Conservative speaker and Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke stepped in to help subdue a rowdy passenger who was swearing and shouting at crew members and other passengers on the plane during a Charlotte, North Carolina-bound flight Saturday.
Preston Blunston, 36, wandered up and down the aisles and talked loudly throughout the flight, directing abusive comments at a flight attendant and at Clarke, whom he seemed to know is a conservative, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
According to another unnamed passenger on the plane, Blunston used a racial slur repeatedly against Clarke and said he was “not one of us,” the Sentinel reported.
As the plane grew close to landing, Blunston’s abusive comments intensified.
Clarke later told Fox News, “It was very intimidating for a lot of the passengers and the flight crew on the plane.”
Eventually, Clarke approached Blunston and pinned him against the seat until the plane landed. Police were summoned and Blunston was arrested and taken to jail. He is now free on bail and facing a court date in Charlotte.
In a posting on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, a passenger who is a news editor from Milwaukee characterized Clarke’s actions as appropriate and admirable, saying, “I thought he really handled himself well and did not respond or escalate what could have been a very bad situation in the air.”
Clarke expressed concern that no air marshal was on board to back him up but said he “did what was instinctive in me; that was to protect and take action,” Fox Business reported.
Clarke, who travels to media events and to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump, was headed to New Hampshire to be the featured guest for the Cheshire County Annual Republican Shoot on Sunday when he encountered the rowdy passenger.
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