Woman charged with hate crime.
A female passenger was arrested on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, after assaulting a Muslim woman on a Spirit Airlines flight in what has been described as an “Islamophobic attack”.
According to reports, soon after the plane landed in Detroit from Atlanta, an elderly woman opened the overhead locker to retrieve her bag, when an item of luggage fell and hit Alexandra Lynn Farr sending her into a frenzy of rage.
Aicha Toure, who is visibly Muslim due to her headscarf, told WXYZ that she said to Lynn Farr: “Excuse me, I don’t think she did that on purpose. I think it was an accident. This lady could be your mom. I think you should be a little respectful.”
This prompted Farr to direct her aggression at Toure, saying: “You F***ing Muslim terrorist, nobody’s talking to you. Mind your business.”
Farr then became more angry that she was being recorded, leading her to physically attack Toure.
She was arrested by airport police and initially charged with assault disorderly conduct.
The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), urged Wayne County authorities to charge the woman with a hate crime under the state’s Ethnic Intimidation Statute.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office complied. Farr was arraigned Friday morning in 34th District Court on charges of ethnic intimidation, 2-year high misdemeanour; assault and battery; and disorderly person, both 93-day misdemeanours.
Spirit officials confirmed to The Detroit News that a passenger on the flight “chose to use appalling language” toward another flier.
“That kind of language has no place on our planes — or anywhere else — and she is no longer welcome on any of our flights,” the airline told the outlet.
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