A FLORIDA woman was reportedly forced to leave an American Airlines flight for wearing an “offensive” mask that read “F–k 12.”
Wearing a T-shirt that said “Black Lives Matter” and the mask, Arlinda Johns was asked to leave the plane after boarding to fly to Illinois last week.
“F–k 12” is slang for “f–k the police” that has become more popular since the nationwide protests that have been happening since the death of George Floyd on Memorial Day.
Johns told Local 10 that a flight attendant asked Johns to cover her mask, which the Black Lives Matter activist promptly did.
However the attendant returned to Johns’ seat and said “I’d better not see that other mask,” Johns told Local 10.
“I said, ‘Leave me alone lady,’ She stood there, she said, ‘Okay, I got you.'”
The flight attendant reportedly went to the front of the plane, returned the aircraft to the gate and Johns was asked to leave the plane.
In a Facebook Live video, Johns showed her being asked to deplane and be escorted out of the airport.
American Airlines told Local 10 that Johns “refused to follow crew member instructions to remove or cover a face mask with offensive language and although the passenger initially complied, they later continued to display the inappropriate language.
“After arriving at the gate, the passenger was asked to deplane.”
The airline told The Sun that Johns was offered an alternative face covering.
“Everything she asked me to do, I did,” Johns said in the Facebook Live video.
“Our team has reached out to the customer to learn more about their experience and we will continue to look into this matter,” an American Airlines representative said.
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Johns, who believes in defunding and abolishing the police, told Local10 that she has not heard from American Airlines other than a response to a tweet while the airline told the station they are refunding the part of her ticket she did not use.
The activist has reportedly spoken to an attorney and ended up having to rent a car and drive to Illinois to reach her destination.
American Airlines is reportedly looking into the incident.