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Many people in this thread and on FR have jumped to immediately trash the doctor and defend United. Why? Why is the doctor's past have anything to do with his treatment by United? What if it was you? And someone points out something embarrassing in your past to discredit you. Does that give United license to abuse you?

And consider that United apologized, the CEO lost his promotion and likely will be gone in the coming days or weeks, United has changed multiple policies, even now saying no employees bumping paid passengers, paying more to bump people, etc. They say they will abide by ticket that didn't allow bumping after boarded, etc. Further, the police were suspended, hopefully they will soon be charged with assault. And the aircrew, fired soon as well. Anyway, by all accounts what United did was wrong and illegal, they admitted as much, changed policies so it wouldn't happen again, so why defend them and trash the doctor, the victim? Makes no sense. Again, it could have been you or any one of us or our families.

I admit I side with the customer, but I travel almost every week. I see the good and bad that occurs on planes and this one was so incredibly over the top that it was shocking.

I thought bringing up his past was quite wrong as it had nothing to do with the incident in question.

I thought Dr. Dao behaved shamefully and that he threw a tantrum like a child. He should have had more dignity than he displayed.

Initially I was led to believe that United had the legal right to deplane him, but someone pointed out that the contract only stipulates this for an "overbooked" condition, and not because they wanted to bump him for airline employees who aren't ticket holders.

It is a legal technicality, but I recognize the law runs on those nowadays.

I think United's settlement has more to do with the bad publicity they received than it does with any legal liability.

I detest everything about this whole sorry mess. I detest that they tried to evict a legitimate passenger, I detest the fact he screamed like a little girl and threw a tantrum, I detest that he immediately screamed "racism" and I detest that United felt they had to settle because of "trial on the public airwaves."

This whole thing is a sorry representation of modern life. Why do we no longer have people with common sense and dignity?

Many people in this thread and on FR have jumped to immediately trash the doctor and defend United. Why?

Dunno. I've seen a lot of kneejerks siding with Dao against the airplane as well. What I find interesting is how people feel they are compelled to choose sides. I don't agree with Dao, the security personnel or the airline in this case.