Last week, what would ordinarily be considered to be a compelling headline slipped below the radar amid a series of news stories about presidential debates and controversial officer-involved shootings. Nonetheless, this stealthy little story merits our attention, for it plainly demonstrates that even when cops are off duty, they are the guardians who keep American citizens safe.
While aboard a commercial airline flight, Milwaukee County (Wis.) Sheriff David Clarke — one of the most well-known and well-respected law enforcers in the country — took into custody an intoxicated and abusive passenger was menacing passengers and flight attendants.
Sheriff Clarke observed the subject escalate his threatening behavior, and when the man got up from his seat and ran down the aisle as the airplane was descending toward the runway, Clarke took action. He pinned the inebriant to a seat and held him there until the flight arrived at the gate and local cops took him into custody. Clarke asked one of the officers for her handcuffs and cuffed the subject before turning him over to local authorities.
Where were the Federal Air Marshals?
In a blog post, Clarke wrote that “one newspaper reported incorrectly that the man was berating me the entire flight, which wasn’t true. Had he come at me with that, I would’ve just kicked his ass.”
Clarke also wrote about the absence of other law enforcers aboard that airplane. Clarke rhetorically asked, “Aren’t there air marshals on flights to take care of situations that might occur? No, that whole program is a joke.”
As usual, Sheriff Clarke is 100 percent correct.
John Casaretti, National President of the Air Marshal Association told USA Today in 2014 that in order to have FAMs aboard all 30,000 domestic flights in America every day, the agency would need a compliment of 75,000 people. While the TSA will not release the number of agents it employs, estimates are that there are only about 3,000 FAMs, a good portion of which do not fly at all (instead, assigned to ground-based administrative positions).
Furthermore, FAMs frequently choose to not intervene in cases of unruly passengers because they want to remain incognito in case something more serious — most notably, an attempted takeover of the airplane — was to occur later in the flight. So more regularly than one might expect, that job falls on a cop.
Working while off-duty
This is not the first time an off-duty officer intervened and solved a problem at cruising altitude aboard a commercial airliner. In January 2015, three Utah officers restrained an unruly passenger who created a disturbance on a JetBlue Airways flight en route from New York to Salt Lake City. In November 2011, an off-duty New York City police officer named Anibal Mercado subdued and handcuffed an intoxicated 22-year-old passenger named Antonio Ynoa aboard JetBlue Flight 832.
Perhaps best instance in recent memory was back in May 2009, when San Jose (Calif.) police officers Luan Nguyen and Manny Vasquez were en route home from a vacation in Viet Nam when the voice at the pointy end of the airplane announced over the intercom, “I have a situation on board. If there are any law enforcement officers on board, please identify yourselves to a flight attendant.”
Vasquez nudged Nguyen — who was fast asleep — and said, “It’s time to go to work.” Those two coppers used improvised tools to keep a mentally unstable and physically resistive subject safely subdued and restrained a man for upwards of four hours at altitude.
During that incident, there were no air marshals on board. San Jose PD were the only hope of resolution in that situation.
Upon arrival home, Vasquez gave his 13-year-old son a model of the airplane on which that incident happened. His son reportedly asked “Daddy, when the captain called, why didn’t you just stay seated?”
Vasquez told his son, “They call you and ask for your assistance and it’s, ‘Let’s go!’”
Indeed. Cops take care of business when people are in need.
What is the importance of these events?
In many cases, particularly if an off-duty cop is unarmed due to being present in a so-called gun free zone, such as an amusement park or a sporting event, the best course of action may simply be the best possible witness. But when an individual begins to pose a threat of death or great bodily harm to innocent civilians, even an unarmed officer generally will choose to leap into action.
Police officers have the training and the mindset to use personal weapons — hands, fists, elbows, feet, and knees — to resolve potentially violent situations. Sheriff Clarke and the other abovementioned LEOs prove time and again that when the skies become unfriendly, they are the first line of defense.
