CNN: Passengers describe wife's desperation. ⇒
8 December 2005, early afternoon
So a federal air marshal shot and killed an innocent man. This link was found via Kottke.org.
This is a post from my link log: If you click the title of this post you will be taken the web page I am discussing.
Like the London shooting, I think we have to wait til the investigation is complete, but if things went down the way they said they did, I think the air marshals did the right thing. I am sorry, but a man running through an airplane saying he has a bomb and then (allegedly) reaching into his backpack is exactly the kind of situation that I want air marshals around for. And I’m sorry, but his wife yelling out that’s he’s depressed and bipolar and off his meds is NOT a reason not to believe him. Depressed/bipolar could mean “he really has a bomb in there”. But I think we have to see where the investigation goes. I think there were too many witnesses this time to have a coverup like they managed in London, but you never know.
by Ben on December 8 2005, 8:55 pm #
True Ben, but the sad thing is that even if everything went down the way they are saying (which doesn’t sound unreasonable) it’s still sad, because the man wasn’t mentally sound and was just talking nonsense because of it.
by Ramanan on December 8 2005, 9:19 pm #
Oh, I agree with that. Sometimes I worry about things I do that seem normal to me that might get me shot in public places. Air travel makes me nervous. Any loss of innocent life is sad, but this one, at least, seems to have been inevitable by the time the air marshals were involved (one could question his family letting him travel, of course).
by Ben on December 8 2005, 9:44 pm #
Sepia Mutiny has a whole lot more to say on this topic.
by Ramanan on December 9 2005, 2:58 am #
Bruce Schneier has something to say on this as well.
by ramanan on December 9 2005, 5:52 pm #