Singing along to “London Calling” by The Clash got a passenger yanked from an airplane in northern England and interrogated by anti-terrorism detectives today. A cabbie called the police because Harraj Mann, 24, was singing along to “Now war is declared — and battle come down.”
Suspicious lyrics? Maybe. But Mann had plugged his MP3 player into the cab’s stereo system, and had also been playing The Beatles and Led Zeppelin.
“He didn’t like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don’t think there was any need to tell the police,” Mann told The Daily Mirror.
The story is absurd enough on its own, but I kind of wish Mann had been listening to “Know Your Rights” instead:
You have the right to
free speech as long as
you’re not dumb enough to actually try it.