I intended to ignore the United Airlines passenger follies story because it appeared ho-hum; two assholes got in a fight, and one of them went to jail. But a former subordinate, partner, boss (we were flexible if nothing else at Task Force) made some points that I hadn’t considered.
Here is his take: Regardless of how you come down on the UA passenger eviction event, there’s a back story all of should watch for as it develops.
UA can’t get the passenger to give up the seat.
UA calls the cops.
Cops manage to beat the hell out of passenger in the process of removing him from the plane.
UA employees never touched him.
Care to guess how long it will be before UA not only drops the three cops in the grease but in the future will not call cops? Whoops, we already missed that mark, it has happened.
A cop can’t win enforcing “house rules” – somebody should have told those three that before they boarded the plane. If one of them had been thinking, the conversation would have gone something like, “Let me get this straight – you sold him a ticket, you assigned him a seat, you invited him aboard the plane and asked that he take his seat, and now that you’ve changed your mind and he won’t leave, you want me to throw him out….FUCK YOU!!!!!!!! You grew it; YOU chew it. 10-8”
The conflict between house rules and the law was a huge problem when we were working the clubs. We had to get the managers to understand we couldn’t enforce dress codes, etc. It took a lot of education. And too, we had to train them to work the offender into a breach of the peace so we could then lay the “latchess grabass” on him. It is a very fine line.
Those three cops, union or no union, are looking at disciplinary action. The City and Airport are at, risk and UA is going to be first in line to help bury them: “OH NO-O-O-O!!!! We never told them to grab the passenger.”
Last I saw UA was trying to put the blame on the cops. I don’t think UA is going to avoid responsibility. The airline set the stage. An airline may have the ability to remove somebody from a flight. But in this instance, the airline started a general negotiation to provide a compensation package acceptable to both parties. The good doctor did not accept the terms offered. When there were no takers, the airline focused on the doctor. They went from the general to the specific without apparently, restating or refining the offer, not just to the doctor but to anybody within earshot. UA needed a seat; it didn’t have to be the doctor’s seat. Some might argue that the doctor crossed the line and was now trespassing when he refused to move. Had I been one of the cops, I would have been reluctant to physically intervene without an additional effort by the airline to resolve the issue.
The reality is by defying the gate agent, and the cops, the only seat that would meet the airline requirements was the one the doctor was sitting in. The situation had escalated so that it was no longer about getting a flight crew to the back of beyond; this was about punishing the doctor for defying them.
Like I said a group of assholes got into an argument and one went to jail.