Let's Just Let Him Detonate the Bomb
filed on Thursday, December 08, 2005 at 7:44:55 AM CST

I was laying here watching the Today show, listening to the aftermath interviews about the shooting of 44-year-old Rigoberto Alpizar on American Airlines Flight 924, and got to witness Katie Couric asking some of the most ridiculous questions I've ever heard come out of a news reporter's mouth.  For those who don't know the story, basically, Alpizar said he had a bomb in his bag, and was shot to death by Air Marshalls.

Now, of course, there's question as to whether he should have been incapacitated instead.  Why did they have to kill him?  After all, after the authorities detonated the baggage, they determined there hadn't really been a bomb.

Okay, let's take  just a moment, and look at this from the Air Marshall's point of view.  There's a man on a loaded plane claiming to have a bomb in his bag.  He's running frantically toward the front of the plane.  He reaches into that bag.  Do you, as an Air Marshall, shoot?

HELL YES!  Why the hell is there a discussion about this?  I don't care if the man had a Dangerous Holiday Fruitcake in his backpack, and I could care less that now, afterward, it's revealed that his wife's running after him shouting that he's bipolar and doesn't have his medication.  Shoot the fucker, and don't miss!

I'm not really one for the use of guns, but if ever there's a clear-cut case for using one, this is it.  Let's be realistic here for a moment.  Being bipolar isn't an excuse for running around claiming you have a bomb.  Your wife running after you shouting such, from an Air Marshall's point of view, isn't an excuse not to shoot you.

Think long and hard about the situation if you're one of those who think Alpizar should have been incapacitated.  Think about the fact that if they'd aimed for his hand or his kneecap or his shoulder that they might have missed, and instead, hit a passenger who wasn't running around claiming to have a bomb.  Consider that if there really had been a bomb in that bag, incapacitating him might still have given him the time to detonate it.  Take into account that had a bomb really gone off, there'd be a hell of a lot of dead people, and we'd all be sitting here asking why something hadn't been done to prevent the explosion.

THIS is the prevention.  Like it or not, a man, acting erratically, claimed he had a bomb in his bag, and then went to reach into said bag.  This wasn't really a decision.  The moment Alpizar's hand went near that bag, he was dead.  And this is a good thing.

Katie Couric asking if more training might be necessary for Air Marshalls, experts coming out to say that there might be need for further training and procedure... It's sad and sickening.  The Air Marshalls involved should be commendated for their actions, not the subject of a question and answer session indicating they might have been over zealous.  They did their job, they did what they should have done, and the death of that one man, while needless in the end, very possibly could have saved the lives of everyone else on that plane.  They had no way of knowing there really wasn't a bomb in that bag, and they didn't take the chance that it was a joke.  Nor should they have.

You don't cry "fire" in a crowded building unless there's a fire, and you most certainly don't utter the "b" word while sitting on a plane.  This guy wasn't joking, and he wasn't a teenager snickering about having said the word "bomb," and then being escorted from the plane.  This is a man who, from all outward appearances, might very well have had the bomb he claimed to have.  At that point, you believe him, and you shoot.  Period.

It reminds me of a conversation my dad, Al, and his second wife (whom I often call "mom") Ruth had.  She used to be a security guard at the Braidwood nuclear power plant here in Illinois.  Her training was to draw her gun, aim at an intruder, and basically ask, "Halt, who goes there?" to prevent an accidental shooting.  Dad said that if he wanted to attack the power plant, she was already dead.  She'd get about as far as "Halt," before he'd have shot her.  Now, presumably, after the first man down, the training goes from "Halt!" to "Shoot to kill!" but that all depends on there being another security person around to know the shot happened.  Hopefully, here in a post 9/11 world, people who are where they don't belong, say, inside a building housing a nuclear reactor, are shot first, and questions asked later.

Not a big fan of the gun, but, in defense of the greater good, people who claim to have a bomb on an airplane should be shot.  And they should publicize it as a good thing.  The alternative to what happened might very well have been fiery death for everyone else.  Not a pretty choice.