[Mercenary]

In case you guys missed it Roosh wrote on his blog how he was on a flight from Iceland (with short layover in London) that turned around mid air over the north atlantic ocean and went back to Iceland so he could be taken off the plane by the police and temporarily held in custody.

(Roosh has been banned from entering the UK since 2016)

Quote:

I Was Detained By Icelandic Police After My London-Bound Flight Redirected To Keflavik Airport

http://www.rooshv.com/i-was-detained-by-...ik-airport



July 10, 2018

For my June trip to Washington D.C., I chose Icelandic discount air carrier Wow Air to save $400 compared to the airline I normally use. There was only one catch: on my return, I would have a connecting flight in London’s Stansted airport. I know I’m banned from England, but it should be safe to have a layover where I don’t have to go through customs, right? Four-hundred dollars was enough motivation to find out.

The journey began with Wow Air #116, a red eye flight from BWI airport to Keflavik, Iceland’s main airport. I landed in Iceland without incident and had a brief layover that did not require me to go through passport control. I then boarded Wow Air flight #826, an Airbus A321 that was full with over 200 passengers. I sat in my assigned window seat, 6F, next to a cute American girl. I was too tired to make small talk. The plane departed on schedule and I dozed off.

Not long into the flight, I woke up to the captain making an abrupt announcement: “Flight staff to the captain’s deck.” The lead flight attendant went into the cockpit and came out a few minutes later. The captain then made another announcement: “Because of a security issue, we have to return to Keflavik. We will land in ten minutes. I’m sorry for any inconvenience.” The airplane made a U-turn and dropped altitude.

I’ve been on a lot of flights in my life, but I never had one turn around due to a “security issue.” Was it because of me? There’s no way the authorities would inconvenience hundreds of people because one writer said some mean words on the internet, I thought. But as we approached the runway for landing, I began to mentally prepare for the worst.

After we landed, I asked the American girl for some gum in case I’d have to do some talking. She only had white Tic Tacs. I took them and added, “If they take me off the plane, it was nice sitting next to you.” She gave a weak smile.

The airplane taxied to an isolated area away from the terminal. I saw one police car parked outside. I closely observed the flight attendants to see if they would give a tell by looking in my direction, but they held a stiff poker face. They must be trained to not let the “terrorist” know that he has been found out.

The front door opened and two male Icelandic police officers entered. The lead officer started counting rows as he walked down the aisle. An excited man wearing a yamaka stood up and filmed the scene with a tablet. Would I be the lucky game show winner today? The officer stopped on row 6 and looked directly at me. “Barack?” he asked. I nodded my head.

My two seat mates cleared the row so I could get out. I glanced behind me and saw a lot of nervous faces. “Should I get my stuff?” I asked. The officer said yes. I opened the overhead compartment and grabbed my laptop bag and hand luggage. The entire cabin was silent. I hadn’t trimmed my beard in months so they probably thought I was a real terrorist trying to Allahu Akbar the plane. I kept my head down. I felt so embarrassed. I didn’t mean to delay everyone’s travel plans to save a couple hundred bucks, but I underestimated how far the UK government would go to prevent me from stepping foot into the country, even for a layover.

The officers escorted me to the police car. I sat in the backseat with the junior officer. He kept a close eye on me for any signs of illegal aggression. All my fatigue disappeared.

“I know why this is happening,” I blurted out. “I’m banned from the UK, but I thought it would be okay to have a layover there since I wouldn’t have to go through UK passport control.”

“We’re not familiar with your case,” said the officer in the driver’s seat. “Why are you banned?”

“Because of words! Because of things I’ve written!” I lowered my voice. “Theresa May is keeping me out because she says I’m a misogynist while she lets in thousands of migrant criminals. It’s so dumb.”

Icelandic people are not normally chatty and these two officers were no exception. I looked at my hands. There were shaking. I squeezed them between my legs.

The car stopped and the officers escorted me into a holding cell. It had a cot with a pillow and a short table with two blankets. They took my passport and locked me in. I looked up at the ceiling and noticed a camera in the corner. I wondered if there was also a microphone. The wind was so strong that cold Icelandic air was whistling into the room. I briefly considered joking with the officers that I would complain to the United Nations for inhumane treatment.

The junior officer came back with a cup of water and told me to hang tight. I alternated between pacing the room and sitting down. I tried to inhale deeply to relax myself but I could only manage shallow breaths. I took some pictures of the room and imagined what I would tell my mom.





The supervisor came into the room. “So after your flight left we got a call from England…”

“A call from who? Someone in the government?” I eagerly wanted to know how their border system worked.

“We just got a call,” the officer replied, not wanting to give details. “And it said that you’re on the flight and you’re not allowed in England. At first we weren’t going to do anything, but then my station manager called and said that we need to bring you back.” So the UK government receives passenger data from all inbound flights that is cross-checked with their immigration and criminal databases. It’s great that they have a locktight system to keep their citizens safe from a thought criminal like myself, yet somehow thousands of Muslim immigrants manage to enter the country to sexually mutilate and abuse females, including children. It’s okay to harm British girls with physical violence as long as you don’t trigger them with internet articles.

“I bought this flight because it was cheap. I know I’m not allowed in England, but I thought a layover would be fine. I guess they didn’t know I had another flight out of the country. Well, I’d like to book another flight if that’s possible. I just don’t want to go back to the US. I’ll go to Africa, even.”

“Okay, this will take some time.” He left the room but didn’t close the door, indicating to me that things were de-escalating.




(Serving hard time in Iceland. I almost got a prison tattoo.)





Ten minutes later, the supervisor came back and showed me his smartphone. It had the cover of my book Bang Iceland. I grimaced. How do I explain to him that Iceland was one stop on a multi-year fuck tour?

“I was in Iceland a long time ago,” I started, noticing that there was a female officer standing outside the room. “When I was younger, I would travel to countries and then write books about how to… date women.”

“So you have a black belt in women?” The officer grinned while motioning to his belt.

“Something like that. It’s macho talk. I believe men should be masculine and women should sub… should follow men. That’s why I got banned in England. But you can’t say that anymore. I know in Iceland the women are more strong and independent. They don’t believe in old-fashioned arrangements.”

“Are you married, by the way?”

“Obviously not,” I joked. Him and the three officers outside the cell started laughing. He left the room and told me to continue waiting.

I stared out the window and saw an airport worker driving a baggage car. One of the bags fell out and he immediately stopped the car to retrieve it.

How many more bags will fall out of my baggage car? The book I wrote in 2011 will cause me trouble in this country. The article I wrote in 2015 will ban me from that country. The meetups in 2016 will get me attacked from this mayor or that politician for cheap political points. Bags will keep falling out because of things I’ve done in the past, even if one day I become Mother Teresa.

The supervisor came back. He said, “You’re free to go. There’s no reason for us to hold you.” I served one hour of hard time. Any longer and I would have started my first prison workout.

“Do I have to get a stamp to enter Iceland?” I asked.

“I already gave it to you.” He handed me my passport.

I gathered my things and he escorted me into the airport hall. “I hope I made your day a little more interesting,” I said.

“You did, but a few of my officers were reading the news articles and got upset over the things you said.”

“The media has made me a total monster, a rapist, a horrible person. It’s all fake news. I’m not a bad guy. They ruined my reputation and…” I considered explaining further, but even if you accept the most rosy interpretation of my writing, without all the distortions from the media, can you name someone who is more extreme than me when it comes to sex relations? Maybe I really am a monster. “They ruined my reputation and… I will always have to deal with that.”

I stuck out my hand and added, “Thank you for treating me well.” He shook my hand. I walked away and sat down on a bench. I would have to book another flight, and maybe a hotel room, but first I had to call my mom and tell her what happened. She won’t believe it.

[ed pluribus unum]

It's the easy targets that give the big gov't agents the best opportunity to flex their might: for years CBP was keeping the US safe from the nefarious Canadian Kinder Egg menace while millions of Mexicans streamed across the Southern border.

R handled it in the best possible way, all things considered.

[Syberpunk]

Stupid sexy geezers.

[VisionsofGandhi]

Wtf all that for just a layup?

[cascadecombo]

Wouldn't a call ahead to the airport to verify have avoided all thay hassle? I can see where any flight landing in England, due to a banned person's status, would have cause to worry regardless if there was a connecting flight.

An actual criminal could use the same excuse and try to slip out into the country.

Sounds like a stressful learning experience to say the least, hopefully he's making the best of his impromptu vacation in Iceland.

[BortimusPrime]

I wish when I was younger I'd have collected audio recordings of people insisting that all the 9/11 era anti-terrorist laws were going to be only used to stop terrorism and not to create a police state. Maybe remix them all together with some audio of donkeys braying or that moaning sound retarded people make.

[Matsufubu]

Well 65 million of us can stop clutching our pearls at the close call we just had. Just think what could have happened!

God bless British justice! God bless Theresa May!

[chicane]

That really is absurd. The Left has become that insane. An American writer is a threat to National Security in the UK.

[rotinz]

What really blows my mind is how short the list is of people banned from the UK and the fact that out of all the people in the world they decided Roosh should be on it.

[Avadhuta]

Whilst the decision to ban Roosh from the UK is completely ridiculous, it is nevertheless legal. He was notified by the government and has acknowledged this publicly.

Roosh Wrote:

I know I’m banned from England, but it should be safe to have a layover where I don’t have to go through customs, right? Four-hundred dollars was enough motivation to find out.

Roosh then decides to defy this ruling, rationalizing it through a vague legal assumption that should have been verified through proper research and "test" the system in order to save 400$.

He knew there was a risk and he decided to take it. That was a bad call.

Sorry Roosh, this one is on you. You knowingly went against UK law and caused a plane to be turned around thereby messing with the plans of all the other passengers, the crew etc. simply because you wanted to save some money. Or was it the rush of being a rebel?

All in all you got off very lightly considering the costs of this little stunt.

Just my probably very unpopular 2 cents.

[Mercenary]

(07-15-2018 05:47 PM)Avadhuta Wrote:  

Whilst the decision to ban Roosh from the UK is completely ridiculous, it is nevertheless legal. He was notified by the government and has acknowledged this publicly.

Roosh then decides to defy this ruling, rationalizing it through a vague legal assumption that should have been verified through proper research and "test" the system in order to save 400$.

He knew there was a risk and he decided to take it. That was a bad call.

Sorry Roosh, this one is on you. You knowingly went against UK law and caused a plane to be turned around thereby messing with the plans of all the other passengers, the crew etc. simply because you wanted to save some money. Or was it the rush of being a rebel?

All in all you got off very lightly considering the costs of this little stunt.

Just my probably very unpopular 2 cents.

[Sidney Crosby]

^ I wouldn't call him a troll, he does make a valid point although it does seem kind of stupid to turn a plane around because of this. They could have just detained him in the UK instead.

[Avadhuta]

@Sidney Crosby, I agree. It would have been simpler to detain him in the UK.

@Mercenary, am I a troll simply for disagreeing with Roosh's decision? Because I don't blindly defend any man's decisions simply because he's a man? Or maybe it's because you haven't actually considered the implications of personal responsibility in this particular case?

[godzilla]

(07-15-2018 05:47 PM)Avadhuta Wrote:  

Whilst the decision to ban Roosh from the UK is completely ridiculous, it is nevertheless legal. He was notified by the government and has acknowledged this publicly.

Roosh Wrote:

I know I’m banned from England, but it should be safe to have a layover where I don’t have to go through customs, right? Four-hundred dollars was enough motivation to find out.

Roosh then decides to defy this ruling, rationalizing it through a vague legal assumption that should have been verified through proper research and "test" the system in order to save 400$.

He knew there was a risk and he decided to take it. That was a bad call.

Sorry Roosh, this one is on you. You knowingly went against UK law and caused a plane to be turned around thereby messing with the plans of all the other passengers, the crew etc. simply because you wanted to save some money. Or was it the rush of being a rebel?

All in all you got off very lightly considering the costs of this little stunt.

Just my probably very unpopular 2 cents.

Disagree a bit. It's not uncommon for travelers to layover in a country in which they do not have a visa. You could also easily be denied entry to various countries and be forced to sit in the airport until your next flight. The UK could have easily sent two police officers to the airport to make sure he got on his next flight, fined him and gave him a stern warning about laying over instead of fucking everyone in the ass.

I suppose this is Europe though where the rules are the rules.. unless you're a migrant of course.

[Avadhuta]

I'm in no way defending the turning of the plane, the UK's decision or any of the consequences themselves.

What I am pointing out is that Roosh took a miscalculated risk - knowing he was banned from the UK implied that any possibility of going through it should have been throughly researched - for questionable reasons - money & possibly adrenaline - and that whatever fallout of that decision falls on his shoulders. Had he been detained in the UK, he would probably not have gotten off that lightly.

[Kona]

I like the Iceland jails cute little decorative throw pillow.

Aloha!

[Duke Main]

(07-15-2018 06:42 PM)Avadhuta Wrote:  

I'm in no way defending the turning of the plane, the UK's decision or any of the consequences themselves.

What I am pointing out is that Roosh took a miscalculated risk - knowing he was banned from the UK implied that any possibility of going through it should have been throughly researched - for questionable reasons - money & possibly adrenaline - and that whatever fallout of that decision falls on his shoulders. Had he been detained in the UK, he would probably not have gotten off that lightly.

I strongly disagree with your opinion about this and so does Thomas Jefferson.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."

[Mercenary]

(07-15-2018 06:58 PM)Duke Main Wrote:  

I strongly disagree with your opinion about this and so does Thomas Jefferson.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."

[Redcloud]

Roosh has spent the second half of his career advocating for personal responsibility, so I’m frustrated to see that he does not apply the same standards to himself.

Someone as well traveled and worldly as him certainly knew that he would be unwelcome at Stansted. A single google search would have confirmed this.

Regardless, even in light of this he elected to blame others rather than admit he was wrong.

Worse, he offered no apology to the hundreds of people whose time and money he wasted. Who knows how many of those people missed their connections or otherwise had their trips messed up. Disappointing all around.

[Mercenary]

(07-15-2018 07:18 PM)Redcloud Wrote:  

Roosh has spent the second half of his career advocating for personal responsibility, so I’m frustrated to see that he does not apply the same standards to himself.

Someone as well traveled and worldly as him certainly knew that he would be unwelcome at Stansted. A single google search would have confirmed this.

Regardless, even in light of this he elected to blame others rather than admit he was wrong.

Worse, he offered no apology to the hundreds of people whose time and money he wasted. Who knows how many of those people missed their connections or otherwise had their trips messed up. Disappointing all around.

First of all it's the airline's business to check passengers have all correct visas and travel documents, and if they are on any watch lists before boarding a plane.

Secondly, in Europe you have to provide most passenger details (name, date of birth, passport number, etc) when you buy a ticket, (days or weeks or even months before check-in) so either the airline, or iceland and UK border security could have easily spotted him on the passenger lists if they had been doing their job properly. If both the airline and border security of 2 countries were all too incompetent to notice until after the plane was in the sky then that's not Roosh's fault.

Finally, apologizing (with few exceptions) is for weak pussies.
Roosh doesn't need to say sorry (or kiss ass) to anyone.

[zigZag]

(07-15-2018 06:58 PM)Duke Main Wrote:  

(07-15-2018 06:42 PM)Avadhuta Wrote:  

I'm in no way defending the turning of the plane, the UK's decision or any of the consequences themselves.

What I am pointing out is that Roosh took a miscalculated risk - knowing he was banned from the UK implied that any possibility of going through it should have been throughly researched - for questionable reasons - money & possibly adrenaline - and that whatever fallout of that decision falls on his shoulders. Had he been detained in the UK, he would probably not have gotten off that lightly.

I strongly disagree with your opinion about this and so does Thomas Jefferson.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."

Meh this is bullshit IMO. What's "unjust" is highly subjective.

There are people now who find borders unjust. Would you say the same thing to them?

[mickeyd]

He's a traveler and a writer. Why not fuck with these nonsensical security lists?

[Avadhuta]

@Duke Main

(07-15-2018 06:58 PM)Duke Main Wrote:  

I strongly disagree with your opinion about this and so does Thomas Jefferson.

"If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so."

I don't think the above quote is relevant in this particular context.

If you're going to take the moral high ground on this, it has to include taking responsibility for the consequences of one's actions and a serious inquiry as to motivation.

Had Roosh's motives been to actually go to the UK and make a point about the law - after researching it thoroughly - and found a way to do so that wouldn't involve people who aren't directly affected by this, all the while being prepared to be detained, go to jail or be be fined, I'd have no problem with it.

Instead, he writes that he assumed it might be OK to go through with this plan to save 400$.

The key words for me in his text are: "to find out".

This is a subtle indication to me that the adrenaline rush (rather than the money) was the deeper drive behind his decision in the first place. Had he passed through without a hitch it would have been very satisfying and a great story to triumphantly share with the world. This, however, is just a personal observation of mine since money is never the real motive behind anything.


@Redcloud, nobody's perfect. I believe we're all here to become better men so calling each other out is healthy as long as it's constructive. Mistakes happen. We get up and do our best not to repeat them.


@Mercenary,

(07-15-2018 07:45 PM)Mercenary Wrote:  

First of all it's the airline's business to check passengers have all correct visas and travel documents, and if they are on any watch lists before boarding a plane.

Secondly, in Europe you have to provide most passenger details (name, date of birth, passport number, etc) when you buy a ticket, (days or weeks or even months before check-in) so either the airline, or iceland and UK border security could have easily spotted him on the passenger lists if they had been doing their job properly. If both the airline and border security of 2 countries were all too incompetent to notice until after the plane was in the sky then that's not Roosh's fault.

Finally, apologizing (with few exceptions) is for weak pussies.
Roosh doesn't need to say sorry (or kiss ass) to anyone.

That would be a valid point had Roosh been unaware of his banning from the UK. The fact that he was knowingly and intentionally willing to break the law invalidates it unfortunately. He is still responsible for whatever happens to him and the people he involves from this decision onwards. Whether the airlines or border security take one minute or two weeks to catch him is not relevant to the point.

[Robert High Hawk]

Roosh may have miscalculated, but his banishment from England, as well as the actions of the two governments to turn the plane around in flight are both so absolutely ridiculous that he owes an apology to no-one.

What happens if the laws against Roosh continue to get more and more obtrusive to the point he cannot leave his house? Should he apologize then if he decides to walk outside and the police have to shut down and evacuate the neighborhood because they think he's such a big risk?

Apologize for not being a good obedient prisoner to oppression?

The fact that the government would cost the airline/airport hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well as disrupt hundreds of lives, over a mildly eccentric author's transit is nothing but insanity of the highest order.

INSANITY

It's a farce. Honestly, he did people a service. When those hundreds of people realize why the plane was turned around, they will see the ridiculous banishment for what it is, and (hopefully) wake up to the reality that their government is an absolute joke. If they are mad at Roosh for daring to stand up against oppression, then they are part of the problem anyway.

No apology. Do it again.

[Maistre]

Wow this is insane. The level of surveillance and control the UK exercises is absolutely mind-blowing. This just shows you what can happen to people in the movement if they truly start gaining some momentum. Not to suck his dick too much but Roosh is legitimately a legend. There is no more authentic figure in this movement than him, and although he's had his missteps here and there (I will always think the "legalize rape" article was, while yes clearly intended as Swiftian satire, poorly done) I think there is no more legitimate or serious voice in the real right