Carol Gotbaum: Update

New update: Apparently she was enroute to a rehab at the time of the incident. Sad story all around.

For better or worse, I suspect the story of Carol Gotbaum, who died in custody at a Phoenix airport, will be one of those stories where there's more to the story than we first heard. That she died from strangulation due to her having been in handcuffs and trying to work her way out of them was only a theory.

Via first link above, Ms. Gotbaum appears to have been in a somewhat animated state of mind while claiming she was sick. An autopsy will be done.

The daughter-in-law of one of New York's top officials screamed, "I'm not a terrorist!" and fought with security officials in the Phoenix airport before being wrestled to the ground and handcuffed, witnesses told the Daily News yesterday.

Carol Anne Gotbaum, 45, of the upper West Side, died less than an hour later, after cops claim she apparently strangled herself while trying to escape from the handcuffs in a holding cell at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

"I'm not a terrorist! I'm a sick mom! I need help!" yelled the mother of three after she missed the 2:58 p.m. US Airways Express flight to Tucson, said airport workers who witnessed the confrontation Friday.

More: Also Gotbaum, previously divorced and originally from South Africa is the daughter of a South African Naval diving school Commander. Gotbaum and husband Noah appear as contributors on a site for Military Kids.

Police say they checked on her every 15 minutes; she had been screaming the entire time, but at one point, police realized she was quiet and found that she was not breathing. She had been handcuffed behind her back but when Gotbaum was found, her hands were front of her and the handcuffs were up by her neck, leading police to believe she was trying to get out of the handcuffs. Sergeant Andy Hill had said, "It appeared as though Ms. Gotbaum had possibly tried to manipulate the handcuffs from behind her to the front, got tangled up in the process, and they ended up around her neck area."

Also see here:

The daughter of a retired commander of the South African Navy Diving School, Carol Anne Gotbaum had a master's of business administration degree from a prestigious Johannesburg university and worked for a time as a senior buyer for a British department store.

Noah Gotbaum is the son of Betsy's husband, Victor Gotbaum, and his former wife, Dr. Sarah Gotbaum. Victor Gotbaum is a retired labor leader who served for 22 years as president of AFSCME District Council 37, New York's largest public employee union.

Comments

[nowingker]

Glad to see our brave airport anti terrorist security forces are able to wrestle a distraught mother of three to the ground, put her in handcuffs and somehow have her end up dead.

With professionalism like this, we need fear no one.

[Cindi]

Dead can happen for many reasons. Before you ASSUME fault with authorities why not hold off judgment until the investigation is complete and all facts are in?

[nowingker]

You mean the police investigating their own behavior which led to the death of a mother of 3, who happens NOT to be a dumb immigrant, an arab or a diagnosed crazy person?

Let me take a WILD guess: the police are going to find that she 'accidentally' strangled herself trying to get out of handcuffs and while it is a regrettable tragedy, they did everything totally correctly and by the book.

Which goes to that we are no longer able to distinguish between a THREAT a potential threat or a hissy fit.

[rwilymz]

"Before you ASSUME fault with authorities why not hold off judgment until the investigation is complete and all facts are in?"

Good idea.

But that will only address the immediate circumstances. Like it or not, the issue of airport passenger harrassme... er... airport "security" is moved up a bit from the backburner. We've had a depressive getting gunned down in Atlanta [? Orlando?] for having a panic attack; we've had a boring old Bangladeshi or Indian guy cop to carrying a bomb rather than admit -- in front of his mother -- that he was carrying a fake vagina for those lonely nights away from home; and now we've got a dead mother who was acting just like someone in a hurry in the face of the warrantless presumption is that she's a terrorist until she proves herself otherwise. Not to mention that those x-ray screens are viewable by the public in every airport I've been in and you can easily see the "personal pleasure" contraptions people take in carry-on to avoid having meaty hands rifling through them in the checked-luggage check.

Couple this TSA history with the record of scoring bupkus on eliminating actual threats -- 0-fer-a couple billion -- and the net effect of annoying, harrassing, and warrantlessly denying civil rights to hundreds of millions of individual passengers each year ... no, the issue isn't going to go away simply because it's been "officially" determined that the indignant broad was 75% responsible for her own death.

Facts that can, or should, come out:

1] airport passenger screening was largely inept prior to 9-11 when it was handled by independent contractors

2] airport passenger screening is currently inept now that it's handled by governmental trained apes working for a brand new bureacracy, and which now has the added benefit of being exempt from most legal claims by virtue of being government employees

3] airport passenger screening is the most costly and least effective manner of screening individuals for [possible] nefarious activity going, but it is the most **public** manner of accomplishing this screening. Therefore it is the most suitable for the blank-headed American citizen who prefers style to substance.

4] the most effective manner of screening passengers is to talk with them and monitor their body language ... but this requires actual training in human behaviorism and not the rote technical training required to turn a conveyor belt on and off while looking at -- whoda guessed? -- a *television screen*.

5] the fallback position for stopping anyone who gets past passenger screening is to have an armed sky marshall on board every flight, but this cuts into profits and is not desirable by the industry itself.

It's presumptuous to assign the authorities the blame for this death at this time. Even if they warrant it at a later date, there's plenty of blame for them to deal with on creating the conditions in the first place.

[Cindi]

Does anyone know why she was late in the first place?

[nowingker]

How is why she was late relevant at all to what happened to her?

How about we ask why since she had been processed through security she wasn't allowed on the airplane in the first place?

[Techie]

I don't care if you are late. Don't fight with the cops. Of course, they'd cuff her.

[Brainster]

She was late because she was flying US Airways (always a mistake if there's an option) and her connection into Phoenix was late.

[joeb]

Wonder what would have happened if she had gotten on that plane? Would she have calmed down or freaked out causing a big poroblem for all aboard. She did not get on the plane because she was late. But she could not accept that. Those mean airlines abusing her passenger "rights".

[daveinboca]

Yeah, those exempt Upper West Side New Yorkies are soooo special that normal rules don't apply. Just like the krazy kid in Gainesville---cruelly tazed for simply screaming at a speaker, violently resisting arrest, and putting on a histrionic act---what a cruel violation of freedom of speech, and it's all Bush's fault, of course.

[Larry Post]

This is America, you have a right to act like an obnoxious New Yorker and not die for it.

[bloodrage bob]

you mean that kid in gainesville who was bravely tased by the cops for the heinous crimes of

1) being a loud idiot
2) squirming while the cops had him on the ground ("violently resisting"? squirming might qualify as violent resistance in...oh, i dunno... in *burma*, maybe, but not here.)
3) not instantly obeying a police "order" to shut up?

and now they've gone & killed a soccer mom. ya know, the security forces just MIGHT be getting out of hand, folks. they SEEM to be coming around to the opinion that 'rules don't apply to them'. they SEEM to be getting a little quicker to use force/tasers every year. they APPEAR to be applying that force earlier and harsher in *any* situation, and applying that force more and more to soccer moms, kids, and old folks. as much as it pains me to agree with ANYthing nowinkie says, i'll bet big bucks she's right, here: the cops WILL of course find they "did everything right and are entirely free of blame" in this situation. "it's very sad, of course, but you mere civilians must obey the security forces instantly or face the consequences. we can't be responsible for what'll happen to you serfs if you don't. we're trained to shoot to kill, every time."

who will watch the watchers?

[Techie]

Umm, you are forgetting that the kid in FL also rushed the stage.

[Fred Beloit]

"This is America, you have a right to act like an obnoxious New Yorker and not die for it." by a Larry Post.

Please allow me to amend it from Leftybonics to make it conform to the actual incident:

This is America, you have a right to act like an obnoxious New Yorker and not KILL YOURSELF OVER OF IT. Thank you.

[Raging_Dave]

Here's my problem with the whole situation - I've put handcuffs on people. I've been handcuffed in a training excercise. Short of dislocating your shoulder and bending your elbow backwards, there should be no way to suffocate yourself or strangle yourself with a pair of handcuffs that are on your wrists. I won't say it's physically impossible, because I've seen some wierd shit, but unless you're double jointed in every joint in your body, I just don't see it happening.

There's more here than we're being told.

[Fred Beloit]

That makes sense, Dave.

[nowingker]

I make another prediction, having an affluent, jewish, white woman from a politically connected family who lives on the Upper West Side with her husband and three small children under 'mysterious' circumstances is going to make the Phoenix police wish they had stuck to roughing up teenagers, illegal immigrants and people of color.

They better hope Houdini was her hero and she was known for being double jointed, else they are in for a world of hurt.

[rwilymz]

The kid in Orlando set out to create a ruckus -- he had a website devoted to the various staged ruckuses he's raised, complete with video that he set up himself; this broad was trying to catch a plane.

They both were obnoxious. "Intent" was absent from the dame.

Unless I'm missing something -- and it's very possible I am -- wanting to catch a plane which has not yet left and even angrily insisting on being expidited through the byzantine process of pseudo-screening is hardly cause for considering her a threat, nor is there need to causually dismiss the matter as if the whole airline industry has no responsibility of their own to ensure that passenger make their planes.

Bottom lines:
1] airport trained apes are officious, domineering and boorish slope-brows
2] a passenger whose plane is boarding now is not the same as, and should not be treated the same as, a passenger whose plane leaves in two hours
3] pseudo-security does not recognize either #1 or #2
4] the airline industry itself seems to be too cowed by the trained apes of TSA [or simply too indifferent] to stand up and insist that their passengers be treated like people trying to get home to see granny for christmas instead of just another potential terrorist or, almost worse, just a batch of paperwork filing past.

[nowingker]

I hate to say it, but isn't it 'your' side that has created the atmosphere where stressed out soccer moms are treated as presumptive terrorists and that anyone, anywhere, at any time who offers the slightest resistance to "security" even in the form of mouthing off 'gets what they deserve' in terms of being tasered, arrested, beaten by multiple securtiy officers, or in this case, mysteriously dead....and this goes for grown men, teenagers, even pre-teens, old people, crazy people and I guess now, rich women throwing temper tantrums is treated no different than making a bomb threat, and everyone is assumed to be a potential bomber and treated as such?

Isn't it you wingers who have lauded every step toward assuming guilt and toward giving the government as much power as they have said they needed and decried anyone who wanted more transparency or accountability as a stupid traitor?

Just sayin.

[rwilymz]

"isn't it 'your' side that has created the atmosphere where stressed out soccer moms are treated as presumptive terrorists "

Democrats, yes. But they aren't "my side".

Presumptive criminality is a manifestation of mainly liberal legislation and the "civil rights-era" courts.

They came up with "implied consent"; the current pseudo-security at airports was invented in the 70s to combat "fly me to Cuba"; ditto at courthouses and schools started in the early 90s; "progressive" legislation created data-mining of financial records for the purposes of finding child support obligors; "progressives" created mandatory seat-belt laws and the authority to warrantlessly stop all traffic to find and ticket same...

"Conservatives" used the landscape previously created for their own purposes; they didn't invent it.

"Isn't it you wingers who have lauded every step toward assuming guilt and toward giving the government as much power as they have said they needed and decried anyone who wanted more transparency or accountability as a stupid traitor?"

You make very presumptuous mistakes, as always. Simply because the weight of academic support goes to the current administration on certain issues does not mean that *my* support follows on *all* issues, or that it defines my political philosophies.

I happen to be honest.

ALL partisans want power vested in the government -- on those aspects of social control that those partisans tend to be interested in. "Progressives", for example, want just as much totalitarian control over the population on issues related to:
1] the environment
2] fiscal policy
3] foreign policy
4] "social issues"
5] et cetera
...same as "conservatives". Advocates of "progressive" politics simply cannot **see** this desire for totalitarian control because they view those desires for totalitarian control as "for the common good" in ways they are comfortable with. Which is ******no different****** from the way conservatives view their own quests for totalitarian control: for the "common good" in ways *they* are comfortable with.

Your methods are the same, dipshit. It's only the issues you view as more important which differ.

"Just sayin."

You'd have done better to not.

[nowingker]

The family has already hired a lawyer and they are having an observer at the autopsy.

Oh, how it pays to be rich, white and connected....

[bloodrage bob]

jesus, nowinkie. is there ANY issue you CAN'T get yourself all worked up into a class-envy snit about? what a sad, sorry, racist, pathetic little black-&-white world you must live in.

or is it just that you're one of those class-envy dealing race hustlers who tries to make race/social status an issue in every story, no matter what?

[Lala]

rich, white, connected, AND Democrats.

[seekeronos]

BB, "class envy" and the "class struggle" are central core doctrines of Marxist-Socialist of the stripe Nowingkie adore.

It is a dim, uneven parallel to something like the doctrine of Christ's substitutionary death for sin and the resurrection for us Christians which brought forgiveness and reconciliation to God for us. Remove that, and there is no reason for us to want to do much for God.

Remove the "class struggle" out of Marxist/Socialism, they'd have to come up with some other excuse for their desire to grind the rest of us under the stiletto-heeled hip-boots worn by their nanny-state totalitarian Momma Squirrel government.

[rwilymz]

I nearly forgot to mention quite possibly the largest eradication of rights under the "civil rights era" courts in favor of governmental totalitarianism: the obliteration of jury nullification and the criminalizing of "juror misconduct" in failing to adhere to judge's instructions.

Which is ironic, since Maricopa County AZ [Phoenix] is the hotbed for the "Fully-Informed Jury" Movement.

[VL]

I can just imagine the scene she caused. I live in NYC but not from NYC and these high powered entitled rich Jewish New Yorkers can really throw one.
Now they will have their lawyer pitbulls go after the police who were only trying to deal with a crazed, lunatic woman. If she contorted herself in some weird way how could the police know she was that much of a nutcase?

[PIG BUTCHER]

does anyone smell bacon cooking? i think i smell pork. OH its just the pigs again doing there job. 110 pounds of pure female and the pigs pumped up on secret government steroids just had to strangle her to death because the fat pigs had there feelings hurt because the pig got bit. WOW why dont airport security have a hangmans nuce ready at the check point for anyone that freaks out?

FUC OFF PIGS

[gunnar]

Who wouldn't be angry when their plane is still in the gate and the gracious airline personnel don't let them board???

No one should be put in a cell with handcuffs still intact. NEVER. Somebody messed up BIG TIME.

[Dave]

This is a serious tragedy, but I really don't see how the police are liable for her death. This woman had apparently tried to commit suicide recently, was an addict and was on serious mental health meds. Why in God's name did her family put her on a plane by herself? This family is powerful and wealthy, they were planning on paying $40,000 a month for rehab, her husband could have maybe come along for the ride.

Now the family will blame everyone but themselves.

If you go to an airport and act really crazy - especially when you're not in New York anymore where this childish behavior is for some reason tolerated - the police will arrest you for disorderly conduct.

Maybe this will be a lesson to others sending their fragile family member cross-country without an escort.

[nowingker]

When you get arrested for disorderly conduct the outcome is that you get arrested and go to court, not end up dead.

I tried myself to move hands clasped at the back up over the head and its impossible unless you are a gymnast or a professional contortionist.

In my opinion, the police killed her. Though of course it will never be proven since conveniently no one saw nuthin and the victim is dead and it always helps when your victim has mental problems and addiction problems.

[L.A. White]

Lets stay with the facts first:
1. 110 lb woman handcuffed BEHIND her Back found dead in a holding cell...probability of this occuring? bet not even l%
2. police goons use maximum force in restraining - 3 on l..is that on the manual when the woman weighs 110 lbs? Witnesses ordered to "move on" and not watch what was happening????
3.it was clearly a medical problem - person distressed and panicked
4 it affects all of us - if this is police procedure..what kind of a country are we in now? how different are we from Burma? goon squads
5. Those who say, a question of a spoiled woman? What about a panicked and not well person? How quick to jump on stereotypes people are. Do you feel that if people are distressed, harmless and out of it they should be beaten and end up dead?????????????????????????

[Chris]

People who act inappropriately are not always "obnoxious" or even just simply "drunk". Sometimes, they're MENTALLY ILL. If the cops were so concerned about her that she was hancuffed while ALREADY in a holding cell, don't you think they might have already suspected that she was MENTALLY ILL (did she really fit the profile of a violent offender?)? Didn't her husband mention that she was MENTALLY ILL and on medication? Didn't she tell the airport authorities (including the cops) that she was "a SICK mom"?

Was she observed adequately? Was she in the right place? What algorhythm was being followed by Phoenix police -- you know, the thing that allows you to logically follow a PROCESS, A PROCEDURE for which you may have received training in the police academy?

Only by composing several pertinant QUESTIONS, and then by searching with integrity for ANSWERS, can we reduce the chances of this kind of occurance in the future.

[Chris]

People who act inappropriately are not always "obnoxious" or even just simply "drunk". Sometimes, they're MENTALLY ILL. If the cops were so concerned about her that she was hancuffed while ALREADY in a holding cell, don't you think they might have already suspected that she was MENTALLY ILL (did she really fit the profile of a violent offender?)? Didn't her husband mention that she was MENTALLY ILL and on medication? Didn't she tell the airport authorities (including the cops) that she was "a SICK mom"?

Was she observed adequately? Was she in the right place? What algorhythm was being followed by Phoenix police -- you know, the thing that allows you to logically follow a PROCESS, A PROCEDURE for which you may have received training in the police academy?

Only by composing several pertinant QUESTIONS, and then by searching with integrity for ANSWERS, can we reduce the chances of this kind of occurance in the future.

[Clarification for New York Morons]

just to clarify...her hands were cuffed from behind and the cuffs were attached to a bench by a 16 inch chain. She allegedly brought the cuffs
under her feet not over her head....you don't need to be a double jointed gymnist to move cuffed hands under your feet....

[ana]

hhmm, what are we forgeting here? maybe that 40-somthings shoudn't act like spoiled kindergartners??
maybe that ADULTS should take responsibility for their actions?? there are rules to be followed, especially in an AIRPORT these days. the level of entitlement this woman (AND her family) thinks everybody owed her just sickens me! ya know what ya dumb b!tch?? if you hadn't been freaking out on withdrawl symptoms from booze, and just sat peacefully for the next flight to come along, you would have only been a few hours late for your rehab appointment. i don't think the facility would have minded a bit. i feel so sorry for the phx police, that they have to deal with insane, immature people who think the worlds owes them everything. the fact that she has 3 children is completely irrelevent. the families say 'the police should have tried to TALK to her first...' tell me, have YOU ever tried to 'talk' to an hysterical person. how far did that getcha?
'mentally ill?' BS! --ya, i'm sure this affluent family really allows there Officially Mentally Ill family member to travel on airplanes alone. so this argument is also irrelevent.

[Trish Dubois]

Thank you ana. The fact is that Ms. Gotbaum was a very rich, attractive drunk. She was a 'lush' a 'booze head' a plain old common alcoholic. That's why she was in Arizona. Well educated, very well off mothers of 3 do not kiss their children good by and fly off to rehab unless they have a BIG, BIG problem, and it is THEIR problem, not mine, not fellow travelers and not the police's. At the moment the Gotbaums have a private pathologist, private detective and a lawyer in Arizona. Had they sent someone with Carol, all this might not have happened.
As for the trip itself, Ms. Gotbaum had a direct flight to Tucson but cancelled that morning so "she could see her children off to school"???? More likely it was to postpone getting off the booze, or have a "few for the road". It seems she also had a 2.5 hour layover in Phoenix. On layovers you do not have to go through security again, so don't blame them. After rehab you can never drink again, so Carol was probably at the bar saying goodbye to vodka and gin. Time passes quickly when your drunk, so she missed the plane and then she turned into the woman she was trying to get rid of--a nasty, pushy drunk---and this time it killed her. Remember, she was not there for a flower show, or a meeting of old friends, she was there to get rid of a habit that was wrecking her life. Personally I am going to have beer and think about all this.

[adam]

she died while in custody. the crime? screaming and running around and throwing her cell phone. the cops killed her. now whether it was intentional or just usual cop stupidities, who knows? by stupid, i mean simple people who do high school and never read about psychology since it's more a beer and baseball brain.

[mtp]

Rich, jewish and connected. Awwww.... poor thing. Poor, poor Carol. My brother was killed on the job when a roof fell on his head. Do you think we hired pathologists to be at his autopsy? Nope.

Poor white girl with a booze problem. Like someone said above, maybe if she had layed off of the booze in the first place, this never would have happened. I hope, for the sake of the police, this is ruled a suicide and they move on. But mark my words -- her well connected family will make out like bandits. The rich get richer ...

[CHRIS]

there is more to this story than what phoenix authorities are telling the public, I dont believe none of this shit that she was getting off her handcuffs, I know new yorkers are abnoxious people, but shit like that only happens in hillbilly towns like phoenix, there has to be an investigation about this matter, you cant just say she killed her self.
I she was vommiting like the pigs claim, she should have been rushed to a hospital, regardless of who she was.Besides since when is a crime to be loud at an airport, beside those TSA apes are worthless idiots, they dont even recognise a knife when they see it and they make the average joe open all of their luggage, they should be harassing those arab terrorists not us.

[Kate Grant]

A friend of mine had a similar experience at Las Vegas Airport. Airport personnel claimed she "asked too many questions" about her flight that was cancelled, and her voice was "too loud." So, they called the cops, tackled her, bruised and chained her, and dragged her through the airport. Luckily my friend lived--albeit with injuries. There are implications here for all of us. Who is to determine if someone's voice is too loud, or that they are acting disruptive? Carol Gotbaum did not threaten to hurt anyone nor did she try to hurt anyone. Why would she be tackled and chained like an animal just because she was distressed and anxious? Anyone of us could become stressed and anxious. Must we all fear her fate?

[sam perl]

Why was a suicidal, distraught, person allowed to travel alone? Because her family probably could not or would not handle her behavior either. I'm not being unsympathetic but blaming the police is not only too easy but often profitable.
The police have an impossible situation---how can they determine if a person is a danger to the public in seconds? And if security is an important issue travelers should get the message not to fight the police.

[sam perl]

Why was a suicidal, distraught, person allowed to travel alone? Because her family probably could not or would not handle her behavior either. I'm not being unsympathetic but blaming the police is not only too easy but often profitable.
The police have an impossible situation---how can they determine if a person is a danger to the public in seconds? And if security is an important issue travelers should get the message not to fight the police.

[rem]

So let me get this straight: Carol Gotbaum deserved to die, and deserves no sympathy, because she was rich, white, connected, entitled, Jewish, a Democrat, and from New York -- right? It might be instructive to break this down into its component parts:

1. Rich. So if she was poor she would not have deserved to die and would have had a sympathetic group of bloggers -- right? And what if she were not poor but solely lower middle class? How about upper middle class? And by the way -- who says she's rich? By what standard? And what possible difference does it make, really?

2. White. But if she were black or red or Asian or Hispanic, it would change the way you think about it. Huh.

3. Connected. Well, this is interesting. Doesn't seem she played that little card in her extensive discussions with the Phoenix airport police.

4. Entitled. Hmm. Because she was frustrated at missing her flight? And all of you would have been perfectly calm, as you clearly are in every situation.

5. Jewish. NOW we're getting somewhere. Clearly, if she were a Christian Muslim Hindu Buddhist or Zoroastrian, she wouldn't have deserved to die, but Jews the world over don't deserve to live (or, goodness knows, to ride airplanes, or to any sympathy for any reason) simply because they're Jewish -- right? And of course all Jews are rich, white, connected and entitled, right?

6. A Democrat. If she were a Republican or an Independent -- would you reconsider? Would she have been entitled to some degree of sympathy, because she agreed with your political views? And, btw, how do you know she's a Democrat? Oh, I get it -- because she's rich and Jewish and from New York! I SEE -- it really all fits together! So you can just ASSUME this stuff!

7. From New York. Do you mean New York City only, or anywhere in New York State? If she'd been from Albany or Syracuse or Buffalo, would that have mattered? If she'd been from across the state line and lived in Hoboken (that's in New Jersey) or Toronto (that's in Ontario, Canada), would she have been entitled to just a little sympathy? So her crime was that she lived a few miles away from sympathy. Huh.

You know nothing about Carol Gotbaum, about why and how she died, about what she was doing in the time period after her flight from NY landed and before she was turned away from her flight to Tucson, whether she was usually softspoken or loud, kindhearted or mean, wonderful or awful. It is you who are loud and obnoxious and entitled, arriving at cruel conclusions based on nothing and having the audacity to publish your vile criticisms online about a woman who can no longer defend herself. As is your right, though you clearly know or care nothing about the responsibility associated with that right. Presumably, however, you would like to be remembered kindly and thought of well when the sledgehammer of the unexpected comes crashing down on you, as it did to someone else last weekend -- so you might want to reconsider your position, unless ignorance, stupidity and bigotry suit you.

[sam perl]

According to current news reports Ms. Gotbaum's husband tried to call the airport authorities soon after she was taken into custody because his wife was suicidal, etc., etc.
This is not criticism, simply reporting on her condition as described by her family. It is a complicated situation not a simple one.

[rich]

Rem: Interesting. Carol's family is to blame, regardless of her position and lot in life.

[Trish Dubois]

Dear rem, read your note, here are some answers. Let's be real, Carol was from a part of society that most of us can not even imagine. Rich, pretty, pampered, it does make a difference. Why was this emotionally troubled woman left alone, screaming in an airport? If you have read the latest news she was a nut case, and that was HER FAMILY'S PROBLEM!!!!
I am a female professional and a F.A. (functioning alcoholic) and I care about her fate, but her family had/has the ways and means to help her----they messed up.

[sammy]

Trish: You are absolutely correct. Being rich, pretty and pampered makes a huge difference. The great irony here is she was being out of control and got in trouble for it. We brush aside the homeless like it's nothing. If this happened to a black woman, it probably wouldn't have even made the headlines. It's a sick world we are living in.

[Leilani]

I am not a terrorist! I am not a terrorist? Are u serious? So just because she's not of Arabic descent, she should be handled different than anybody that is wigging out in an airport? You gotta be kidding me. Not only is that an insult to my Arabic friends but it is an insult to my ever loving white American self.

This woman was clearly not all there. I mean, c'mon, we've all missed flights. Does that give you the right to be losing your mind in an airport of all places?

I keep seeing the media playing up that she was "a mother of three children". Great. Fantastic. I am so unhappy for her children. Ms. I'm Not A Terrorist is no more entitled to any special treatment than the rest of us. She tripped in an airport. Whether or not she's of white descent is of no consequence. What matters is that she LOST HER MIND IN AN AIRPORT AND THE SECURITY TOOK HER AWAY. Like they would to any one of us. Watch the media. AIRPORT = BAD PLACE TO HAVE A BAD DAY!

And, hell yeah, I travel regularly. Do u think I wanna see that? Do u think I wanna have somebody on the plane with me that's tripping? NO I DON'T!

I'm sorry for her husband and three kids. I'm sorry for her bad life. Although that I must say that if u drink that much and if u can't handle urself, then what the hell are the rest of us supposed to do?

Bottom line: She acted like an idiot in an airport and then played the race card. I don't care how drunk or mentally unstable u are. That's not right. That's condescending for the thousands of foreign people that board flights everyday.

Yes, she needed help. But at the expense of who?

[PIG BUTCHER]

WHY DO BLOGGERS ACT JUST AS STUPID AS THE COPS?

FACT: 1: SHE DIED IN COSTUDY. YOU JUST CANT KILL YOURSELF WHILE YOUR IN HANDCUFFS BEHIND YOUR BACK AND CHAINED TO A BENCH. IF IT WAS THAT EASY THEN ALL THE PRISONERS AT GUANTANAMO BAY WOULD HAVE ALL KILLED THEMSELFS BY NOW. SO WAKE UP

FACT 2: COPS LOVE TO GET REVENGE FOR BEING KICKED SPIT AT OR HURT IN SOME WAY. NEXT TIME YOU END UP IN HANDCUFFS, KICK THE COP JUST TO SEE HOW BAD HE WILL BEAT YOU UP, AND HE WILL, EVEN WHILE YOUR IN HANDCUFFS. THIS IS A FACT

FACT 3: COPS ARE HUMAN TOO AND WILL DO ANYTHING TO JUSTIFY THEIR WRONGDIONGS. YOU WOULD BE AN IDIOT IF YOU DIDNT ATLEAST TRY TO COVER UP A WRONGDOING.

FACT 4: IDIOTS LIKE BLOGGERS AND THE MEDIA WILL ALWAYS SIDE WITH THE COPS ANYTIME REHAB IS INVOLVED LEAVING THE MURDER UNPUNISHED

FACT 5: THE MURDER OF THIS WOMAN IS STILL FREE TO DO AS HE PLEASES AND THERE IS NO PROTECTION FROM THESES TYPES OF KILLERS BECAUSE OF PEOPLE LIKE YOU BLOGGERS AND MEDIA THAT AID AND ABED LOW LIFE TRASH LIKE THE COPS THAT MURDERED HER

[PIG BUTCHER]

WANT MORE FACTS ABOUT POLICE BRUTALITY? HERE IT IS----> http://news.yahoo.com/s/wpbf/20071005/lo_wpbf/14278550