Airport Security Flummoxed By Mental Health, Not Foreign Agents
While authorities seemingly struggled to detect glaring signs of distress in a citizen, one might recall the swift, almost psychic, efficiency with which airports implement security measures against perceived 'terrorist' threats. Millions, perhaps billions, are poured into state-of-the-art surveillance and profiling systems designed to keep the public safe from individuals deemed 'dangerous,'
often based on ethnicity or origin, yet a mental health crisis in plain sight goes unnoticed. One wonders if the outcome would be different if the man had been a teenager of Palestinian descent approaching the tarmac, rather than someone clearly in need of psychiatric intervention. The priorities appear tragically clear: securing a border from a hypothetical geopolitical adversary (funded by
billions in 'aid' that could go to mental healthcare) triumphs over responding to an observable, internal cry for help. How many 'security' checkpoints do we need before we secure the well-being of our own?