The screams may have been a result of the facial injury plus the one video shows them yanking him with his leg pinned behind the armrest which was in the down position. Seems to me that would result in bruising at the very least.

What they did to this man is disturbing on so many levels... human rights, civil rights, customer rights... it touches on class exploitation, media exploitation, the utter lack of empathy by a tone-deaf CEO and profit-at-any-cost corporate bottom line... and on and on. Ultimately, this man is left with the physical and mental fallout from a shocking injustice, and I hope United pays a very big price for it, and that other "Corporations are people" CEOs are watching very carefully.

duncang

(1,907 posts)

8. some hand held tazers can just be pressed against someone nt

Reply to chia (Reply #7)

Wed Apr 12, 2017, 08:51 AM

Apr 2017

randome

(34,845 posts)

9. This seems to be the best thread for my summary. I'll try to lay off this topic afterwards.

Reply to ProfessorPlum (Original post)

Wed Apr 12, 2017, 08:56 AM

Apr 2017

1. "The man was beaten!" The video does not show that, imo. The officers are not making the shoulder movements of officers throwing punches. It shows them trying to pull the man from his seat.

2. "Look at the blood!" Again, the video shows Dr. Dao being pulled from his seat and his head striking the opposing row of seats. That is likely because he lost his grip on the seat and the officer's momentum was too much to stop.

3. "He was tased!" Not a single person on the airplane has said this. It is a DU rumor from start to finish.

4. "United violated their contract!" As mn9Driver points out, 'boarding' covers everything from sitting down in a seat to actual takeoff.

5. "He's a doctor!" So what?

6. "He probably has patients waiting for him!" Another DU rumor.

7. "United should have kept upping the bribe!" That's not how anything works in the real world.

8. "He paid for his ticket!" Pretty much for any contract for any purpose, a business or a customer can stop what they are doing if the transaction is not completed. Obviously the transaction was not complete in this case.

9. "United was giving preference to their employees over passengers!" Yeah. They were. They felt they had no choice due to the thousands of delays and canceled flights in the region. They could and should have had other means for seeing to their shortage.

10. Dr. Dao's odd reaction was a red flag to me. Now it turns out he has mental health issues. https://www.democraticunderground.com/10028921188 Which means, additionally, that the police should have been prepared for this possibility and known how to react. Dao's reaction was not 'normal' so they should have immediately reassessed the situation.

11. The one thing in this entire incident that troubles me and that I have no ability to truly address is this: some of you have pointed out that refusing to obey the orders of a law enforcement official is no different from saying that it's a minority member's fault when he/she is gunned down in the street by a trigger-happy cop.

I am not a member of a minority and I have no explanation (some of you would say 'excuse') to put to this point. This is the one thing that 'haunts' me, for lack of a better word.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]

cwydro

(51,308 posts)

10. Well stated.

Reply to randome (Reply #9)

Wed Apr 12, 2017, 09:21 AM

Apr 2017

I watched that tasering rumor take off on DU.

I saw the first post speculating about tasing, and I knew it would immediately become DU gospel.

So predictable. Not one other passenger on the plane who WITNESSED the incident has said he was tased.

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