The Senseless Death of Carol Gotbaum

Carol Gotbaum died on September 28 in police custody at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. She was traveling from New York City, where she lived with her husband Noah and three young children, to Tucson, where she was supposed to enter a month-long rehabilitation program for alcoholism. She missed her connecting flight from Phoenix to Tucson and became emotionally distraught. Faced with her outbursts, the security agents at the gate summoned the airport police.

I never met Carol, but I have known Betsy Gotbaum, her stepmother, for more than 30 years. I can attest that Betsy is one of the most conscientious, faithful, loving, and attentive people I have ever known. She was one of Carol's closest friends.

I attended the memorial service for Carol in New York City on October 7, where her friends described her as a person of intense privacy and great dignity, a person with a smile that illuminated any room she entered, a devoted mother to her children. It may have been that sense of privacy that kept her from confronting and talking about her alcoholism and depression. If there is anything to be gained from this tragic event, it may be the recognition that we must encourage people with addictions to speak about them, to confront them, not to hide them, not to feel so ashamed that they keep inside the secrets that are destroying them.

It has been widely reported in the press that when Carol missed her flight, she became hysterical. She was screaming, "I am not a terrorist. I am a sick mom. I need help." She was right on every count. She was not a terrorist; she threatened no one. She was a sick mom. She needed help. Perhaps this was one of the few -- maybe the only occasion--where she openly cried out for help.

Did she get help? No, she got the treatment that we would normally expect the police to use with a rabid dog or a vicious criminal. Did anyone speak kindly to her, put a hand on her shoulder and try to calm her? No, she was manhandled and roughly treated, adding to her agitation and distress.

As anyone can see who has watched the airport surveillance video, which is widely available on the Internet, three burly police officers approached Carol, a slender woman of about 105 pounds, and promptly wrestled her to the ground, face-down. One of them appeared to sit on her back while she was handcuffed. Then they pulled her to her feet and dragged her away, with her hands cuffed behind her back. According to the police, they put her into a cell, hands still cuffed, and they shackled her to a wall with a chain. The police report said that she continuously screamed.

The police left her alone in the cell. They left this frightened, terrified woman who was obviously in great emotional distress, chained and cuffed like an animal. Alone, with no way to communicate with anyone she knew. Screaming, screaming, alone, frightened; no one cared. Within a short period of time--maybe 15 minutes, the screaming stopped. This got the police officer's attention. Screaming they could bear; silence was intolerable. A police officer decided it was time to check on Carol to find out why she wasn't screaming anymore. This officer found her unconscious, probably already dead, strangled by the chain that shackled her to the wall.

The police have claimed that they followed proper procedures throughout this terrible ordeal. It was proper, they say, to cuff her; it was proper, they say, to shackle this unhappy woman to the wall inside a locked cell; it was proper, they say, to leave her alone despite her great duress. They have not explained why it was necessary to keep on the handcuffs and the shackles once she was locked inside a cell.

At Carol Gotbaum's memorial service in Manhattan on Sunday, Rabbi Robert Levine said that Carol died because of "human cruelty and indifference."

The police officers treated her like a reluctant cow that they were bringing to slaughter, not like a woman in emotional trauma. They were cowboys, she was the terrified beast that needed to be roped and tied down.

Certainly it is true that extra vigilance is needed inside an airport terminal to protect against terrorism, but the police knew that Carol Gotbaum was not a terrorist; they knew that she was not armed and posed no danger to anyone but herself. On the video, dozens of people walked quickly past the scene, averting their eyes to avoid seeing that a fellow human being was being trussed and dragged off, having committed no crime worse than being a nuisance to others.

If the police handling of Carol Gotbaum was proper procedure, then the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport should post signs warning passengers and their families that "Emotional breakdowns are prohibited in this airport and will be dealt with harshly, cruelly, and with maximum force."

A beautiful young woman is dead. Three small children have lost their mother. But the police followed proper procedures. For sure, the procedures need to be reviewed to figure out how to distinguish between a terrorist and a person who is emotionally and mentally disturbed. The police need training to learn how to treat people with decency and kindness instead of force and restraints.

Dammit all, they need to change something. Carol Gotbaum should not have died in police custody. What happened to her should never happen to anyone else. What happened at Sky Harbor International Airport on September 28 was an outrage.

Comments

[strawberries]

Diane, thanks for a wonderful article. It summarizes my own feelings. Thanks also the the compassionate people who have posted above, with their own stories.

I am in Ireland. And I have been following this awful tragedy since it broke. And I've shed many tears across recent days when I think of Carol's awful plight.

She was so far from home, having taken a wonderfully courageous decision to seek help for her alcohol addiction. And when her plans started to unravel in the airport, she got herself all worked up. Instead of being met with help, kindness, reassurance, compassion, human decency, she was confronted with thugs with badges. It makes me emotional when I think of a small 110lbs kind decent mom, who offered no danger, to be football tackled by 3 or 4 large thugs.....and then yanked away down to the cells, where she was shackled even more and left alone in a cell.

It is awful to imagine a lovely lady, totally distraught, crying for help, and dying on her own, thousands of miles from home and from friends, on her own, in a tiny cell.

The thugs that did that to her, deserve to serve long jail sentences. You wouldn't treat a dog, the way they treated Carol. Indeed, you'd be jailed for it, if you did.

All Carol needed was a little kindness/compassion from ONE PERSON in that airport. Instead she was assaulted by thugs. May their consciences trouble them for the rest of their days.

[sd63]

As a mental health professional, I'd like to comment. This is a horrific tragedy and my heart goes out to Mrs. Gotbaum's family. Based on my understanding, the police were following their protocol appropriately by detaining someone displaying erratic behavior. It is difficult to ascertain the problem and offer solutions when someone is distraught and surrounded by strangers in a chaotic setting like an airport. My concern is with the fact that they left her alone in the holding room, even for a few minutes. One needs to rule out a physical cause for this type of behavior (diabetic reaction?), a drug reaction or (as was the case) a very vulnerable person with suicidal potential. I believe they are given training regarding the assessment and management of individuals in an acute psychiatric crisis. Perhaps they were waiting for her to calm down, but they should have had someone sit with her 1:1. Again, I'm so sorry for such a tragic loss.

[Marnie1]

You are absolutely right.
One of the things that has changed horribly in my live time is that it is the police, whose job is to protect us from criminal violence, are so often the ones who initiate violence, who are the criminals

[snookers]

Diane's article is very good. The only beef I have with the part "dozens of people walked past the scene etc".
This was not necessarily because of implied lack of compassion. People are actually scared to get involved nowadays. If they do, they could be charged/sued for some obscure violation or even hurt, really tough for the many without health insurance.
I always was under the impression when needing help, other fellow humans would aid me inlieu of family members/friends. They cannot always be near you.
The video reminds me eerily of Nazi Germany when people were carried off to death camps or some futuristic episode from Star Trek of a disfunctional society.Really scary.
The real terrorists must laughing their *sses off. They donot have to murder people anymore in the USA. We are getting very capable in doing it ourselves.
This should be a wake up call, next time it could be you in distress.

[useyournoggin]

Can we knock it off with the Nazi hyperbole?

The woman was screaming obscenities and throwing things at people. It doesn't matter if she was in a shopping mall, a school, a bank or any other public place. The proper way to deal with a deranged person is to get that person away from other people. Are we really supposed to tolerate this kind of behavior in public places? Or are we supposed to tolerate this behavior only from normally sweet, docile, tiny housewives? What would be the reaction to a 23-year old black male standing in the middle of the concourse screaming "F%^K THE POLICE" Would your reaction be equally sympathetic?

This person was an addict. Her road ended in the same place as many addicts - death. Blame her, blame her family or blame the disease. But don't blame the cops.

[perhapsintoit]

Evidently, the Gotbaums believe that it takes a village to send a family-member to rehab.

[caribconsult]

If these so-called 'airport security' police can't tell the difference between an hysterical person and a terrorist, what in the hell are they doing at the airport? Who was the nitwit that gave them this assignment they so woefully discharged?

[useyournoggin]

Can we get real for a moment here? I'm no great defender of the police but the police did not make Carol into an addict. The police did not make Carol get drunk and miss her connecting flight. The police did not make Carol threaten other passengers (she threw her PDA at someone). The police did not make Carol scream in the middle of the concourse. The police did what they were supposed to do - take a clearly deranged and uncooperative person into custody so she could not harm anyone. It's unfortunate that her husband didn't bother to contact the airport to tell authorities that she was "suicidal" until an hour after she was dead.

Carol was an addict and like many (most?) addicts she managed to kill herself and ruin the lives of everyone around her. But that's not the fault of the police.

[JoeBlough]

So catch the next flight. Why go ballistic ? She must have been a very pampered woman to expect the world to stop for her.

[perhapsintoit]

I don't think that we are getting the whole story from the family. Had divorce been threatened? Was Ms. Gotbaum's access to cash and credit limited for the purpose of keeping her sober for the trip? (Making a return trip to the airport bar difficult) It is very hard for me to swallow the pose of naiveté with regard to alcoholism that the family is taking. This lady had been through detox before.

[snookers]

Mrs G was not drunk, even the airline was very careful not to state that(only slightly indirect implying that she might have had a drink while getting food). Since that would have given them the best excuse in the world to keep her off two seperate consecutive flights.But would come back and bite them in the rear later, considering her treatment.
As to blame, our current callous impassive society is guilty and to some indirect degree her family by making an unintentional fateful decision.
Only one person is not to blame, never ever, and that is Mrs G herself. She was the victim, donot forget that.

[Nommo]

They just murdered her, is all.

[Boyaca]

I only travel through the US when all other possible options have been exhausted. It is an intimidating experience to say the least.The USA has become a police state. I have traveled often to Cuba. ( A totalitarian country?) You can travel from one end of that country to another and never see the over armed, ever threatening police presence, everywhere, like you see in the USA. The police there look like police when I was a child growing up in Canada, side arms only, on foot and approachable. It is sad to see what America has become.

[snookers]

You are not the only one. My brother (Dutch) works for the EU in a diplomatic position/frequent flyer and is currently stationed in Bolivia.
He will avoid at all cost to fly thru the USA and so will all of his colleagues. When he does fly to the USA to visit me, he will not use an American airline. Besided he has dark hair and speaks English with an accent. This mode is ofcourse all post 9/11. He calls it the most dehumanizing system/Nazi efficiency in the world and requires plenty of Prozac prior to entering it..

[notreadytomakenice]

People get freaked out at airports all the time. Distraught people have to fly alone sometimes. My 25-year-old son lives in another state. His girlfriend was killed in a car accident overnight and he was in shock. The absolute fastest way for us to be together so we could take care of him was for him to fly to us. For no apparent reason he always gets pulled out of the line and subjected to extra scrutiny at airports. He's used to it and is relatively polite about it. On this particular day, when he had to change planes in the notorious Phoenix Sky Harbor airport, I was terrified that he would be crying or angry and TSA would fuck with him. We held our breath. He managed to keep it together for three hours and didn't end up alone screaming in a locked room like Carol.

Airports have become no-mans lands and Airport Security Theater can make anybody nervous on a good day. It can be excruciating if you're already upset. There's simply no excuse for TSA not to be trained to treat people with dignity and to recognize the difference between a terrorist and someone in distress. It's appalling that we are all so scared of the police these days that we turn away and let them get away with murder - literally. My condolences go out to Carol's family and I hope they consider a lawsuit after they have had time to grieve.

[ajax2]

Anyone who has been through TSA handling at an airport should be saddened but not surprised.

[kwright]

i have lived in phoenix and know that the phoenix police dept. and maricopia county sheriff joe arapiao, the toughest sheriff in america, have a history of misconduct and abuse of prisoners. also i would like to know why there was no video surveillance in the room at sky harbor international airport. carol gotbaum died for no reason. i have never met a cop that wasn't totally into the perceived power that they think they possess. all involved should spend the rest of their lives behind bars or in tent city. that is where they house criminals in the desert. tents in 100 plus degree heat. green bologna and pink underwear to humiliate the inmates. real humane.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

The number of "blame-the-victim" comments on this string is one thing; their their lack of compassion is another, and unifying, theme.

Question: How many alcoholic and troubled people are out there NOT getting help -- as Ms. G was TRYING to do -- WITH the support of her family and friends?

Every day, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS in similar crisis are driving around like time bombs weaving back and forth across the highways and byways waiting to notch up a few more of the TENS (!) of thousands killed by drunk drivers every year.

Every day, they are polishing their handguns -- or AR-15's -- waiting to notch up a few more of the TENS (?) of thousands killed by guns every year.

Cluck-cluckers, your scorn -- and your humanity -- are misplaced.

[jehop61]

Where was her "loving" family in all this? Don't they have some responsibility in getting this obviously sick woman to rehab safely? Shouldn't someone from her family have been traveling with her? Or were they so ticked off at her behavior that they left her to her own devices to travel across country? Shame on this family for abandoning a sick woman. NOW they want to sue. Shame on them.

[gulopartisan]

There is nothing to indicate that she was incapable of taking care of herself if moving through a humane, orderly society. Suddenly finding herself in a gang banger neighborhood ruled by animals in uniforms changed her circumstances.

The Phoenix police obviously give new resonance to the epithet "pigs."

[dbw1]

I agree that this has been a tragic situation. However, I have trouble with the presumption that the police did anything wrong. Like Diane, I "never met Carol." And I have no doubt she was as gracious and lovely as her eulogies suggest. However, I have never met the security officers who responded to the airport situation either and I have no reason to doubt their decency or dedication either.

I am a volunteer EMT. I have been at emergency scenes where, whether due to head injury or drugs or behavioral reasons, a patient has behaved in an irrational manner. It often requires MORE police (and this responsibility always falls to the police) to subdue a patient safely than it would take to simply subdue someone. To a bystander, the process often appears overwhelming.

A "mental aided" in an airport is a situation worthy of immediate response - a response that must first take into account security concerns and social work concerns second.

It was a terrible thing that occured. But friendship with Ms. Gotbaum's step mother-in-law is not sufficient grounds or evidence to suggest that the responding officers did not perform professionally and appropriately.

There were many points when the outcome could have been changed. Not all of them while the officers were responsible for Ms. Gotbaum. As other people have noted, there was ample opportunity for family and friends to have anticipated a problem and have dealt with it differently.

[Nommo]

The woman is dead. Why should she be dead?

[sparkandy]

And what's really sad, is the people who were really responsible, the family, will be the ones to profit by suing everyone in sight. When this blows over, you will never hear of this family again, because instead of using the money they will undoubtedly get for helping others in Carol's situation, they'll just hold on to it.

[gulopartisan]

No, what's really sad is that Americans are so spineless that they will assume anyone harmed by the state deserved it. Welcome to Amerika.