Air marshals detain unruly passenger; some complain marshals kept guns raised

WTNH Television ^ | 09/01/2002 | Puppage

[sit-rep]

I've been lurking this issue for the past two days. I weigh in two perspectives on it...

First, let's weigh in the fact that today's Rambos, I mean a portion of today's law enforcment, have a slight knack of being a little extreme. It is almost like they "Can't wait" for an incident. Once encountered, they "Show their Stuff"...

On the behalf, I think it normal to watch their six. True, the backup did not have to hold up his weapon pointing at the on lookers. He could have just been "Ready to Draw", or ready to raise his weapon pointing down. In any event, I don't take issue with this unless it was the former...which I'm split fifty fifty on.

We'll just keep tabs on this issue for a while and see the results after some time...

SR

[Travis McGee]

I would not exclude the chance this was a drill in progress.

Two marshalls on one plane not headed to DC? Seems unlikely, but I'm not in that loop.

[Travis McGee]

Think about the vaunted FBI SWAT Teams, and how FBI SWAT Braga shot the inocent kid in the face with his M-4.

I for one would not feel comfortable with these yahoos "pointing" their weapons at me, since they may accidentally bump the trigger with their index finger.

As I mentioned, I do not exclude that this was a security test or drill in progress.

[southern rock]

And if the gun would have gone off and hurt or killed somebody, the Federal thug wouldn't have been held accountable. He probably would have gotten a promotion.

After claiming, of course, that the passanger lunged at him suddenly. And it wouldn't matter if the victim were 8 or 80, his partner would have backed up his story, and the eyewitness testimony of everyone else on board would haven't amounted to a hill of beans.

[southern rock]

Good for the marshal. Who knows if there was anyone else on the flight who may have tried something.

Yeah, a 5 year old girl could have started crying or something. BAM! "She was making sudden moves, sir"
"Excellent work, Marshall, here's your medal".

[galt-jw]

to me, this scenario seems peculiar, perhaps a set up to send a message to would be terrorists. Marshalls act agressively, so as to ensure media coverage. Yet, the "suspect" is immediately released, and the only info we have is that the "suspect" was "unruly." very interesting.

very much like the still unknown group who took over the iraqi embassy in germany...still no more info about that one....and then a "terrorist" blows up a trash can in front of the UN embassy in afghanistan. since when to terrorists blow up trash cans with hand grenades? they use car bombs, mortars, and big explosives. this seemed intended to garner attention, and nothing else.

just thinking.

[sit-rep]

bttt...

SR

[Fred Mertz]

Man, that almost makes sense.

Too bad it's backfiring on them. I think they both screwed the pooch royally by pointing their weapons at unarmed paying passengers, assuming the reporting I've read and heard is accurate.

[mewzilla]

Why did both marshalls respond? What if this had been a way to smoke out the marshalls, and there had been more than one terrorist on board? I can understand why the air marshalls might have been nervous if that had occurred to them, too.

[PatrioticAmerican]

paranoid: Exhibiting or characterized by extreme and irrational fear or distrust of others. I'd say the marshal just liked to have a gun in his hand to pretend like he was a big man. I say the guy has a little pecker.

[Puppage]

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Federal officials defended the response of an air marshal who trained his gun on a passenger-filled jet cabin for 30 minutes after detaining a man, prompting protests by a judge who was on the flight. Two armed marshalsdetained the man on Delta Flight 442, which was flying fromAtlanta to Philadelphia with 183 people on board, because he allegedly was rummaging through other people's luggage.

One marshal then held his gun on the coach cabin passengers because some of them ignored orders to remain seated withtheir seat belts on, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration said Sunday.

"If people would have stayed in their seats and heeded those warnings, that would not have happened," said TSA spokesman Robert Johnson in Washington. "It's our opinion that it was done by the book."