@DrZoidberg wrote:
1. Is a Dr still a Dr after having their license revoked for selling narcotics? How does one see patients with no license? - I guess his license is reinstated. Pretty shady doctor I have a hard time having sympathy for.
2. They asked 4 people, 3 were already off, $800 is more than fair.
3. Why is United being blamed, they asked for assistance from Chicago Airport PD. It was the Airport PD that drug him off. All United did was ask for assistance.
The outrage is ridiculous, everyone is acting like United shot him and threw his body out the shoot to clear space.
1. Agree 100% with sarge. The passenger's personal or legal history has zero to do with what United did to him. Besides that, there are so many laws these days that there's even a book demonstrating that the average person commits three felonies a day without even knowing it. If a powerful, connected enemy wants you busted, you WILL be busted. They'll find a justification. Likewise, when some PR person or somebody in the media wants to smear you, you will be smeared.
2. If $800 is more than fair, then why didn't a single passenger on the plane agree to take it when they asked for volunteers? Besides, it's not up to you or anybody except the individuals involved to decide what's "fair." You're not in a position to know key issues like how urgent the flight was to the person involved or the person's financial circumstances. In any case, $800 is actually quite low these days for airlines asking for volunteers.
3. United is being blamed and should be blamed because instead of even attempting to handle the situation diplomatically, they elected to use force to eject a passenger who was not being rowdy or disruptive. Calling the cops in that situation WAS initiating violence against Dr. Dao, even if the United agents didn't choose to bloody their own hands. They knew the cops would either physically get rough with the passenger or threaten the passenger with a roughing up.
I understand why airlines overbook, but overbooking is ethically (if not legally) questionable, and when an airline screws up in its overbooking, the airline should find some sensible way of dealing with the problem, without penalizing passengers and definitely without calling in "muscle" to threaten, then beat them up!
