Violent United

From the BBC:

"Why was a passenger dragged off a US flight?"

Videos showing a man being violently removed from a United Airlines flight have provoked an outcry on social media. The footage taken inside the airliner shows a man being violently pulled out of his seat and dragged down the aisle as passengers prepared to take off from Chicago to Louisville on Sunday evening. The airline in question - United - has tweeted an apology for what happened and says it is investigating. One 50-second clip of the incident on Twitter was re-tweeted 16,000 times since it was posted that day.  Jayse D Anspach, who posted the footage tweeted: "#United overbooked and wanted four of us to volunteer to give up our seats for personnel that needed to be at work the next day." "No one volunteered, so United decided to choose for us. They chose an Asian doctor and his wife." "The doctor needed to work at the hospital the next day, so he refused to volunteer," Mr Anspach added. "Ten minutes later, the doctor runs back into the plane with a bloody face, clings to a post in the back, chanting, "I need to go home." Another passenger Audra D. Bridges, posted a video of the incident on Facebook that has been viewed over 400,000 times. She wrote: "Please share this video. We are on this flight. United airlines overbooked the flight."  "They randomly selected people to kick off so their standby crew could have a seat.  "This man is a doctor and has to be at the hospital in the morning," she added.  "He did not want to get off. We are all shaky and so disgusted."  Thousands of Facebook comments have been posted about what happened.   One person wrote: "This is infuriating" Another posted: "OMG So sad to see someone being treated like this. I wont fly United ever again." In a statement United airlines told the BBC: "Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked."  "After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate," the airline added. The chief executive of United, Oscar Munoz, has since made a statement on Twitter: "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologise for having to re-accommodate these customers." "Our team is moving with a sense of urgency to work with the authorities and conduct our own detailed review of what happened.  "We are also reaching out to this passenger to talk directly to him and further address and resolve the situation," he added.

^ US law may unfortunately allow airlines to over-sell seats, but that doesn't make it right. Overbooking should be illegal. The way United and the police "handled' this situation is just plain disgusting. He was not a criminal. He was not a terrorist. He did not create a scene (before being dragged-off the flight.) He paid for his ticket. He boarded with no issue. His only "crime" was not giving-up his seat. It doesn't surprise me that the Chicago police acted like this. Chicago is becoming more lawless. Hopefully, this attack will waken ordinary people up to the abuses the airlines, the airports and the police tend to do all in the name of "national security." Nowadays you are guilty until you prove yourself innocent and if you question anything you are labelled a terrorist. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39554421