A white mother who was stopped by police officers at the airport and charged with human trafficking with her mixed-race daughter has sued Southwest Airlines for “blatant racism.”
Mary MacCarthy and her biological daughter Moira, then age 10, flew to a funeral on October 22, 2021, following the sudden death of her brother.
She was confronted by a Southwest employee at Denver International Airport who suspected the child was being trafficked.
The mother and daughter were met on the jet bridge by two police officers and questioned before finally being released.
But MacCarthy, who is a single mom, works in technology and lives in LA, was shocked by the allegation and filed a lawsuit in Colorado against Southwest on Thursday.
A white mother who was stopped by police officers at the airport and charged with human trafficking with her mixed-race daughter has sued Southwest Airlines for ‘blatant racism’
Mary MacCarthy and her biological daughter Moira, then 10, flew to a funeral on October 22, 2021, following the sudden death of her brother
MacCarthy, who is a single mom, works in technology and lives in LA, was shocked by the accusation and filed a lawsuit in Colorado against Southwest on Thursday
MacCarthy sobbed during the confrontation with officers and explained to police that Moira was her daughter and showed identification. At the time, she said she was shocked by the accusation.
She claimed in the lawsuit that the child trafficking allegations “came for no other reason than her daughter’s skin color being different from hers.”
The family said the flight attendants did not question them about their relationship during the flight.
The incident caused “extreme emotional distress,” the lawsuit and family said economic damages, compensatory damages, as well as punitive and exemplary damages.
However, the police officers were not named in the lawsuit because they were polite and professional.
MacCarthy has accused Southwest Airlines of interfering with their contract based on race, resulting in a civil rights violation.
“To this day, whenever Moira and I are in public — and especially in airports or on planes — I’m hyper aware that we can be judged and reported for every interaction we have with each other,” she shared. she. News week.
“It’s a strange feeling to be alert to your most basic behavior with your child, and it’s exhausting. As for Moira (who is now 12), she still snaps and doesn’t want to talk about what happened.”
Their attorney David Lane said the lawsuit was brought to accountability and to get the company to review its training and policies.
“By using racial profiling to ensure Denver police detain innocent travelers, Southwest Airlines has attempted to address the criminal activity of sex trafficking through a stereotyped, easy formula,” he said.
Just as police are not constitutionally allowed to arrest and search young men of color based on their race, neither is corporate America allowed to resort to such profiling to use law enforcement officers to apprehending and interrogating racially diverse families simply on the basis of their diverse races is what Southwest did.”
MacCarthy filmed the incident at the time, and the clip shows a Southwest employee and two airport agents explaining why MacCarthy and her biological daughter were sidelined.
According to the police report, the clerk told police she was suspicious due to the mother-daughter duo being the last to board the plane — and because MacCarthy asked other passengers to move seats so she could sit next to her daughter .
The attendant also told officers that the pair did not speak to each other once during the entire flight, the report said
“It’s okay honey,” the concerned mom can be heard saying in the three-minute video, as her daughter repeatedly sobs in fear after being confronted by the two armed officers and Southwest’s representative.
The concerned mother could also be heard saying: ‘I have a daughter, who unfortunately has been traumatized by the police in her life.’
During the meeting, MacCarthy was told by officers that another Southwest Airlines employee had reported the single mother of “suspicious behavior” — with a police report filed after the incident showing that both the airline and the police had identified the single mother suspected of ‘acting’ the child. .
Enraged by such an insinuation, MacCarthy criticized both the airline and the Denver Police Department, saying the anonymous staffer’s suspicion was a “racist assumption about a mixed-race family.”
According to the police report, the clerk told police she was suspicious due to the mother-daughter duo being the last to board the plane — and because MacCarthy asked other passengers to move seats so she could sit next to her daughter .
The attendant also told officers that the pair did not speak to each other once during the entire flight, the report said.
According to the police report and MacCarthy’s own account, the officers attempted to question the two after the Southwest Airlines employee deemed the duo suspicious and reported MacCarthy to her supervisors as a potential trafficker.
The police report states that MacCarthy then explained to officers that the couple were grieving and traveling to see family, and that 10-year-old Moira, who cried throughout the encounter, was indeed her daughter.
Southwest said in a statement at the time: “We were disheartened to learn of this mother’s story as she traveled with her daughter.
“We were disheartened when we heard of this mother’s story as she traveled with her daughter.
“We are reviewing the situation internally and will be in touch with the customer to address her concerns and apologize for her experience traveling with us.”
It added that its employees receive “robust training” on human trafficking.
MacCarthy said, “In our interactions with Southwest Airlines since the incident, and with the information revealed in the bodycam footage, I felt attacked as a mother and frankly as a human being.
“Customers need to know the true nature of the company they are doing business with.”
Southwest Airlines said it has no comment on the pending lawsuit.