In the discussion of the actions of United Airlines, this is equally an issue and should not be ignored:
The people who dragged the man off the flight were Chicago aviation security officers from the Chicago Police Department, not United agents. United’s employees, as Munoz explained in his Monday evening letter, were just following protocol in calling the police.
What the police officers did was not, however, protocol:
According to the New York Times, “[T]he Chicago Department of Aviation said in a statement on Monday that the incident ‘was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure’ and that an officer had been placed on leave pending a review of the matter.”
Maybe United has the legal authority to revoke your ticket; but does the police department have the legal authority to pull you bodily from your seat and drag you off the plane? Under what circumstances?
Inquiring minds want to know, because this incident would not have happened had the officers involved declined to do what they did, which is probably what they should have done. After all:
"We followed the right procedures," United spokesperson Charlie Hobart told the Associated Press. "That plane had to depart. We wanted to get our customers to their destinations."
Had the police declined to act as United's goons, United might have had to fold and get its employees to Louisville by other means of transport.
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