Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Paying Attention, Terrorists?

This may just be a tragic situation of a mentally unbalanced man going off at the wrong place and the wrong time, but it does prove a point.

We are not going to fool around anymore when it comes to security on a plane. You give the impression you are threatening the safety of a flight and either the passengers are going to kick your ass or a federal agent is going to pop you.

And I feel good about that.

UPDATE:

Watch closely to see if the tide turns against these two brave Air Marshals. They were the heros of the day when this first happened, but now the media is latching onto the idea that they were just trigger happy. Evidence of this is the reporting that some of the passengers did not hear the man say bomb. Well, what of it? Just because they did not hear it doesn't mean he didn't say it and it doesn't mean the Marshals didn't hear him say it.

And frankly, he didn't even have to say it to be a valid threat. In a situation like this you use your best judgment and I am telling you now if a guy acted like this on a plane, failed to follow my commands, and reached for what I thought might be a weapon or a bomb in a backpack, I would have no hesitation with using deadly force against him. His saying bomb would make it easier, but it wouldn't be a requirement. Would I feel badly afterward knowing that he was only a sick man? Yes. But I would rather be alive feeling badly about it surrounded by my family and friends than dead along with a lot of innocent passengers. And if these guys hesitated the same passengers who are complaining about them now would be either dead or complaining that they did not shoot the guy before the bomb went off. So in my humble opinion they are stupid, ungrateful hypocrites.