[DigitalJack]

The dude was complicit in the clusterfuck. Having seen the video it would surprise me if the man was sober and mentally sound.

The the officers screwed up the extraction, but the guy was ridiculous.

Did he actually believe wailing like a 2 year old and doing his damnedest to hold on to his chair would result in his remaining on the flight?

His face injuries were caused when he finally lost his grip on his seat. The effort of the guy extracting him suddenly had no resistance and the guy sprang out across the aisle and whacked his face hard on the aisle arm rest opposite him.

The whole thing was a shitstorm where mistakes kept compounding, made by both parties.

Of course the whole thing was instigated by united and I firmly believe they were in the wrong, but the passenger was obnoxious and not free of blame.

[victorhooi]

There are professionals that are trained to deal with this situation.

They have both the training, tools and experience to deal with this.

I'm not sure what happened here - apparently the officers were "Chicago Aviation Police" - which is different to the "Chicago Police Department" (i.e. what you and I would know as real police officers). Surely there was somebody they could have escalated to (or simply called in the actual Police Department) if they thought it had to come to this?

[colmvp]

A mentally unstable person decided to go on a police car and start yelling at the police. While up there, she broke the rear windows too. What did the police do? Did they shoot her? Did they taze her? Did they beat her? No. They waited. They waited till she came down from the top of the car at which point they restrained her.

Those police officers deserve praise for defusing the situation without escalating it. And at the same time, it also shows that yes, police can find ways to control situations without resorting to extreme violence. Even in this case on the airplane, I could easily imagine a competent officer saying to United, "is there any way you could convince someone else to give up their seat? Maybe offer more money?"

[srtjstjsj]

They are real police officers.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-united-chicago-aviatio...

[jacquesm]

That has to be the most clear case of victim blaming ever. Even United by now has decided that they are at fault and not the passenger. It took a bit of doing to convince them, wonder what it will take for you to be convinced?

[DigitalJack]

All you have to do is watch the video. It is not ambiguous.