military, and by extension, to the taxpayers of the United States, rather than provide basic anti-piracy prevention measures such as armed guards. Navy who rescued the shipping company from its poor decisions and the brave crewmembers who actually fought back against the pirates once they boarded the ship – despite the crewmembers being unarmed while facing pirates carrying automatic weapons,” says Brian Beckcom.Īccording to the lawsuit, Maersk essentially “outsourced” the security of the Alabama to the U.S. “The real heroes are the men and women of the U.S.
#CAPTIN PHILLIPS TRIAL#
That lawsuit settled before it went to trial in Mobile, Alabama on December 2, 2013. And the lawsuit further claims that the Alabama didn’t have adequate anti-pirate security measures. Maersk Alabama to sail directly into pirate-infested waters despite receiving multiple warnings to avoid the area.
#CAPTIN PHILLIPS MOVIE#
But does Captain Phillips tell the whole story? And does the movie tell the story accurately?Īpproximately half of the crewmembers, represented by Brian Beckcom, are claiming that the shipping company, Maersk Lines Limited, willfully allowed the Navy, and specifically Navy marksmen, fatally shot all but one of the pirates and rescued Captain Phillips. On orders from President Obama, the brave men and women of the U.S. The captain and the crew were taken hostage, and the pirates took the captain, Richard Phillips, off the ship into a lifeboat. In April 2009, the Maersk Alabama cargo ship was attacked and captured by four Somali pirates less than 300 nautical miles off the Coast of Somalia. The movie received glowing reviews, and claims to be based on actual events. On October 11, 2013, a movie called Captain Phillips, starring Tom Hanks as Captain Richard Phillips, premiered nationwide. The inescapable lesson of Captain Phillips seems to be: Enabling and encouraging bad men to do bad things by disarming the good and the innocent is both unnecessarily expensive and morally shameful.Does the movie Captain Phillips accurately show what happened on the Maersk Alabama?
Innocent lives would have been kept out of harm’s way and personal property would have remained safe. Had the Maersk Alabama been well-armed, instead of a gun-free zone, the entire hijacking and kidnapping incident likely never would have happened-likely never even would have been attempted by the pirates to begin with.
Navy, and American taxpayers, spent to save Captain Phillips, when the entire incident could have easily been avoided. It’s hard to estimate how many millions of dollars in equipment and manpower the U.S. Answer: With a whole bunch of big guns!.Question: Who brings the entire hostage episode to a close?.GUNS SOONER OR LATERįor those who think disarming law-obeying people is the key to dealing with deadly violence, it’s impossible to ignore the great irony of Captain Phillips: The international shipping industry seems to stand by the political logic of many Americans: Where there’s much gun violence, the last thing we want is more guns! So if there’s much gun violence in the seas off the Somali coast, then it must be wise to disarm law-abiding cargo ships, right? It’s almost laughable, if only it wasn’t so dangerously wrong. Why, after all, would a handful of tribal Somali thugs with a couple of rickety little skiffs try to hijack a massive, modern, high-tech freight ship? Answer: the ship is a gun-free zone, and everyone knows it. PREYīut the whole theme of the movie is natural fact of predator and prey, and the grossly immoral idea of creating gun-free zones-which is on the high seas, in the case of Captain Phillips They settle instead on trying to steal from those people who have produced much-people who enjoy the protection of property rights and the many incentives fueled by that protection. Somalis can invent, innovate, produce, and work, too.įor now, however, the poor in Somalia produce little because any wealth they create or property they earn is very unprotected and likely to be taken away. You’ll see that with the right kind of political reform, all the economic growth and prosperity that has been possible in America can be possible in Somalia, too. Why is it possible to work one’s way out of poverty in America, but not in Somalia?Īnswer that question, and you’ll discover the almost-magical power of property rights coupled with the rule of stable, knowable laws.
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