12.18.05
jumping the gun
last month, i asked "who mourns for Jean Charles?"…. from the events of this month, so far the answer, it seems, is noone — except maybe the family of Rigoberto Alpizar…
supposedly, words he uttered about a bomb caused a scene, and he was pursued off the plane and shot dead on the jetway… at first, to be honest, the title of this blog was "SAM - Suicide by Air Marshal"… until it occured to me that, in these times of hair-trigger responses, there are too many unasked questions…
- like, "did he really say he had a bomb?"
days after the shooting, no less a source than Forbes.com published an article in which several passengers on that ill-fated flight were interviewed… none of them heard Mr. Alpizar say anything about a bomb. they recalled his being agitated; they figured he was merely afraid of flying… none of them were really that concerned, until guns started being waved around…
…conventional wisdom has it that we’re "better safe than sorry", but are we? is Rigoberto? are you telling me that we’re no longer allowed to freak out on airplanes any more, without the risk of being shot dead by the people supposedly protecting us from terrorists???
- and, "don’t they check for bombs BEFORE YOU BOARD THE PLANE?"
the same day i found the Forbes article, a blogger posted a link to CNN footage from the airport’s security cameras showing, according to the blogger, "an agitated Rigoberto Alpizar"… he posted this link, and bade us view for ourselves what the air marshals "may have faced" on that tragic flight…
interestingly enough, in seconds :35 to :42, i noticed what noone else in all the coverage of this, appears to have picked up: Rigoberto taking off his backpack and jacket and passing them thru the X-RAY MACHINES…
what the FUCK, people???… x-ray machines at every fucking gate: don’t the Air Marshals and airport security coordinate intelligence? people with guns sit ready to summarily execute us, and they don’t even know what just happened at the goddamned security checkpoint designed to… do what? keep us safe???
- or how about, "is any of this security stuff WORKING?"
chicken little is obviously in charge of security policy now…. we’re so scared of a potential threat, that armed Air Marshals don’t even trust the security we’ve had in place for years… it’s not supposed to be possible to sneak a bomb in a fuckin’ backpack, people — so what were they thinking?
four years after the events that have triggered all this panic, hasn’t anyone considered real-time communication between the existing security infrastructure, and parties authorized to use deadly force?
in the face of the possible threat of terror, our response must be practical, coordinated, built upon what sane methods we have already implemented, and based on reason, not fear — otherwise, we’ve spent millions on tools and training, and thousands of years waiting at airport checkpoints, to accomplish nothing…
either way, "shoot first and ask questions later" is a cliche, NOT a policy.