I am struggling to control myself here. I am agitated and angry. I cannot believe the stupid arrogance of Constantine Peabody-Pandis.

"Mr. Alpizar was killed because he was a terrorist. He terrorized passengers and crew into believing they were going to die at his hands."

Just what the fuck do you think a terrorist is? Are you really so stupid that you think that a mentally ill man who is not in control of himself is in the same category as someone who intentionally murders people to make a political point?

Wait. You do. I have just reread part of your comment, and you DO think they are the same:

"Did any or all the hijackers of all the planes on 9/11 suffer from mental instability?"

You are far more dangerous than Rigoberto Alpizar. How many other mentally ill people would you kill? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? All of them?

I hope I never have to fly on a plane with someone as stupid and as arrogant as you are, and I pity anyone who does.

Apparently airport security cameras from Quito show that Alpizar was already out of control there, shoving and shouting at a fellow passenger. It was an antisocial act for his wife to allow him to travel in such a condition.

That being said, it seems like there ought to be some way for security to immobilize a threat without filling a man full of bullets. What happened to "set phasers on stun"?

IF YOU FEAR SOMETHING,

YOU’LL SEE SOMETHING

If you fear you’ll die due to a suspicious package

or an activity on an airplane or in an airport

planted by some suspicious-looking person

who looks just like those suspicious-looking terrorists

in the newspapers and on TV,

then chances are your paranoia will take over

and you’ll start seeing things.

The U.S. government and the media

are drilling fear into your head non-stop,

and this could activate prejudices

that you didn’t even know you had.

So be vigilant — of yourself.

(This is adapted from a poster appearing in the Tube in London.)

I see the inevitable comments about 'racial' profiling have started to appear....

This begs a question. If the suicide hijacking threat was the Ku Klux Klan instead of Muslim immigrants, how cool would profiling opponents be with immigrants of color being strip-searched while rednecks wearing Confederate-symbol clothing were waved through by security? How upset would they be if there was a no-fly list based on the Southern Poverty Law Center's hate group database and David Duke couldn't travel by air to speaking engagements?

Get real.

The killing of a man with bi-polar disease has deeper ramifications though tragic it was.

But something larger lurks. For one thing, security is all backwards. They never look at you, your eyes, your face, but focus almost entirely on the bags going through and are big, really big, about taking off your shoes. How about looking at you, the person, your/my eyes, face, demeanor,and vibe are surely the most telling signs of someone who is dangerous.

I look at everyone on flights I take. If someone were acting creepy, I'd look into her/his face before boarding the plane and if, this actually happened, he or she was reading a book on "How to Make A Bomb" I report this immediately.

That no one seems to see us as persons, but focus rather on our boarding accoutrements seems ass-backwards. I don't understand why we can't have psychologists or psychics or maybe just savvy folks who ask questions about ourselves, in the spirit of "Did you take your medications" or "What are you going to xxx for" ... all the while checking us out. As persons, not as backbacks.

In this case, the lack of meds and the murdered man's bi-polar disease could have been discussed with security and understood, rather than killing him before anyone knew his condition. Tragic, that.

I fly a lot. Often I'm pullled off the line to get wanded and I'm over 60, so in no way fit the profile, vague as that might be, for a terrorist. This poor man and his wife should have had the chance to tell the Wand People what might happen given his condition. But I bet they only checked his shoes.

Isn't there something inhumane not to say dangerous in the current air/security/checks. It's not the hassle I mind. It's the lack of human interaction, imo: the only way to get real clues, (in addition to the material checks). Asking questions of us flyers would be far more effective than simply removing clothing and iPods and making decisions based on nothing psychological is my point.

The man killed might in an mini-interview have been encouraged to take his medications. But no, he was let through because he passed the physical test, which leaves out far too much.

"It's all in the eyes" someone once said to me about terror. In the vibe too." That is precisely what the security folks pay no attention. If someone is creepy, I reported her or him, because what is in the mind that is what should be checked.

To take a mentally deranged man, and sure, he and his wife should have made sure his meds were working, wasn't known before he boarded. Checking his shoes, of course, not himself. I hink there should be at every airport at every security check: Someone wise about psychology and not just bags and shoes.

Tragic and not entirely the security's fault, but his murder is endemic of how crazy it is to not relate to the person, but belongings. Only the belongings carried on, which is another travesty.

Look: terrorists are different than you or me. Wasteful, shameful, and sad that in this country there is only a focus on the things not us as humans. Which is unfortunately who we are as a people even outside airports.

all i can think of concerning the story about the shooting of the passenger in miami is oh my god i didnt realize that mentally ill people fly too and they sometime do not take their medication. this scares me. i think about the woman who was pushed to her death in the subway due to same type of situation. thats the reality here not language miscommunitation or security training. next time i fly i will have yet one more thing to worry about, medications and passengers. and yeah the bomb thing is scary too. get your priorities straight for the rest of us.