@partyof5 I’ve always put Russell in the suspected pedophile column. He first took interest in Kimora when she was 15 or 16 and he was 30. That crosses a line. Since his divorce, he has kept a staple of “wait, how old is she?” young ladies hanging off his arm. They were always legal, but it sure made you wonder looking at them. I’ve heard he was “handsy” at industry parties. Hearsay, but I’m just not shocked by him either.
Fang, they aren’t idiots, but National Public Radio has let 2 senior execs go in the past month (one was a new one in the last week or so, didn’t get as much press). I’m pretty sure they are VERY sensitive to this issue right now, and might be in a zero tolerance mode.
@IfYouOnlyKnew Thanks for the insight. I knew he was older than Kimora but I didn’t know that backstory. She is so extra I never really wanted to read anything about their relationship. I knew he had a thing for models but didn’t know he liked going models.
My husband has definitely had his eyes opened. He had no idea it was so rampant. What’s funny is he had to report a female employee for coming on to him. He constantly has women touching his arms because he is in great shape.
snl skit on sexual harassment from back in 2012.
https://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/sexual-harassment/2751966
A new allegation has hit Stanford from a former grad student who was raped by her lauded professor. It happened while ago, but these old stories are now, finally, seeing the light of day.
Egads. Flying sex pest!
That dude found a wrong woman to harass.
Good that some sex pests can land in the no fly list. Too bad Alaska did not handle it well initially.
"Andrew Maloney, a lawyer who specializes in aviation law, said that based on Zuckerberg’s account of the episode, Alaska Airlines could be held liable in a lawsuit. He said it appeared the airline failed to protect her from the passenger.
“Passengers have a right to feel secure, and airlines have a legal duty to protect passengers from harassment, especially if they are aware that a passenger is being harassed,” Maloney said. “Once Ms. Zuckerberg told flight attendants about this man’s behavior, they should have moved him to a different seat or ejected him from the airplane.”
More on Keillor. MPR says there were “multiple allegations” related to his behavior from one individual who filed a formal complaint. I’m guessing they were credible given MPR’s reaction. The WaPo dropped his column because he wrote a column defending Al Franken recently without telling the WaPo that he was under internal investigation at MPR at the time for harassment.
“That dude found a wrong woman to harass.”
I’m sorry that any woman had to listen to that – but I’m freaking THRILLED that if this jerk had to pick on someone, he chose perhaps the single best-positioned woman on Earth to use the incident to create change. Randi Zuckerberg is a petite person with a gigantic voice, in every sense of the term. A lot of jackasses, and a lot of airlines, are going to think twice next time because of Randi speaking up.
Hoo boy, that Seattle Times article about the boorish sex pest on Alaskan Airlines sure brings back memories of my years in hospitality.
We are taught to “put up with” this type of behavior, and not to escalate. Keep service moving, smile, ignore, move it along. By extension, we are tacitly asking others to also “put up with” the offensive guest. It’s so messed up!
There is this —shrug— What can you do? attitude pervasive in the industry. The behavior has to cross a line that is not very clear cut, and there is always the fear that the manager is about to kick out someone who “is somebody” or “knows somebody”.
Ugh.
I find the flying sex pest story just horrible. The FAs appeared to tolerate him and just wanted the passengers to do the same. They suggested the 2 women could move “to the back of the plane” from first class. What the hell! Why not move the offending man? Oooh, I hope the women continue to give Alaska Airlines hell for that, it was totally unprofessional.
A year or so ago I remember reading about a teenage girl who fell asleep on a flight and woke to find a man groping her. One of them was moved, I can’t remember which, but the airline did nothing to inform law enforcement and the young woman couldn’t even find out the passenger’s name until she went public. Honestly, I know they don’t want to deal with this stuff and it’s not their main job, but ignoring these situations and hoping the other passengers will just tolerate them too is ridiculous, dangerous, and insulting.
@dadoftwingirls Yikes! Tom Brady!
Right! That’s the preferred first move. Offended by that person? I’ll move you. Quietly. Hospitality workers are looking to avoid a “scene” and we expect (especially women!!!) to welcome a quiet relocation and removal.
Not to mention, we are socialized with good reason to be fearful of men getting angry.
Let’s hope the tide is changing.
I saw this on Twitter yesterday, and already it had many thousands of likes. I have two questions:
Who is Randi Zuckerberg?
Obviously she shouldn’t be moved for the dreadful offense of being harassed, but why on earth would it be a solution to move him back into the last row so he could harass people there? As someone who flies coach, I wouldn’t appreciate my harassment being the solution for a first class passenger being harassed.
Aside from Mark’s sister?
I read about this. Alaska Airlines has banned him from flying their airline.
Blake Farenthold.
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/01/blake-farenthold-taxpayer-funds-sexual-harassment-274458
Not sure which thread to put this on – but details came out on a rep who paid off sexual harassment claims by a staffer with taxpayer money:
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/12/01/blake-farenthold-taxpayer-funds-sexual-harassment-274458
$84,000
I’d think FAs must be pretty used to dealing with harassment themselves.
In this case I wonder what I would have done. Not being alone (she was with a coworker), I might have chosen to get loud about the guy, force attention to him…but IDK.
If a passenger threatens the crew, the crew can have the passenger removed from the plane, or arrange for police to be at the airport where the plane lands to arrest the passenger.
Usually, this makes the news when the circumstances suggest that the crew acted too aggressively against a passenger who was not actually a threat.
Presumably, they can do the same thing when a passenger threatens another passenger. However, misinterpretation of disputes between passengers can more easily lead to errors in judgement here (e.g. is a seat kicking toddler committing battery against the passenger in front?).
You’re right CF, that no one in coach should put up with his BS either. I was assuming there was an empty row in the waaaay back but we don’t know.
I just read that our local librarians are being trained to administer Narcan in case someone OD’s in the library. If they can do that, flight attendants can deal better with sexual harassers.