A Southwest Airlines employee and Denver Police confronted a white mother and her black daughter Oct. 22 after a flight attendant suspected the mother of engaging in human trafficking.
Mary MacCarthy and her daughter Moira were flying from Los Angeles, California, to Denver, Colorado, for the funeral of MacCarthy’s brother when they were stopped after landing in Denver, reported NBC News.
A white mother and her 10-year-old Black daughter were stopped by a Southwest employee and two Denver police officers after a flight attendant found them suspicious and suspected the mother of human trafficking. https://t.co/zxlIyjDpL2
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 5, 2021
“Throughout the encounter, my daughter was sobbing, and I told them, ‘Look, we’re traveling for a death and she’s a Black girl who’s 10 but looks much older than she is. She unfortunately already has had charged encounters with police. Any kid’s going to be scared in a situation like this,'” Mary said, according to NBC News. (RELATED: Telling Black Children They’re ‘Permanently Oppressed’ Is Racist, Mom Says In Condemnation Of Critical Race Theory)
The police report allegedly said no further action was necessary, reported NBC News. However, a human trafficking investigator with the Denver Police Department called Mary 10 days later to follow up on the so-called “suspicious activity.”
Southwest Airlines has not yet apologized to the MacCarthy’s for the incident, according to NBC News.
The police officers created a “letter to detective” at the airport which documents “information for an incident that doesn’t appear to rise to the level of a crime,” the Denver Police Department told the Daily Caller.
“The Letter to Detective was forwarded to a human trafficking detective for follow up based on the nature of the original report by airline personnel, the detective later called Ms. MacCarthy and the Letter to Detective was subsequently closed as ‘unfounded,'” the Denver Police Department’s statement reads.