Homophobic Drunk Man Goes Nuts At Airport!

A pity they were no super Chipsman around to stop the fight right away : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJeSJhb3Hc4&feature=player_detailpage#t=23

@Chuck, Brian and JW - since when is it a right to abuse someone at a public place? In most places, you'd be arerested for abusing and intimidating someone or, if not and the police are standing by, you'd at least be stopped before it turns into a fight. You wouldn't get away with that behavior for that long at a courthouse, or a hospital - why is an airport OK? It's not " free speech" by any definition except the weird hybrid that allows people to yell anti gay slurs at a military funeral, but not at a court house. The police should have stepped in and removed the offender when he started to harass someone in an airport.

Actually fellas, threats and fighting words are not protected by the doctrine of free speech. Quoth the Supreme Court: "There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or "fighting words" those that by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality." I'm not saying the police should have arrested him, but it's a murkier issue than you may realize

@Chuck - +1. The drunk guy's a jackass, but until he attacks the victim, I can't see any reason for the police to do anything.

@John, As Chuck asked, what exactly should the police have done? There is no law that restricts that asshole's freedom to spout epithets. The police officer was there clearly to be available if things escalated to where a crime actually was committed to allow the officer to step in. And that's precisely what happened - he and other passengers jumped in as soon as the assault took place, and fortunately the victim has every bit of it recorded for when he (hopefully) presses charges. As for the TSA, there seems to be some confusion amongst the commenters. TSA are not police. TSO's are not given guns, have no power to arrest, and are not permitted to use force. They're at about the level of a mall cop, at best. That's why there are local police within the airport, and this is a perfect example of that at play. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_Security_Administration#TSA_employees should be helpful. While I'm always happy to pile on to the TSA, this isn't their situation to manage.