I'm not a regular here, so I'm not sure what the antagonisms are between certain people on this thread. But it is nice to see a few voices of reason, shouting into the winds of 9/11 paranoia being expressed by some here. It is that paranoia that scares me much more than a deranged airline passenger, and I fly about once a month on business, and several times a year on vacation.

PeterK said it most succinctly for me with this:

"The hysterical over-reaction to 9/11 was hard enough to stomach at the time. That a large part of the population is still living in fear, as evidenced by the irrational attitudes to risk voiced in this thread, would be laughable if it were not for all the human rights that are being surrendered because of it."

I disagree very strongly about the negative comments on the so-called "Monday morning quarterbacking". In a democracy, it is a citizens right and duty to look critically at such a questionable tactic being used in the name of public safety. Nor have I heard a report that any of passengers felt threatened or that their safety was in question.

Lest we forget, in a democracy the government works for us, and that includes the government's security forces, in this case the air marshalls. If we as citizens believe the government is acting incorrectly, it is our job (as Guest 08:29 AM alludes to in the case of police murders of mentally ill) to criticize and challenge the government authorities responsible for the problem caused by questionable actions of employees, poor training, and overzealous security practices.

Yes, the job of public safety is difficult and fraught with subjective judgment under duress. That is why we must have very high standards of whom we allow to act on our behalf as our protectors, and to constantly scrutinize their training, procedures, etc.

In my view, the criteria for selection of those people who are entrusted with the sacred duties of protecting the public, that reptilian testosterone "shoot first, ask later" types need not apply.

I often wonder how a circumstanc like this might have turned out if female officers were making the split second decisions, rather than male officers. Despite the fact that we see more and more women in law enforcement, I can't think of a single incident where a female officer has been the shooter, been accused of excessive force, etc. Just a thought. How different it would be if women carried the guns and were the majority of security workers, not the minority.