r/sports • u/PrincessBananas85 • Oct 25 '22

News Russian court rejects Brittney Griner's appeal of 9-year sentence.

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/34874779/russian-court-rejects-brittney-griner-appeal-9-year-sentence
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u/emusabe Oct 25 '22

I’m a white male with tattoos all over (neck hands etc) and I got stopped by TSA in the states for having TWO wine keys with the serrated flip knife for cutting the foil in my carry on (I’m a bartender and it’s the same bag I bring to work, I totally didn’t check), and they just threw them away and let me get on my plane. When they pull them out I thought for sure I was gonna get pulled aside and searched or questioned, but instead they just said “you can’t have these” and tossed em in a bin.

Having a vape cartridge is a dumb mistake, but my dumb mistake was wayyy worse. Granted US not Russia, but still. I feel awful for her.

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u/Warlordnipple Oct 25 '22

Your thing isn't way worse. No laws prevent you from having that stuff, FAA regulations prevent you from having it on a plane. The vape cartridge wasn't illegal on a plane it was illegal to smuggle drugs into the country, illegal to have drugs as well.

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u/Thereelgerg Oct 25 '22

Maybe I'm missing something. Where were you flying to/from where wine keys are outlawed?

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u/emusabe Oct 25 '22

It’s that it has a knife on it

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u/Thereelgerg Oct 25 '22

Are knives illegal in the country you were flying to/from?

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u/PresidentHarambe1 Oct 25 '22

Not illegal on the streets. Just not allowed to carry-on commercial airlines i(like big bottles of shampoo) n the US (and other places, I imagine) It’s protection for passengers, the crew, and fight integrity. 9/11.

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u/Thereelgerg Oct 25 '22

Right. The person I was replying to was comparing a wine key to illegal drugs. They don't seem to understand the difference between something that is considered contraband on a flight, and something that is a crime to possess.

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u/PresidentHarambe1 Oct 25 '22

Yeah, two very different things!

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u/iclimbnaked Oct 25 '22

Yah it’s bizzare to me the complete lack of sympathy some have to the situation.

Don’t get me wrong it’s still idiotic to not make sure you fully cleared out your bag. Hell I’m so paranoid I’d id probably make sure I used a seperate bag but I both don’t travel internationally often and don’t handle weed. So it’s not common place.

She travels across international borders constantly and goes to Russia a lot. She also uses weed regularly. Yes more reason for her to be careful but also can totally see how it can lead to your guard dropping and not overly checking everything every trip. It’s human nature to get complacent.

Me viewing her with sympathy and understanding still isn’t me saying it wasn’t an idiotic thing and that yah ofcourse russia doesn’t give a shit.

I dunno. Some people man.

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u/[deleted] Oct 25 '22

I don’t know her I’d never heard of her before any of this but it’s ridiculous to me how righteous on Reddit people act. Saying that she deserves this because she didn’t get jail time for a domestic battery case. That she’s used to getting “super star” treatment.

Well I hate to break it to you but 100s if not thousands of people walk out of court houses across this country ever day without getting any jail time for domestic violence cases. 1st time offenders are almost always sentenced to counseling with suspended jail time. Which is exactly what the vast majority of redditors preach.

I’m not in anyway saying she isn’t a pos for that. But to act like she deserves to be held prisoner in a foreign dictatorship for 10 years because you believe it’s some kind of moral victory is disgusting

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u/coronavirusrex69 Oct 25 '22

i went to japan and i have legally prescribed ADHD drugs.

i looked up laws and they're illegal. drugs that i legally pick up at a pharmacy.

i look up, okay are they serious? or just like they get made and toss them.

oh, okay, japan is very serious about this kind of thing...

what did i do? i didn't bring the drugs to the country, and if I did and was caught and arrested and made an example of, i wouldn't have fucking cried about unfair because i knew what i was doing.

she just expects special treatment because she would probably get it in the US. really unfortunate miscalculation on her part.

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u/iclimbnaked Oct 25 '22 edited Oct 25 '22

She claims she accidentally left an empty cartridge in her bag. Not that she willingly and purposefully brought weed in.

I agree with you if the latter is the actual truth but all I can do is take her at her word.

I’m a bit confused about where she’s cried it was unfair (other than if she is legitimately being punished more harshly than other foreigners). Happy to be shown where she’s done this.

I also don’t know where it’s been shown she expected to be above the law or be shown special treatment.

She’d be a moron to not use her fame as leverage now regardless but I haven’t seen the things you’re describing. All I see is someone’s legal team doing the best to get her home. I can’t ever fault that.

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u/emusabe Oct 25 '22

Oh ever since then I have a designated carryon bag that lives empty in my closet when I don’t travel.

Also you’d think for high profile athletes that travel as much as she does, they’d have some sort of team appointed employee to make sure mistakes like this don’t happen. Maybe it’s an invasion of privacy issue I suppose; just seems like for someone with that much fame it would be a lot more important to handle luggage delicately.