Air Marshall Shoots Man, While Wife Pleads
In this time of terror, is it ok to shoot first and ask questions later?
When the London police killed an innocent man, initial reports that said the man resisted proved false.
Will it be the same in this case?
Too early to tell. But is it likely that a REAL terrorist would go screaming OFF a plane, YELLING ABOUT a bomb?
REAL terrorists blow themselves up without a sound. They don't announce they have a bomb, then blow themselves up.
Was there reason to believe this man was a terrorist?
Or was it an itchy trigger finger that took the man down?
Was he black? White? Would that have mattered?
When is it right to shoot?
[UPDATE:] Let The Conflicting Reports Begin
Says Rep. John L. Mica in the Washington Post:
"This shows that the [air marshall] program has worked beyond our expectations. This should send a message to a terrorist or anyone else who is considering disrupting an aircraft with a threat."Except... this guy didn't have a bomb. And he was killed. So that's a success in Rep. Mica's book? Yikes.
The only message this seems to send to terrorists is... Don't run around screaming before you blow the plane up.
[Update II]
Wow. That's a lot of comments! Thank you all for posting. And thank you trix foley for your passionate defense of my work. Although you may want to be on the look out for pissed off 15 year old girls.
Of course I wasn't blaming blogs for the murders. That's rediculous. What I was saying is that a blog or online profile can provide a window into the mind of a teenager.
I was not aware of the Switchfoot song.. thanks for bringing it to my attention. Reading the lyrics though... I'm not convinced I read into this the wrong way.
Mike, I agree with you... check my response to the guy who had a similar comment a couple posts below.
Scott... if blogs are so gay, why you reading them?
Anyways, regarding this air marshall shooting... its just tragic. It didn't really do anything to prove we have good security. Some people's comments to the contrary, if someone is gonna blow up a plane, they don't go running OFF it. The fact is, an unarmed man got shot. We should feel sorry for his wife and family, rather than say the guy deserved it. That said, you can't judge the air marshalls either. They made a split second decision.
I ask these questions only to point out the difficulty a shoot-to-kill policy creates.
Undoubtedly, some innocent people may be caught in the line of fire.
Something like this shouldn't be celebrated, or lauded as "success," but rather, lamented.
It's sad whether you believe the air marshalls were right or wrong, or whether the shoot-to-kill policy is right or wrong.
Anyways, thanks for writin in.
