In case you forgot about the incident, on April 9, 2017, a United Airlines flight to Louisville, Kentucky was overbooked and the flight crew offered $800 credit for any volunteer to give up their seat, the crew resorted to using a process that would determine a passenger who either had paid the lowest fares, checked in the latest, or were not part of a connecting flight, to be removed. Dr. David Dao was the unfortunate passenger who was chosen to be removed, but when he refused to give up his seat, the airport's security stepped in and forcefully removed him from his seat, sustaining multiple injuries in the process. After threatening to sue the company, United paid him a confidential amount of money as compensation.
In reaction to the firing, Dao's lawyer has stated that his client saw it as unfortunate that the officers lost their job, but reacted positively to United's new policies. The airline company rolled out a new policy that raised the maximum amount of credit given to volunteers who give up their seats to $10,000 from $1,350 as well as creating additional methods of making sure flights won't be overbooked again. Chicago's Aviation Department also issued a new rule that would only send officers into planes for disturbances at the request of the Chicago Police Department.
I believe that firing the officers will not impose peace nor any feelings of safety among the people since this action was only done in Chicago and not in other US cities. This action was done way too late in my opinion because I don't get the reason why an investigation was needed in the first place when the evidence of brutality is seen in the videos online.
Do you believe that justice came a little too late for the officers? Should all of the officers be fired? Do you also believe that United Airlines or Chicago's new policies will change anything?
NY Times Article
8 comments:
I believe the justice given tot he officers were unjust,as I see it as them just doing their job.I saw the officers as following the airlines policy and nothing more or less was more appropriate in this situation.I believe that none of the officers should not have been fired on the fact of their duties being done in the most appropriate manner, an passenger who made the officers jobs that much more difficult. If anything, I do believe that the change in policy will resolve more problems in the long run,and is the right thing to do in thisscenario.
I believe that Justice cam a little too late. 6 months is way too long. I believe that the only officers should be fired are the officers that actually dragged Dao out of the aircraft. If there were officers that didn't even touch him, then they should still be able to keep there job. United has changed their policy, and I believe that it will be better than it was 6 months ago. Since they now have new policies everything from here should move smoothly with problems with overbooking n all.
I believe that it is justified that the officers that were physically violent to Dao should be fired. They should not be allowed to keep their jobs if they have proved that they are a liability to the airline and have volatile and violent personalities. However, justice came too late considering the fact that their was a lot of video and eye witness evidence. United changing their policies may be helpful, but ultimately United's bass press may be more likely to prevent this type of event from happening again.
I strongly disagree with the claim that this justice "came too late," for investigations have to be done thoroughly, otherwise critics will bash those that conducted the investigation. Eye witnesses and videos are evidence, sure, but who are we to say that this evidence is all that was needed to come up with a solution? Yes, the brutality was clear, however there were many ways to handle the situation, and it took time to make it through the system. What's important is the result. Those who attacked an innocent man are now in the field for a new job, perhaps learning their lesson. The policy changes, as Ella and Arjun mentioned, will most likely improve the services offered by United. The main idea to remember is that the event was not just stuffed with money and sent away, but that action was taken and results were produced... something that isn't very common anymore.
I disagree with Josh in that firing these two officers was unjust since they were just doing their job. This is untrue, their job is to maintain the security of the passengers, not to physically assault one for simply refusing to leave the plane that he paid to be on. I believe that even if they were just following the United Airlines policy, which I also believe is wrong, they shouldn't have done it in such an unnecessarily violent way. This being said, I am happy to see that United is taking action even if it is a little late. And I believe that although action in suspending and firing these officers and enacting new policies should've taken place sooner, it is better too late than never. However, I can also see what Ariana is saying in that the investigations should be taken seriously and be done thoroughly since there are always two side to the story and we can't just fire the officers on the basis of the eye witnesses and videos that surfaced. It would've been pretty unfair to the officers if they were fired without a proper investigation as well.
I am in tune with others that the firing of the officers is justified. Their use of excessive violence overstepped their professional boundaries, and they should be met with a severe enough punishment to hopefully teach them lessons on not getting caught up in the power of their designated roles (stanford prison experiment!). I agree with Ariana in that justice did not necessarily "come too late," seeing as thorough investigation is always necessary in any given situation to evaluate for a number of confounding factors such as motive, restrictions, justifications, etc; in addition, investigations are rarely completed in a timely manner. In terms of the new policies outlined by United, it seems as if the backlash from society was a good enough motive for them to take a step in the right direction by increasing the compensatory amount and trying to change their overbooking policies.
Overbooking on airlines is never going to stop because the revenue that airlines make from overbooking is just too high, so there must be preventative measures to ensure safety and fairness of passengers. In order to do this, I think it is necessary that the officers who act out of line be severely reprimanded or punished. Unfortunately, this does not usually happen in the real world unless a video like this gets wide publicity because these officers have the union protecting their jobs under all circumstances. Ultimately, whenever an issue like this occurs, justice will almost always come very late because of the "investigations" that must occur.
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