A man who appeared to be under the influence of alcohol was tasered by airport police after resisting arrest.
Police Taser Intoxicated Man Who Confessed To Drinking “About” Three Margaritas While Waiting For Flight At Airport Bar
Asked how many drinks he had consumed, the man said “about three” margaritas. Three or three too many?
Intoxicated and belligerent, airport police decided to arrest the man, who resisted and was then tasered by the police officers. The whole incident was captured on video—including an older man interjecting himself into the situation (it is not clear why) only to be told by the same police officers to back off.
If you have sensitive ears, turn the sound down – the language is really vulgar:
Drunk guy gets tased at airport
by u/usernamefred in PublicFreakout
View From The Wing reasonably asks, why do airports sell alcoholic drinks to passengers if they don’t expect them to drink? The surface-level answer, of course, is that airports sell alcoholic beverages because it is very profitable. Furthermore, just because there is an airport bar does not mean you have to stop by, sit down, and drink. You’re free to pass it up and if you do patronize it, it is on you to do so responsibly.
But while not absolving this man of his personal responsibility, when bars go so far as to sell alcohol to-go (And go where? On an airplane obviously, even with a disclaimer that says you cannot take it onboard a plane…), is it really any wonder why we see instances of drunken stupidity like this? Sadly, many people do not know how to say no until it is too late. That doesn’t mean “we can’t have nice things” but incidents like this are a reminder of the downside to placing a cantina in a place where people are already tense, apprehensive, and often bored.
Sara Nelson, head of the powerful AFA-CWA flight attendant, believes it is time to explore equipping flight attendants onboard with tasers. As we see here, they can do some serious damage.
CONCLUSION
These incidents are really pathetic spectacles, yet I cover them because they always offer an important reminder: drink responsibly. Perhaps you skip that drink or skip the bar altogether. Sometimes our body reacts in ways we do not expect when we mix in booze. Be mindful of that, especially when you travel.
image: @brittanyelizbaeth710 / TikTok
If he had only listened to the police!!!!!
I said this many times, stop selling alcohol on airports and stop offering it on planes. Why do people need to drink on planes? I have been shocked how much people drink on planes and at very odd times. 7AM flight mid of the week so before 7AM in first class FA asks what people want to drink and it goes from Bloody Mary to scotch to vodka and soda, etc… For breakfast??? I flew on a 7:30AM flight from CA last week and the guy seating next to me went through 8 small bottles of red wine during the 3 hour trip. First, that wine is garbage, second, it was very early in the morning. I simply don’t get it. Want to drink, go to a bar or drink at home.
Completely agree with Santastico. With so many vacationers believing the holiday begins with guzzling at a bar, I am surprised we don’t have more arrests. But as Matthew pointed out alcohol is a huge profit center for airports. Without going all Carrie Nation, something needs to be addressed.
Full disclosure, I enjoy wine. At home
It’s bad enough that in places like England it’s already pretty hard to find fast-food places serving pork as a result of the culinary preferences of a minority of local people ( see here for a summary of the reason behind the issue: https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15 ). I don’t want to see more choice taken away, and I definitely don’t want to find myself in the awkward position of fully endorsing a belief whose main proponents are alt-rightists, xenophobes etc.
I am writing this from a plane where alcohol is free flowing. Before the flight, I and other pax had one or two glasses of sparkling moscatel in the lounge despite a 10:30 departure (I woke up at 4:45 and I was staying in an airport hotel, other pax probably had very little sleep and are making up for it by sleeping on the plane). You want to take this away from us, devalue the airline product and make us grumpy for what? Because 0.5% of airline pax can’t control their drinking? What is the next step, a Social Credit Score system? Great stuff!
PM Reread my comment. And nyet Natasha nobody’s was even suggesting anything close to your comment.
And once again I will completely disagree with this puritan Sara Nelson take.. The mentioned incident in this post does not happen on a regular basis; this does not warrant ruining it for the rest of behaved pax.
I enjoy wine and other alcohol. I got drunk so many times during College. Never more. My point is not about good people or bad people in terms of behavior but why at least on domestic flights people cannot be a few hours without drinking? BTW, many people flying are flying for work, I don’t thunk they would be drinking if they were in the office. Anyway, I think it will become the same as smoking. You can wait until you land to drink again.
Because it is a disproportionate restriction and it is a finger-wagging puritanist initiative that will really only apply to common folk and not those travelling on private jets, through VIP terminals and/or with diplomatic passports.
Like the obligation placed on Italians/Greeks/Spaniards to fill in forms just to go for a walk in 2020, this type of restriction is simply not compatible with the raison d’etre of a democratic polity which trusts its citizenry to do the right thing and doesn’t restrict their rights just in case the odd person happens to be naughty.
What is a domestic flight anyway? Reunion, Hawaii, Aruba, Vladivostok are all pretty damn far from their national capitals.
Off topic comment: I just sent a message through the contact form. Please let me know if you got it and respond when you have a chance.
Cheers!
(I have only written this comment because I had sent something else maybe 1.5 year ago and never heard anything back!)
How embarrassing. I see London. I see France. I see the drunk guy’s underpants.
And not surprisingly they look the underwear of a 10 year old
There are a couple of million passengers a day in the US. The percentage of drunks is not even a rounding error. More people were killed by guns today in the USA than 10 years of drunks disrupting flights. Get some perspective.
The guy was being a jerk, but using profanity isn’t against the law. As Justice Marshall wrote, “one man’s lyric is another man’s vulgarity.” You can defend a resisting arrest charge if the arrest was unlawful, and this one seems to be. The police did nothing to deescalate the situation. He didn’t appear to be forcing himself on the aircraft. I’m pretty sure that having three margaritas and saying “F the Police” is the definition of free speech.
Seriously, what were they arresting him for? Disorderly conduct? Good luck if it’s speech expressing frustration directed at public officials in a public place. He should have been denied boarding, but that’s not the issue here. If those (or any) cop would learn how to deescalate, problems like this would never arise, but their egos are just too sensitive.
That asshole got lucky US police didnt use deadly force when dealing with aggressive moron resisting arrest.
Get a grip, Jerry. That behavior is intolerable. And it is only going to get worse at altitude. The police were just doing their jobs so have some respect for law enforcement and other passengers (that are not obnoxious jerks)
I’m not defending the behavior, I just don’t understand why they were prosecuted in the United States.
Sorry. I thought this was another article. A lot of law breaking today I suppose.
Police earn our support when they honor their oath. They didn’t do that here.
I read a book “The Like Switch” by an FBI agent which makes several great observations of human nature that includes how to de-escalate situations. Too many remarks that “watch your step otherwise the police/FA’s can tase you” suggests an unempathic society.
There was another way to handle this. Not saying it wouldn’t worked, but the cop instead of “Respect Mah Authoritee” could have backed off and expressed empathy. “You paid $2000 for your ticket? Wow! Is that at least business class? I can see how you’d have a problem with that.” Expressing empathy calms people down. Then the officer could express gratitude “Thanks for talking with us. I know it’s tough but we have a job to do.” which invites empathy from the subject. Now they’re connected and can interact more responsibly: “Listen, I don’t want trouble. I just have to do my job. Can you please help both of us out? If you can sit down for a few minutes, we’ll see what we can sort out. Perhaps you can board a flight later but for now, we might have to haul you in and we don’t want to do that.”
“As I was saying, she stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly ninety-nine percent of the test subjects accepted the program provided they were given a choice – even if they were only aware of it at a near-unconscious level. ” — The Architect, The Matrix
If he claims he had ‘about three margaritas’, it likely mean 3x that. If he said he paid $2000 for his ticket, that probably means 1/3 of that. It’s called alcoholic math. I think we should be impressed and thankful that police rightly clocked this guy before he boarded. Better this happened on the ground than in the air.
Agreed.
It’s clear that some commenters have never been obligated to deal with someone who is intoxicated (alcohol and/or drugs) and agitated and literally uncontrollable. This type of behavior is seen frequently by some professionals including police and ER staff. Many of us learned early in our careers that “you cannot negotiate (rationalize) with a drunk (lush)”, it NEVER works.
Unfortunately, despite most intoxications not being anything close to a medical emergency, many people like this lush end up in the ER. Police don’t want to put them in jail, they don’t want the responsibility and risk, police bring them to the ER where we cannot turn away anybody. Once they’re our patient, we have the medical responsibility to be certain it is just a simple intoxication (not a head injury or other medical emergency) and then legal and ethical responsibilities to “care” for them until they’re sober. Sometimes that’s nothing more than watching them sleep and babysitting, sometimes it’s physical and/or chemical sedation to protect themselves from injuring themselves and others. If we discharged them while still drunk, even to the “care” of friends or family, we’d still be liable if they injured themselves or others (vicarious liability).
I gave these types of patients “the one choice lecture” … once. “We’re only going to have this discussion once. You’re our patient and you are not competent to make your own medical decisions, I now make your medical decisions. You can cooperate and stay here quietly and sleep OR you can yell and scream in which case we’re going to give you some medication that will put you to sleep for the next 8 hours, it’s entirely your choice. Feel free to call your lawyer (as they often threatened), please spell my name correctly.” My estimation is that the lecture was successful in avoiding sedation for about 10-20% of patients. Many of us also had a 1 or 2 “F word” rule, 1 or 2 F words got immediate sedation. A few people called the police, sometimes after the police had brought them to the ER, of course the police supported us every time. TTBOMK there has never been a successful lawsuit for “wrongful imprisonment” of a lush, there have been successful lawsuits (against doctors) for lush who subsequently injured (or killed) themselves or others. It’s one thing if a lush driver runs over a school bus load of children, it’s entirely different if that lush had been discharged (or eloped) from an ER a hour prior.
Some ER docs do negotiate and discharge with friends or family, I never did. I still clearly and vividly recall an experience from 20 years ago. Change of shift, lush had just arrived, incoming staff had to evaluate and treat (if necessary), night shift ER doc (not residency trained in EM) was negotiating with said lush while allowing the lush to stand. I was sitting and completing charts, suggested to night shift ER doc to stop negotiating and sedate, night shift doc dismissed my suggestion. Lush promptly fell flat on his face, I still recall the blood pooling around his face on the linoleum floor. The night shift ER doc now had more work (CT scan, sutures, etc.) and faced a lawsuit for not properly protecting the patient from further injury.
My favorites were the local college students who got intoxicated (alcohol or drugs) infrequently and then exhibited abhorrent behavior including screaming and cursing at a 5’0” 95 pound nurse who was the nicest, most caring and devoted nurse ever. Often times at discharge 8-12 hours later they were profusely apologetic, sometimes they didn’t remember their terrible behavior, sometimes they denied it. I always wanted to do a study whereby we would video them while they were yelling and screaming and cursing and fighting and then show it to them at discharge; could never get it approved by the various review boards.
Typo corrections: “for lush” should read “for a lush”, “a hour prior” should read “an hour prior”.
PolishNight: The “another way to handle this” very very rarely works, so rarely that it’s also not time and energy efficient to try. The risk of further injury (to themselves or others) is greater than the possibility the “de-escalation” would accomplish anything productive. It might work for some people but those people are unlikely to be in that situation to begin with. Think of it like dealing with a small child (having a hissy fit); sometimes nothing works, all the empathy in the world can’t help and it just has to run it’s natural course.
I appreciate that. I suppose the FBI agent’s advice largely applies to people who are merely tired or agitated due to long hours of travel which is different than someone in a drug/alcohol induced state.
That being said, in the case of a lush whose otherwise in possession of his physical facilities, does it hurt to have the cop attempt to de-escalate the situation as opposed to escalating it?
The video starts during police involvement, we do not see what happened prior to the video. In what we can see on this video, the police were initially calm and soft spoken and non-threatening. It’s quite possible the police had attempted de-escalation prior to the video.
The lush was screaming and threatening, including the F word, from the first second of the video. At that point it’s obvious to any experienced responder or provider that de-escalation is not going to work. If a lush is going to cooperate they do so from the first moment of intervention, it’s rare that a lush changes from argumentative and combative to cooperative and on those rare occasions the cooperation is often short lived. The police in this case had excellent restraint, they only got physical after the lush resisted arrest.
The lush should be banned from flying for 10 years and spend a few years in jail. Being a loud gigantic anal sphincter should be against the law. People, including lushes, should follow police directions, the time to argue about it is afterwards. Nothing good ever comes from resisting arrest.
I was thinking that both Police and ER/doctors are training primarily in technical acumen rather than social skills hence why, as you assume that trying to talk down lushes rarely works. Or as Peggy Hill put it on King of the Hill:
“Buck is drowning in a sea of his own addictions, and if there is one thing I learned at YWCA camp, it is that you cannot save a drowning man!”
There’s also the halo effect in that Authority Figures such as Police, Pilots, and Doctors may tend to exaggerate their competence in other fields due to their authority in their own as well as refuse to seek help in improving their skillset. If they can’t fix it with their existing skillset, then NOBODY can so don’t bother.
After I read your comment, I read this on American Spectator. It’s quite touching:
“Charles Beresford was born to an aristocratic English family, son of a Marquess. He rose to prominence in the Royal Navy, eventually gaining a series of three fleet commands in the days before World War I. ”
This describes Beresford addressing a drunk sailor who was resisting arrest with 5 military policemen:
“The man was in a frenzy. Standing directly in front of him, I spoke to him quietly. “Now, my lad, listen to me…You’re an Irishman and you’ve had a little too much to drink, like many of us at times. But you are all right. Think a moment. Irishmen don’t behave like this in the presence of the enemy. Nor will you. Why, we may be in a tight piece tomorrow and who’s going to back me then? You are. You’re the man I want!” As I talked to him, the expression on his face changed from desperation to a look of bewilderment, and from bewilderment to understanding; and then he suddenly broke down. He turned his head aside and cried. I told the sergeant to take him away and give him some tea.”