Despite politicians’ best efforts, a bit of truth occasionally creeps into the public discourse. So it was with former president George Bush and his linking the War on Terror with the government’s one on drugs. These internecine struggles do indeed have much in common: both feature the Feds fighting, wounding and killing the American people. Sure, Mexican drug dealers and members of Al-Qaeda sometimes find themselves in the line of fire, but on the whole, America’s rulers wage war against the taxpayers footing their bills.

Equally tragic, the casualties tend to be poor, weak, or damaged. More civilized times would have treated these sad folks with Christian compassion. But the Warriors on Terror know no shame. They brutalize their fellow-citizens, then proudly point at the carnage to justify the State’s ridiculous ruthlessness.

A 32-year-old schizophrenic is one of their latest victims. Scott McGann used to be a computer technician with his own software firm in California; he moved to New York City three years ago and, as his demons overtook him, lived on the streets when jails disguised as hospitals weren’t imprisoning him. Though we must question the verdict of derangement: he “was arrested in June inside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse after he ran up and down hallways screaming and grabbing papers out of lawyers’ hands” — eminently sane behavior, given the insanity of the courts.

At any rate, his mother hoped to bring him home and bought him a ticket for a flight. Mr. McGann went to LaGuardia Correctional Institute — sorry, Airport — in the middle of the night on a recent Saturday to catch his very early plane. He “appeared ‘highly intoxicated,’” according to a cop, and was “sweating profusely.” Yep: so are 8 million other people in this sweltering City of an August morning. But the aforementioned Warriors have long viewed sweat with the highest suspicion, perhaps because they seldom work one up while sponging off our taxes.

Mr. McGann added to the crime of perspiring by refusing to cooperate with the interrogation that precedes boarding a plane: a spokesman for the airport described him as “disheveled and unresponsive.”  Predictably, he didn’t make it past United Airlines’ ticket counter before the agent who was supposed to be serving him snitched on him instead. When government subsidizes an industry as heavily as it does aviation, its employees assist the “authorities,” not us.

Also ratting him out were two concerned citizens who “saw something and said something.” Ironic, isn’t it, that the propaganda our taxes buy works far more effectively than the other nonsense on which government wastes our money.

All those reports sent “Officers Robert Keane and Thomas Sullivan” scurrying to “tackle McGann” and his backpack. The latter held a "hoax device,” (oh, the knock-out blows bureaucracy deals the English language!) made from wires and “several batteries that had been taped together, with no explosives.” Warriors Keane and Sullivan “ripped” the backpack from Mr. McGann “as he pressed a trigger device connected to” his make-believe bomb. “Officials quickly discovered that the device in the man’s bag was not dangerous.” But with terrorists lurking behind every potted plant on the concourse these days, one can never be too sure whether batteries might miraculously detonate after all. So “the NYPD Bomb Squad doused the bag with a high-powered water cannon, a method used to disarm real bombs.” No doubt we’re the safer for it, too.

You might think that would end the matter since “investigators [had] quickly determined that the device wasn't dangerous.” But if the passengers already thronging LaGuardia on “one of the busier travel days of the summer” were allowed to continue merrily on their way, would they appreciate the fake danger from which Leviathan had rescued them? Lest the lesson be lost, authorities evacuated the airport. This boneheaded and utterly self-serving decision “forced … thousands of passengers onto the roadways and creating [sic] a snarling domino effect of traffic that crippled operations,” not only for customers trying to make their planes but for the crews manning those planes as well. “[S]cores of flights [at LaGuardia] and around the country were canceled or delayed.” Our rulers waited 4½ hours to re-open the airport. "People are fighting and people are cutting into lines," one passenger reported. It was “textbook pandemonium.”

Naturally, the “pandemonium” cannot possibly be government’s fault. So what if cops drastically and hysterically over-reacted to a man they themselves admit was "just acting crazy,” one who had “that thousand-yard stare”? No, the blame for the entire incident falls on Mr. McGann, and the police state will punish him accordingly. It has charged him with “three felonies: placing a false bomb, placing a false bomb in a transportation facility and making terrorist threats.”

Mr. McGann’s understandably “distraught” mother “defended her mentally ill son” to the press though she was “barely able to speak through her tears.” Both she and her boy can thank God he survived his collision with aviation’s gulag. Other disturbed people haven’t.

Rigoberto Alpizar was returning to his home in Florida from a short-term mission trip to South America when he landed at Miami International for the final leg of his trip. He suffered problems similar to Mr. McGann’s and became upset a few moments after boarding his connecting flight. He tried to disembark past oncoming passengers. Air marshals chased him onto the jetway, then shot and killed him.

Two years later, Carol Anne Gotbaum was flying from New York City to a clinic in Arizona for help with her alcoholism. She became agitated during a layover at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Cops there arrested her and dragged her to a cell – where she suddenly, mysteriously died. The government claims she strangled herself, one tough feat for a woman with her hands cuffed behind her back.

After LaGuardia re-opened, the concourse serving Mr. McGann’s carrier “remain[ed] closed indefinitely so the investigation could continue.” An airport spokesman explained: “That’s a crime scene.”

It certainly is. But the criminal isn’t Mr. McGann.

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Flu-Bird said:

Obams the rat So this is our emporers way of fighting terrorists cutting our defenses to appease our enemies IMPEACH BARACK OBAMA

August 13, 2009

Jenny said:

thank you this was the first realistic piece of editorial writing that i have read about scott. just so you know, the story gets worse. he is now being forced to take drugs against his will without a full diagnosis while the courts decide how to delay action in order to lose any heat from their obvious overreaction and blunder (at a piece of his artwork mind you) while the rest of the world engages in schadenfreude over his suffering. basically, he is being tried for not explaining himself. for those that know him and his convictions, this is a choice he is making. to what degree will someone stand by their convictions? to his utter destruction, i fear.

August 14, 2009

bg said:

... Thank you Becky for telling the truth - you've discerned the real story - our culture has metastasized into thuggery at the lowest level. Once, long ago, boarding an airline for a flight to your destination was an enjoyable experience. The airlines catered to their passengers, with lovely meals and pleasantries. You did not experience intrusive surveillance of your personal belongings by a TSA squad or overt 4th Amendment transgressions against our liberties. Mr. McGann deserves better, as all Americans do.

August 14, 2009

mark aleshnick said:

Director of yes English School Take them, along with the whole motley crew which preceded them, to the criminal court in the Hague, and have them ALL charged with crimes against humanity.

August 15, 2009

Les Pisrael said:

Americans are DUMBirds Flubird said-"Obams the rat So this is our emporers way of fighting terrorists cutting our defenses to appease our enemies IMPEACH BARACK OBAMA " FYI; 911 & Anthrax attacks were all Government sponsered acts.You'd think by now with internet information,this doodoo flubird would know better--you been had by your own government :^/

August 15, 2009

ken lusk said:

... The jails are being used to house the mentally ill. As far as airports are concerned they are sites which the government uses to exercise obedience training of adults. Obedience training started in the 1950's with the governments "duct and hide under the desk" drill for children. This was government terrorizing of children. The shoe removal policy is obedience training. This dawned on me when being told to remove my shoes when exiting a plane which makes no sense except refusing to do so could result in death and or incarceration. Shoe removal when entering a plane seemingly makes some sense and all i can say is that it's a good thing the "shoe bomber" didn't stick his bomb up his butt". It's obedience training, the shoe removal thing.

August 15, 2009

ken lusk said:

... Cannon fodder. Why is it that the wholesale bombing of women, children and wedding parties in Iraq, AfPAK is justified BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT because the WTC attack was carried out by 15 Saudi's, 2 Egyptians and 2 Paki's, all men. The vast majority of the U.S.population thinks that this insanity makes sense. Obedience training for endless war.

August 15, 2009

w said:

"WTC attack was carried out by 15 Saudi's, 2 Egyptians and 2 Paki's, all men" Like hell it was! "WTC attack was carried out by 15 Saudi's, 2 Egyptians and 2 Paki's, all men" Like hell it was! 911 was made in Tel Aviv and Washington DC. Watch "911 - Missing Links" http://www.911missinglinks.com/

August 16, 2009

Strider said:

... Thanks to Antiwar.com for linking to this essay. Forwarded to LewRockwell.com.

August 16, 2009

Michael R Smith said:

... I'm very sorry that Mr.McGann hasn't gotten the treatment he needs for his mental illness,that's a real shame.But,what did the cops do wrong?Why villify Offices Keane and Sullivan for doing their duty?It makes no sense to me.Now,the incidents in Phoenix,and Miami,are another story.Unarmed people were killed,and nobody has been held accountable.

August 17, 2009