The big news that everyone will be talking about for the next few days is a federal air marshal's shooting of a man who claimed to have a bomb in the Miami airport.
Early reports indicate that the man was likely mentally ill and that he had no explosives.
Mental illness is a tragedy for the stricken person and for the family. This tragedy is deepened by the man's death. Our heart and prayers are with the family.
However, let's make no mistake. Air marshals are not in the position to diagnose the patient while dozens or hundreds of lives are at stake. This air marshal acted exactly as he should have.
And SWNID is glad.
We are not a terribly frequent flyer, but we fly often enough. We have wondered how many air marshals are on how many flights, understandably a very closely guarded secret.
So we find it very comforting that the story in the MSM is not "Deranged man terrorizes passengers with claims about bomb" but "Deranged man who claims to have bomb shot by air marshal." Whatever faults exist in the homeland security system, this time the system worked.
It is a tragedy that this man had to die. But how many serious bombers have now shelved their plans to strike the airlines again?
1 comment:
i agree that this was necessary. no doubt there will be two sides to the argument (or more).
the washington post chimes in with a negative slant. of course. the enquirer article mentions a second-hand report that the man was bi-polar and hadn't taken his medication, which is sad. i don't care to speculate why he hadn't taken his drugs, but what a price to pay for it.
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