.

Older people don't get a free automatic pass from me for shitty, racist behavior because it "might" be dementia.

[FarPoint]

3. Nursing has had that experience from patients of another generation...

Still going on....I sense it's how they may of always felt but now, being older lack the ability to hold their tongue...also dementia comes into play.

[LakeArenal]

4. Those aren't mutually exclusive. He's both.

[Hekate]

9. Dementia doesn't simply reveal the person beneath the persona, it often warps & distorts...

…the genuine person they used to be.

Dementia is capricious that way, as it literally destroys the physical brain along its tortuous path. It’s rightly feared by anyone who has watched a parent or other loved one succumb — the fear that they might themselves fall victim to this disease, whether from Alzheimer’s, Loewy Bodies, stroke or other reasons.

[ARandomPerson]

12. This is a thoughtful comment. /nt

[LakeArenal]

13. My mother died from Alzheimer's.

She had symptoms her whole life. I have dealt with it.

[Raine]

14. My uncle had alzheimers, he threatened to murder the whole family while they slept.

The family had to lock ip knives and anything that he could use as a weapon. My uncle had been a kind loving sensitive person before he got alzheimers, it turned him into someone opposite of the way he had been in his earlier life.

[Hortensis]

18. Yes. My MIL's personality was dramatically changed by ministrokes,

and continued to change as they continued. Our first warning that something was happening was when she became bitter and suspicious; this was very unlike her, not aspects she normally kept hidden. As they progressed she morphed to chirpy and perky, just a cute little ray of happy sunshine. The person my charming, intelligent, and very redoubtable MIL had always been was gone.

[ecstatic]

8. If he was flying alone, then probably the latter.

Can someone with dementia book and pay for a flight, actually catch the flight and make it through security and to the gate?

But if he was with his family, they should have stopped him from getting up.

[Midnight Writer]

5. This doesn't sound so much like a criminal issue as a mental health one.

My Dad got to where he was pulling crap like this. He was always very polite, very mannerly, very gentlemanly, until he got into his 80s, and then he got to where you never knew what he was going to blurt out or do.

Thankfully, he never got to the point where he would ever listen to a Republican.

[femmedem]

6. Sounds like it might be early dementia to me, too.

My mom went through a phase where she was belligerent (although I don't believe she ever said anything racist) and she had never, ever been like that.

Mr. Femmedem stopped taking his father out to restaurants after he got like that.

[Hekate]

7. He does not look all there. I'm very sorry the flight attendant had to experience this, but ...

…I also hope he has family who can take over his affairs. If they are already involved, they might have thought he was still capable of travelling alone.

[LiberalFighter]

10. If he has dementia have to wonder why he was on the plane.

[JI7]

11. And the dementia didn't prevent him from getting on the right plane

[Hekate]

15. Several have asked how he traveled if he was demented? First, many drive cars. Really, they do...

Last edited Wed Jun 9, 2021, 05:17 AM - Edit history (1)

People just don’t up and drool to let you know they’re losing it, not unless they have a serious stroke. Dementia is a long, long road.

Also, there are such things as credit cards. I’ll bet he’d gone to Florida before, in happier days, so he remembered how to do it. Sort of.

Perhaps his family thought he was not as impaired as it turns out he was, and they dropped him off at the airport to go visit his friends or relatives, thinking it’s a short flight, he’ll be okay.

Perhaps he “escaped” from his family home, just him and his credit card.

We and our neighbors found an old man when he fell down in our street one day, being dragged along by a young German Shepherd at the end of a rope. The dog had no collar or leash, just the rope. The man could not tell us where he lived, just that he lived with his daughter. He could not even tell us his full name, and he didn’t have a medical bracelet. Finally one of the neighbors took him for a drive up and down the streets of our neighborhood, until they found his house and his daughter. That was heartbreaking.

I look at the picture of this man, and if he was 40 years younger with that expression on his face every one of you would peg him as someone who’d burned his brains out with drugs. But he’s 82 and looks utterly lost and bewildered. The court let him out on bail? What about a social worker, RFN?

[Withywindle]

16. yeah, it's possible this guy has dementia, and if so, that's sad

But I'm also thinking DAMN, people will make excuses for white guys over anything!

[Maru Kitteh]

19. people will make excuses for white guys over anything!

BINGO

[Hekate]

20. You really think that's what's going on? If I were to encounter a very old person of any race...

…who had that hollow-eyed look, I would be concerned about them.

I’m sorry you think his race has anything to do with my response and that of others who have had a one or more people in their lives stricken with dementia. Now that’s sad.

[femmedem]

21. I hope that you never have anyone with dementia in your family

and see how it changes them.

I'm one of the people you're talking about, and I have never suggested that racist behavior might be excusable here or anywhere else until this post.

[Raine]

22. Oh geesh! 🙄 nt

[LowerManhattanite]

23. He MAY have dementia. He MAY be an a-hole too...

And he MAY also have laid it on thick for the booking photo to dodge responsibility. (See Vinnie “The Chin” Gigante)

We’ll find out soon I’m sure.