"Airport shooting: Tragic product of post-9/11 world"

Friday, December 9, 2005

OpEd
Airport shooting: Tragic product of post-9/11 world
USA Today


For Rigoberto Alpizar and his family, Wednesday's fatal shooting at Miami
International Airport was a tragedy. In many ways, the 44-year-old home
improvement store worker was a casualty of our anxious times.

In this post-9/11 world, terrorism fears combined with hair-trigger security
can turn deadly in an instant. That's what appears to have happened
Wednesday, when Alpizar falsely claimed to be carrying a bomb in a backpack
he had carried aboard an American Airlines jetliner.

Authorities say Alpizar bolted from his seat and ran into a jetway, where he
ignored commands to drop the backpack and was fatally shot by two air
marshals. It was later learned that Alpizar was mentally ill.

Thousands of air marshals have been placed on planes since the 9/11
hijackings precisely to make such life-and-death, split-second decisions.
What may have passed for bizarre or rowdy behavior before Sept. 11, 2001 -
problems then handled by flight attendants and pilots - can prompt a
different response now.

Though this was the first instance of an air marshal shooting a passenger,
Alpizar is not the first to fall victim to the world's edginess.

Last summer in London, police shot and killed an innocent Brazilian man in
front of terrified commuters in a subway. They mistook him for a terrorism
suspect, days after a wave of bombings in the London subway system. The
subsequent uproar caused police to re-evaluate their "shoot-to-kill" policy.
Ultimately, they left it in place.

Thursday, observers ranging from security experts to the White House
spokesman said it appears the marshals did what they were trained to do.
We'll leave it to an inquiry, now underway, to decide whether deadly force
was appropriate. Meanwhile, it's worth considering what might be done
better:

   . Should air marshals also be given stun guns, to deal with situations in
which non-lethal force is appropriate?

   . Are air marshals well-trained and performing at top level?

   . Should flight attendants and airport workers get more training on how
to spot disturbed fliers before trouble begins?

As federal officials warn of terrorists turning to explosives as the weapon
of choice, it is understandable, even desirable, that air marshals be ready
to respond. Imagine the second guessing if Alpizar had been carrying a bomb
and air marshals had failed to act.

The incident leaves everyone groping to find a balance that might not be
achievable: Perfect security without risk of harm.


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