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Paul McNamara

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A message to those tourists the U.S. kicked out over tweets

Somebody needs to say this ...

By Paul McNamara on Wed, 02/01/12 - 11:10am.

. What's this?

So by now you may have heard about the British tourists who upon their arrival at Los Angeles International Airport on Jan. 23 were detained, interrogated for hours, denied admission to the country, beaten with rubber hoses, and then deported … all because of a grotesque overreaction to pair of smart-alecky though obviously innocuous tweets. (Sadly, the only part of that litany that isn’t true is the hoses.)

If you’re new to the story, you can read the details, including the tweets – one used “destroy America” in the context of British slang for partying, and the other mentioned Marilyn Monroe’s grave – in any of these stories.

But I have something to say to the victims:

Dear Leigh Van Bryan and Emily Bunting,

You do not know me, but please allow me to apologize in behalf of the United States of America for the deplorable manner in which you were treated upon your arrival at Los Angeles International Airport and the indefensible decision by security agents there to first deny you entry for your vacation and then deport you back to Great Britain.

I say “please allow me” for the simple reason that I have no authority to apologize in behalf of my country, or anyone else for that matter, yet feel compelled to do so out of a sincere sense of embarrassment over the way you were treated.

I would also like to apologize (again, without authorization) in behalf of those in the media who have portrayed your ordeal as a “cautionary tale” about watching what one writes on the Internet.

In the smallest of senses, it may be that kind of story. I’ll be honest, Leigh: Such tweets are ill-advised for anyone who may later find themselves in a job interview. But emphasizing that point in this case smacks of blaming the victims and presumes anyone could have predicted such a hysterical overreaction by airport security. (We can now.)

No, in the larger sense, this is a story about how the United States, glorified as the land of the free, has now become the land of always cover your ass. Sept. 11 may be the reason, but there is no excuse.

Again, I am sorry … sorry about all of it.

Sincerely,

Paul

I was going to offer to buy them a conciliatory beer, should they ever be in the Boston area, but that seems unlikely.

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