The man was Vietnamese. He was flying on the cheapest pass called a Zpass. Cheap seat goes first. This was Republic Airlines commuter flight bearing Uniteds name. The FAA rules specify who gets bumped. By the way, Republic Airways also serve Frontier Airlines, the bottom feeder of airlines. This was a Russian attempt to screw a great American airline{sarc}.
Well, since he paid for a cheap seat, he wasn’t all that important. United must have felt the 1st Class passengers deserved a ringside seat of young thug cops pounding on a 69 yr old slopehead, huh.