A new video of a man being tased in the airport after resisting arrest following questions about his drinking is going viral – first on TikTok and then on Reddit.
The passenger reports to police that he’s had “about” three margaritas. When someone answers that question with an estimate you can multiply by at least two.
The man, despite his state, makes an a point to the officers: why is it a problem to drink 3 margaritas when there’s a bar at the airport? I’d add that if the man committed a crime, surely it’s admitting to paying $2,000 for what is probably a domestic flight.
He resists arrest, and gets tased. But what’s priceless is the older male passenger in a mask approaching, trying to intervene? It’s not clear whether he wants to comfort the passenger, or help the officers hold him down while the cops wrestled the allegedly drunk man to the ground. A third cop shouts at older gentleman to “get away!”
A bit of a warning, the language in this video is very much NSFW – indeed, it’s even not safe for work-from-home:
Drunk guy gets tased at airport
by u/usernamefred in PublicFreakout
The video does raise an existential question: why do airports sell cocktails to passengers, if they don’t want passengers to drink?
The answer of course is two-fold: you don’t actually have to drink to excess just because you drink, and alcohol is profitable. Most airport decisions can be understood as maximizing revenue for someone.
And while American Airlines lobbied for an end to the availability of alcohol ‘to go’ in airports during the pandemic, and flight attendants union head Sara Nelson advocated the end of alcohol on planes, airports are getting a cut of retail sales and frequently so too are the airlines. (United’s flight attendants, represented by Ms. Nelson, are currently seeking a contract where they’d get a commission of inflight sales – including alcohol.)
(HT: Bill S.)
It shouldn’t be a problem to drink 3 margaritas, unless he can’t act responsibly after he drinks them. Then that’s a problem. And his problem becomes a problem for everyone else, which is pretty selfish. Everybody has a different threshold for how much alcohol they can consume before they become intoxicated, and add altitude…that can be a nightmare and a big mess. Part of the reason why we are not allowed to knowingly board an intoxicated passenger. I know you were looking at the financial aspects, all around, but to me the bigger risk is the problem of having to deal with the fallout of the drunken passenger, and the problem that they could cause, rather than the money I could make off of them.
because ‘merica.
Pull your drawers up, Junior!
I wonder if he was raised on concrete.
If nothing else, wearing your pants like that justifys a good tase.
If he made it to his $2000 flight and acted the same way in the plane he’d be facing way bigger problems especially if the flight had to divert. A totally intoxicated passenger does not escape notice. Who do we get? Happy drunk? Or mean drunk?
Federal crime vs Drunk and Disorderly minimum.
What a society we have here in this country. I’ve never seen such a display in Europe. Both this guy and the cops are out of control.
The videographer couldn’t even get the moment he was tased on film? Weak.
He’s drunk. He shouldn’t get on a plane. Tasing is better than hitting him over the head with a Billy club. I have no problem with how the cops handled this, based on what we see in the video.
Didn’t the guy see The Hangover? Getting tased should be on the Do Not Try For Yourself list.
Initial thoughts: hilarious! Usually I try to wait until Fourth of July for ‘muriquin fireworks.
Subsequent thoughts: 1) is the intervening masked man attempting to give him his personal injury lawyer referral card?
2) Why did the cops choose to escalate and not de-escalate or dial-back?
3.) I’ll take this passenger as an enjoyable seatmate over the literally thousands of other passengers with obnoxious, out-of-control, uncivilized behaviors (body odor, personal space invasion, seat-back-kicking, crybabies, et al.) that we all encounter too often.
4) As a DL elite, I was unduly stressed a few months ago to learn that on-board TipTop marguaritas no longer were offered. I now must pre-load my marguarita intake before boarding, and therefore I feel real empathy for the marguarita enthusiast here, who got a $2k flight experience stolen from him.
Three margaritas? Tase his ass and take him away. Dangerous in the air.
There’s nothing priceless about this. Just sad.
About 3 margaritas means 5 to 6
Just got to wait til they get off the plane.
“Welcome to Key West. Your luggage is on the left, restrooms are on the right, and the cocktail bar is in the middle.”
Truly an awesome airport.
Please. This is not an USA issue.
USA people love to video tape everything…. Simple.
Stop with the USA vs Europe (which is now Ukraine/ Eastern Europe boarding on the Russia Front, etc).
The best flight I have ever taken was a badly weather delayed TWA flight, as in 8 hours delayed, from Charlotte to St Louis. By the time the flight departed there were maybe 20 people on the flight, as TWA had protected everyone else on US Airways (imagine that, TWA, US Airways, Charlotte, all part of AA now, who could have known?). Anyhow, they upgraded everyone to first class except myself and another passenger (I think we both worked for TWA, so we were non-revs). Those passengers had been sitting in the bar next to the gate that entire time we were waiting. A couple of them were pretty happy having a great time, and well behaved. The flight attendant’s kind of let things go and were good natured about it all. They handed out beer freely, and those passengers started rolling beers back to us. So, we got free beer on the flight as well. I won’t forget that flight.
UnionTHAT Yes, the Golden Age of Flying TWA. I would fly TWA through St. Louis. I forget who picked up the leftovers. Now, we have the dystopian future in airports, like a bad movie scene shot in Ponte City, Jo’burg.
Anyway, my previous comment remains heartfelt.
Sadly many folks shouldn’t drink at all. We have a very emotionally unstable society, whether it’s alcohol or the illegal use of guns. For some it doesn’t take 3 drinks or even 2 to turn them into monsters.