Would a security personnel open fire on a person on a pair of crutches? Or on a senior citizen in a wheelchair? Or on a person palpitating with a heart attack? Or on a visually handicapped person? Yet on December 8 a man was shot dead at Miami airport by U.S. air marshals merely because he exposed his disability in public.
The man in question Rigoberto Alpizer, 44, behaved in a threatening way and allegedly claimed to carry a bomb. It was established later that he was mentally challenged, suffering from a bipolar disorder and hence his erratic and seemingly threatening behavior, which provoked the firing that killed him.
hile physical illnesses and disabilities are evident to sight, it is not always so in the case of mental illnesses. Alpizer, for example, had missed his medication and was agitated. All the other people on the plane, the procedures, and the snatches of conversation were all too much for him to process and he wanted to be out.
e need special provisions for those who are mentally challenged to avoid these mishaps in the future. Humanity could also be expressed in protecting people who lost their conscience.
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