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On January 11, Georgetown Associate Professor Christine Fair was stopped and briefly detained by police in Frankfurt Airport on the return leg of her trip from a forum in Dehli. The whole ordeal began with an altercation over a bottle of carry-on deodorant. German police say that they informed Fair that she had too many liquids and would have to either put the item in checked luggage or discard the item. However, this argument soon spiraled out of control when, according to the police report:

“The U.S. passenger reacted angrily towards these suggestions and became increasingly uncooperative. She began to insult the Federal Police officers, by calling them, among other names, ‘fucking bastards’ and ‘fucking German Nazi police’, as witnesses can confirm.”

Fair denies the allegation, claiming in her 4,000 word Huffington Post rebuttal that she had in fact been commenting on the looks of another American passenger who had gone through security without being accosted. Fair’s protests saw her taken to a police station and charged with “Suspicion of Defamation,” against the federal officers. She was then charged $260 for estimated incurred legal fees and was sent on her way. The Bundespolizeidirektion Flughafen Frankfurt am Main confirmed to Deutsche Welle that they are currently collecting evidence for her legal case, including her online publications. Fair’s complaints to the airport will not be assessed until after her case.

Fair struck back at the German the German police in her defensive piece, “Framed, Arrested and Robbed by the Police in Frankfurt: A Not-So Funny Thing Happened on my Way to the Forum in Delhi.” She claims abuses of power both during the initial experience inside the security line and once being taken to the police station. She told the Washington Post that she believed that the German police the whole ordeal was “just some preposterous story that they wanted to make about an Ugly American.” She filed a complaint with the airport and said that she would be looking into legal action for unlawful detention and defamation. Georgetown’s administration has distanced itself from the situation, stating that: “the views of faculty members expressed in their private capacities are their own and not the views of the university.”

Christine Fair is a professor with a controversial past. She publicly feuded with the Review’s esteemed guest from last year, Asra Nomani, calling her a “fraud,” “fame-mongering clown show,” “bevkuf.” (“Idiot” in Urdu) Fair also draws heavy criticism for being one of the most staunch defenders of the US drone strikes over Pakistan. Professor Fair is a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, both on Twitter and on her personal blog, Tenacious Hellpussy.

She also currently maintains a tumblr where, in her words, “This is where I post snarcastic missives based upon the shit men (and sometimes woman-hating women) say to me via email, voicemail and comments ‘deposited’ on my various social media like celestial droppings of stupidity.” We look forward to being featured in the coming days.