Brawl At Fort Lauderdale Baggage Claim, While Officer Just Walks By

In this video you can see two passengers brawl at Fort Lauderdale airport baggage claim. Maybe you’re thinking, ‘just another weekday in South Florida’ and that’s fair. Because that’s apparently what the Broward County Sheriff’s Office must have been thinking, responding to the situation by walking by and not get involved.

To be clear I can understand him not wanting to put himself in the middle of the altercation, and being more interested in protecting himself than whomever is the victim here. He’s likely just waiting for backup. But it’s incredible how long it can take for officers to respond inside an airport, considering how many officers are inside an airport to begin with.

You’ll find airport security, local law enforcement, drug enforcement administration, customs and border protection and numerous others. Most of the time there’s little action to respond to. At least in airports that aren’t located in South Florida. But with all the practice they get in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, shouldn’t they be on their game?

It was only yesterday that I covered passengers attacking a Frontier Airlines agent at the Miami airport after showing up late for their flight and learning they wouldn’t be allowed to fly.

But Fort Lauderdale has its outsized share of drama as well, remember that it’s the airport which also sees a disproportionate amount of traffic from low cost carriers (like Spirit).

“Florida Man” got his name for a reason.

Update: The Broward County Sheriff’s Office offers,

At approximately 7:41 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 23, a Broward Sheriff’s Office Airport Safety Officer alerted BSO Airport District deputies to a disturbance between two men in the baggage claim area at Terminal 3 of the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. BSO deputies responded and, following an investigation, learned that the two men were friends who became engaged in a physical altercation. Neither individual required medical treatment, and the victim signed a waiver of prosecution.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. “To be clear I can understand him not wanting to put himself in the middle of the altercation, and being more interested in protecting himself than whomever is the victim here. He’s likely just waiting for backup.”

    Yeah, don’t do your job if you worry about getting hurt, as you are not being paid for that. Go get a coffee, and let others worry about enforcing the law. Why have “law enforcement” people in the first place? Just replace them with social workers.

  2. These dorks need some jiujitsu in their lives. How embarrassing for a grown man not to be able to defend himself.

  3. Basically, to put it bluntly, most cops are worthless. They are a drain on society and do little to improve the life of the average citizen.

  4. Also to be fair, Broward County (where FLL is located) has firefighters and paramedics operate under the auspices of “Broward County Sheriff’s Office” (firetrucks and ambulances are emblazoned as such) so it’s also something to consider that someone with a Sheriff’s office shirt on might not be LEO.

  5. He’s not a police officer Gary.

    @Alon is correct in what he said.

    You are correct about FLL being a low cost carrier hub. It’s also a reflection of our garbage culture .

    If H.L. Mencken we’re still alive he would use them as an example of the booboisie.

  6. He is not law enforcement. He is a traffic dude and only has wet dreams at night about wearing a firearm and kicking people at random. Until, of course, he wakes up and realizes that he can’t kick people and, really, is pretty useless unless he can wave lots of guns. Because, the reality, he can barely walk to the parking lot otherwise without hunching over with cramps.

  7. We have no one to blame but we voters. A certain party has emboldened people to do this and the cops risk being fired or worse a court room if it goes down wrong trying to break up

  8. Harry is right and James N is an idiot. Hope you never need a cop James and if so hopefully they won’t respond. The current administration has emboldened criminals and emasculated law enforcement. Even if he was a legitimate LEO his interaction would be recorded analyzed and criticized by onlookers and eventually the lamestream media. No winning there.

  9. That is definitely not a law enforcement officer walking by. No weapon, cuffs, etc. Only a radio. Either fire/rescue or traffic/parking. They do not have the training or equipment to get involved in that and would be against policy/protocol for them to intervene. Only if it was extremely one-sided such as an able-bodied adult beating up a child or elderly person would the higher-ups turn their backs on the policy/protocol violation for intervention.

  10. ‘But with all the practice they get in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, shouldn’t they be on their game?’.. Great line! LOL

  11. CMorgan commits the frequent error of individuals incapable of having a measured debate, he resorts to name-calling. Rather than explain the mistakes in my post, he chooses to take the intellectually lazy approach. It’s much easier to toss out mindless insults than it is to actually offer a thoughtful retort.

  12. Why get involved? Let them beat each other senseless. They’re only hurting themselves and their antics break up the monotony that is baggage claim.

Comments are closed.