Stun gun used on unruly passenger
Chaos delayed an American Airlines flight from Miami to Chicago Sunday night when police had to repeatedly use a stun gun while forcibly removing a man who was harassing fellow passengers and being combative, police said.
Jacob A. Garcia, 28, was booked into Miami-Dade’s jail shortly before 1:30 a.m. Monday on charges that include battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest, records show.
The incident happened prior to the scheduled 9:30 p.m. Sunday departure of Flight 2446, WPLG-Ch. 10 first reported.
A Miami-Dade police report says the flight crew told officers they tried to move Garcia, who lives in Chicago, to another seat, but he continued to be unruly, screaming and insulting a couple.
Police then asked Garcia to leave the aircraft, but he refused.
In cellphone video posted on Twitter by a passenger, Garcia can be heard saying “What is the reason why you are removing me from this plane,” as he struggled with MiamiDade police officers.
A passenger on the flight, Adisak Pochanayon, told WPLG that Garcia was being rude to a couple on the flight and then began using racial slurs after a security guard was brought onto the plane.
In a social media posting, Pochanayon later complimented the American Airlines flight crew — saying the employees “were very professional and acted calmly and as well as one could expect. The passenger removed was completely in the wrong,’ he wrote.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Feb. 14 school shooting.
She also led the Fair Districts campaign, which led to Florida voters adding amendments to the Florida Constitution in 2010 to reform the way congressional and legislative districts are created so they are more reflective of community boundaries and less aimed at helping political parties or incumbents.
She’s no longer affiliated with the League. Goodman passed the leadership gavel on Saturday to the League’s new president, Patricia “Patti” Brigham, of Orange County.
Before moving to South Florida in 1998, Goodman had a career in retailing, beginning with Macy’s and leading to executive positions with The Limited Inc., now known as L Brands Inc., from 1984-95. She is a former president and CEO of the Express division, where she oversaw 850 stores.
Volunteering to help mobilize voters in the 2000 election left her appalled at the messy aftermath of the George W. Bush-Al Gore presidential race. That led her to involvement with the League of Women Voters.
“Pamela has both the business acumen needed to run a major, statewide organization and the ability to bring together volunteers at the grass-roots level — the rare combination we need at Ruth’s List,” the group’s board chairwoman, Alex Sink, said in a statement. Sink is a former banking executive, former state chief financial officer and unsuccessful 2010 Democratic nominee for governor.
The League of Women Voters bills itself as a nonpartisan organization.
Among the league’s recent priorities: working to restore voting rights for felons who have completed their prison sentences, combating the political manipulation of legislative and congressional districts known as gerrymandering, challenging state attempts to make it more difficult for independent organizations to register voters, pushing for online voter registration, and fighting an attempt to give new power to outgoing governors to appoint Supreme Court justices.
Critics, especially Republicans, have long complained that the League of Women Voters isn’t really nonpartisan. Sid Dinerstein, former chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, has decried the organization as part of the “far left.” The conservative website Sunshine State News has ridiculed the organization’s “laughable claims of nonpartisanship and independence.”
aman@sunsentinel.com, 954-356-4550 or Twitter @browardpolitics