Man threatened with arrest at Heathrow for wearing Transformers T-shirt

An airline passenger claimed that a security guard threatened to arrest him because he was wearing a T-shirt showing a cartoon robot with a gun.

Brad Jayakody, 30, from London, said he was stopped from passing through security at Heathrow's Terminal 5 after his Transformers T-shirt was deemed 'offensive.'


The IT consultant was set to fly off on a business trip to Dusseldorf in Germany when he was pulled to one side.


Mr Jayakody said the first guard started joking with him about the Transformers character depicted on his French Connection T-shirt.

'"Then he explains that since Megatron is holding a gun, I'm not allowed to fly,' he said.

'It's a 40ft tall cartoon robot with a gun as an arm. There is no way this shirt is offensive in any way, and what I'm going to use the shirt to pretend I have a gun?


He was cooperative with the supervisor and took off the the 'offensive' T-shirt, replacing it with another shirt in his carry on luggage.


A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA said: 'If a T-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it, for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it.

'We are investigating what happened to see if it came under this category.


'If it's offensive, we don't want other passengers upset.'


He said there was no record of the incident and the passenger 'certainly didn't make a formal complaint at the time.'

News Link

Gee.... first the outlawing of guns, the rise in crime, and now certain T-Shirts are deemed by the Government to be naughty. Well, looks like 1984 and V for Vendetta! are alive in well in the UK.

What's next, a kid playing cops and robbers with a chicken finger is being kicked out of school for having a "gun". Oh wait, that's happened to. Except it happened on my side of the pond.

How exactly is that any different to this?

Airline Tells Woman Her Outfit Won't Fly

Seems ludicrous rules are exist all over the place and yes even in countries that haven't banned guns.


Or how about this one?

Man kicked off flight for Bush-bashing T-shirt

Yep ludicrous rules exist all over the world so how about we agree that ludicrous laws exist all over the world and that the number of guns per capita has literally nothing to do with it no matter how much you try and make it so.

I got one. I got one here - now for a bit of real policing on our dangerous streets! Real hate crime!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...preachers.html


And here is a young boy who got no help at all on our dangerous streets. RIP :-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...bed-death.html

Originally Posted by Del Boy

I got one. I got one here - now for a bit of real policing on our dangerous streets! Real hate crime!


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...preachers.html


And here is a young boy who got no help at all on our dangerous streets. RIP :-

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...bed-death.html

Well just to appear heartless:
The first one I agree with the policeman and personally feel that people spouting any religion on any street corner are nothing short of annoying and those doing it on a street corner where they know they are going to piss people off is just plain stupid. Religion should be confined to the individual and not inflicted on others without their permission.

The second link well it sad but I am not sure what else the police could have done, its not like the police are everywhere nor is it likely that a kid of that age could have defended himself against his attackers even if he was armed. About the only thing I can say is that they would and should be good candidates for the application of the death penalty if found guilty.

One word: Cowards.

at the OP's topic:

If you read the whole article, it says he was interrupted whilst speaking to some muslims. Now, the PCSO (police community support officer (placcy bobby)) was also muslim. Now, this muslim PCSO might have taken offence to the catholic priest talking to other muslims, and gone on a power trip. As the priests were seemingly having a level headed conversation with the muslim lads, what is wrong?
They knew what they were doing, and they knew the risks.

At the young lad stabbed:
It's an increasing reality on the streets today. Gangs and knives, walk hand-in-hand. And gangs are just getting bigger/more of them. I fear to walk the streets alone.

This is a key example of what happens when a government promotes an climate of fear.
People start seeing terrorists and terrorist plots everywhere.

MM - this is just not the case. In fact it is a nonsense in this case. We only refer to the terrorist activity that takes place. There ain't terrorist fear here, only anger. You forget, or never knew, Britain can take it. WW11 and IRA campaign slogan. People may think they can bomb us into submission - well, they can't.

Our government does not engender any fear at all over this, they have their heads stuck firmly where the sun don't shine and are in denial. The only fear they do engender is that of poverty for the poorest and weakest in our society, the old and the frail.

Listen to Insomniac, a young lad suffering the consequences of the loss of control on our streets. He lives with it, and seeks protection from the results of lack of motivation against crime by our authorities. It ain't all in the mind. It's a real tragic situation and youngsters die every day.

It is completely unacceptable, and to people who tell us that the police can't be everywhere, I say that it would be nice if for once they were out on the streets where they are needed, and not engaged on politically correct nonsense as per the examples we have seen on this thread.

The police can't be everywhere? Oh well - that's OK then!!!

Did you not see the report on here from the experienced policeman?

Originally Posted by Del Boy

It is completely unacceptable, and to people who tell us that the police can't be everywhere, I say that it would be nice if for once they were out on the streets where they are needed, and not engaged on politically correct nonsense as per the examples we have seen on this thread.

The police can't be everywhere? Oh well - that's OK then!!!

Did you not see the report on here from the experienced policeman?

Ok so lets fit this into 5.56's guns at birth philosophy...

1) If everyone everywhere was packing some sort of weapon would there still be murders?

Given all that history has taught us I suspect the answer is yes but if you can pull up a heavily armed "Utopian" society I am all ears.

2) If everyone at this particular incident was armed would the outcome have been any different?

Hard to say, but given that their reactions were not quick enough to stop the initial punch and subsequent attack I would suggest that they are even less likely to be faster than a bullet.

So apart from sciences failure to develop a teleporter so that the police can be everywhere instantly whats your answer?

- Maybe thousands more police to line the roads?
I guarantee you will be hear itching about taxes the following day.

This is one of the few times I am going to quote a politician but I think it applies to your way of thinking "it is very easy to fix the worlds problems when you know you will never be in a position to actually have to deliver on your words."

Originally Posted by Del Boy

MM - this is just not the case. In fact it is a nonsense in this case. We only refer to the terrorist activity that takes place.

Tell that to Jean Charles de Menezes.

There is no doubt that political groups holding power have a great deal to gain at the expense of the public by instituting a climate of fear. Since 9/11 many new laws have been enacted that under normal circumstances would never have been given a second look. OK, so you say that special circumstances need special answers.

The questions now being,

(1) Are these new laws stopping or reducing terrorism?
(2) Is the information gathered being used for anti terrorism only?
(3) Will these laws be repealed when the perceived threat ceases?

My thoughts.

(1) I have seen no evidence, as yet I have not seen a case where suspected terrorists have been detected as a result of the new laws. Most of this has been achieved purely by the allocation of more resources to the police and security organisations, and the formation of dedicated investigators using normal policing methods. (phone taps, and physical observation)
(2) Knowing the past history of politics, I very strongly doubt that it is not being used for political ends.
(3) Once again, history would indicate that the laws will not be repealed, but merely put on the back burner, allowing those in power to retain their ability to spy on those of political or other interest.