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United Airlines violently drags a doctor off a plane so employee could take his seat

Why do you fly United?


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TheOMan

Tagged as I see fit
Tweet deleted.

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Trash "journalist" for sure.
 
Even the way she presented it "Oh look at my desk just covered in evidence of this guys legal past! I'll take a picture for you!" was sleazy as fuck.
 

Magus1234

Member
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.
 
Not sure if this has been posted yet, but apparently the guy is a reasonably popular Vietnamese singer/songwriter / doctor

https://www.facebook.com/nguyen.khang.503

This is the FB page of another Vietnamese singer who knows him.

Second post from the top is in Vietnamese, but it basically says who he is, then shows a picture of him at the bottom singing.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
I am curious as to why it happens. Either they want to keep the story going with as much info as they can, or they're paid off, or both.

Follow the money.
Mainstream news outlets are not doing journalism.

They care about clicks and protecting the powerful and maintaining status quo.
 
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.


I sort of know what you mean about the tone, but it feels like most people are on his side and are just gleefully dragging United.
 

norm9

Member
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.

It's certainly disconcerting, but I do hope this is a watershed moment in victim blaming. You finally have an oppressor that everyone has unfortunately had to deal with (big airline). When it comes to cops killing poc, lots of people will shrug because they don't ever experience that. But being treated like cattle though? A more relatable experience to some.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.

I was kinda wondering this last night. CNN was looping the video over and over. How much control do you have over pics/video of you getting your ass kicked by the police do you actually have?

I would certainly object to seeing myself being dragged off a plane all over the nightly news.

You notice too when the story was first breaking tons of news sites asking the twitter uploader for permission to use the video but did anyone ask this dude?
 

Boem

Member
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.

I saw the Jimmy Kimmel bit on it. He took the guy's side, but when he showed the clip at the beginning it was super weird how many people in the audience were laughing at it as if it was some sort of comedy bit. Super weird.
 

Koomaster

Member
Tweet deleted.

fZ3FwrL.png
Part 2 is very telling. Talking about addressing United's role IN THIS SITUATION.

You address United's role in this situation but then have to dig up previous situations from the victim's past... why?

Thank fuck people are waking to to shady hit pieces on victims disguised as 'journalism' and rightfully calling them out.
 
Im not sure if this is true or conjecture but someone said the 4 crew members came up to the gate and said they needed to get on the flight after the plane was mostly boarded.

United considers its crew essential members (must fly status) so in effect there are 4 less passenger seats on the plane.

This is what I have heard, but the poster who used to work at Delta said they were removing people who were already onboard all the time due to overbooking. I don't really see how that's possible.

This situation of crew members rushing up there last second, when everyone is already seated has to be a pretty rare situation. I don't see how Delta would be doing this all the time. Short of this kind of situation, overbooking issues are supposed to be sorted at the gate.
 

mr2xxx

Banned
Can't believe the smear campaign is working.

Must be pretty embarrassing to be an United employee right now.



I don't think it's the smear campaign. Traders just see a low price and think there's money to be made. They don't care that it belongs to a scummy company.

Pretty much, traders know that people will have no issue booking a flight if it's just marginally cheaper than the competition.
 

diablos991

Can’t stump the diablos
"No one should ever be mistreated this way." They should be mistreated a completely different way.

I think the CEO meant they shouldn't be mistreated on camera.

This CEO is garbage in the emotional intelligence department. Doesn't United have a PR function that can review this stuff?
 
I think the CEO meant they shouldn't be mistreated on camera.

This CEO is garbage in the emotional intelligence department. Doesn't United have a PR function that can review this stuff?


Amazingly, the CEO won a major PR award like a month ago, and hopefully he has had the decency to re-accommodate it into a trash can.
 
This will hurt United badly in the long term. Bleed baby, bleed.

No it won't. The outrage is almost entirely social media driven which means people will forget about it in a few months. They'll fiddle with prices and services and the price-conscious public will almost always chose value over "that one time that guy got bloodied and dragged off the plane."

Like ISPs, they're too big to be permanently damaged by bad press.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.

The whole of the internet has been tearing UA to shreds. Memes only exist as a small portion of that, and most of those that do are savagely mocking UA.
 
Trash "journalist" for sure.

The whole boo hoo some weirdo 900 miles away tweeted a death threat so pity my scumbag behavior tactic is the fucking worst.

If you've been online for more than a year you probably have had weirdos say crazy shit to you. She knows they aren't real, just wants sympathy.

I don't care if the Dr. is a serial child molester, neither the cops or united knew that, and it's not relevant to the situation.

If United's CEO was fucking underage hookers in his office it wouldn't be relevant to this either.
 

Nerokis

Member
Considering overbooking was the excuse given by United as to why this happened in the first place, I would argue that we didn't know that, and I find it interesting that they are backing away from that.

I find it pretty interesting, too. Earlier in the thread, we had a discussion about the legal scope of overbooking law, and whether it considers the fact that some seats often have to be reserved for employees, or if it requires that all available seats be distributed to customers when capacity is reached.

Now United seems to be saying this wasn't a situation where the plane was overbooked at all. More precisely, they're saying tickets were sold out, but not even oversold. But it still seems they followed the procedure established by overbooking law? A lot of things I'd like to see clarified here.

Part 2 is very telling. Talking about addressing United's role IN THIS SITUATION.

You address United's role in this situation but then have to dig up previous situations from the victim's past... why?

Thank fuck people are waking to to shady hit pieces on victims disguised as 'journalism' and rightfully calling them out.

Let's be fair, though: not all reporting covering Dao's mixed past constitute hit pieces. This story blew up, and it's easy to see how some would see Dao as part of it. His background, his behavior, the way he responded to everything are partly driving people's interest and their interpretations. None of those things are directly relevant to United's behavior, as we have a pretty good sense that he did absolutely nothing to warrant anything that happened to him, but they're relevant to a fairly big dimension of what makes this story as compelling as it is.

It's natural that reporters will want to learn more about him, and it's natural that relevations such as his gambling history and legal issues will rise to the surface of coverage. No malicious intent is required whatsoever.

If you have an issue with how news stations are covering Dao's past, be specific with your problem. Do you think it's unethical for Dao himself to be approached as part of the story at all, and therefore, it's wrong for us to be learning about his past? Or when you say "hit pieces," are you saying your issue is with how his past is being covered? Would you be fine with it if more positive aspects of his past were given equal coverage?
 

DeathPeak

Member
I saw the Jimmy Kimmel bit on it. He took the guy's side, but when he showed the clip at the beginning it was super weird how many people in the audience were laughing at it as if it was some sort of comedy bit. Super weird.

Even Kimmel commented on how the crowd was reacting.


Their new policy will probably be "phones must be turned off the moment you board the plane."
 
Sadly, I think this will be mostly forgotten in less than a week by most people once the next #viral story breaks.

Hey guys remember The Dress? What color was it again?
 

Sarye

Member
If you have an issue with how news stations are covering Dao's past, be specific with your problem. Do you think it's unethical for Dao himself to be approached as part of the story at all, and therefore, it's wrong for us to be learning about his past? Or when you say "hit pieces," are you saying your issue is with how his past is being covered? Would you be fine with it if more positive aspects of his past were given equal coverage?
I'll bite.

1) The guy has 5 kids and runs a pediatric clinic. Guess which direction news outlet went
2) It reinforces the "both sides" argument that seems to only happen with minorities. We're tired of it and thankfully rational people are seeing through this.
3) The Dr. is a victim. What does his past have to do how United handled the situation. I'd understand a tiny bit. And I must stress.. "tiny" if there was no evidence and people are just trying to figure out who is telling the truth. But we have ample of video evidence and eye-witness accounts. What does his past have to do with his treatment?
4) Again I must stress, he is a victim. He doesn't deserve to have all of his faults dug because of what United did to him. Imagine if you got robbed, and people started digging into your past and said, "oh well he shoplifted before so this is karma"
 
I'll bite.

1) The guy has 5 kids and runs a pediatric clinic. Guess which direction news outlet went
2) It reinforces the "both sides" argument that seems to only happen with minorities. We're tired of it and thankfully rational people are seeing through this.
3) The Dr. is a victim. What does his past have to do how United handled the situation. I'd understand a tiny bit. And I must stress.. "tiny" if there was no evidence and people are just trying to figure out who is telling the truth. But we have ample of video evidence and eye-witness accounts. What does his past have to do with his treatment?
4) Again I must stress, he is a victim. He doesn't deserve to have all of his faults dug because of what United did to him. Imagine if you got robbed, and people started digging into your past and said, "oh well he shoplifted before so this is karma"

I have a problem with him being addressed as a doctor a problem too. His occupation shouldn't matter this case.
 
If you have an issue with how news stations are covering Dao's past, be specific with your problem. Do you think it's unethical for Dao himself to be approached as part of the story at all, and therefore, it's wrong for us to be learning about his past? Or when you say "hit pieces," are you saying your issue is with how his past is being covered? Would you be fine with it if more positive aspects of his past were given equal coverage?

I just don't see how his past is relevant at all unless there's something specific there that directly leads to his being battered and dragged from a commercial airliner.

Upon first hearing about the story, a need to dig into his past just wasn't something that popped into the forefront for me- nor has it since. Much more relevant would be any violent behaviors exhibited in the past by any of the security involved in the incident, or any bad judgement calls/disciplinary actions in the past of the United representative(s) either on the plane or in the terminal who made the decision to have security physically force a paid, ticketed and seated passenger off of a flight.
 

hamchan

Member
Kind of strange to bring up but has anyone noticed the severe lack of sensitivity about this case online? I feel like if this person was brown or black it would be treated much differently, but as it is he has basically become a meme on social media. I don't know, maybe I am just noticing it more.

I saw the Jimmy Kimmel bit on it. He took the guy's side, but when he showed the clip at the beginning it was super weird how many people in the audience were laughing at it as if it was some sort of comedy bit. Super weird.

Watching the Kimmel clip and it kinda makes me feel sick that they're laughing. Like they feel it's fine to laugh at the police brutality because it's only an Asian man on the receiving end.
 

Lagamorph

Member
I have a problem with him being addressed as a doctor a problem too. His occupation shouldn't matter this case.

It matters because he had patients to see on the other end of his flight.
That is far more important than a few United employees getting somewhere on time to avoid another flight delay or United having to pay other staff overtime.
 

Sarye

Member
I have a problem with him being addressed as a doctor a problem too. His occupation shouldn't matter this case.
It's his whole reason why he didn't want to go. He considered it, but after realizing that the next flight is the next day, decided he couldn't do it because of patients he had to see. And magically he was 'randomly' selected. I think his occupation had some relevance.
 

Flo_Evans

Member
This is what I have heard, but the poster who used to work at Delta said they were removing people who were already onboard all the time due to overbooking. I don't really see how that's possible.

This situation of crew members rushing up there last second, when everyone is already seated has to be a pretty rare situation. I don't see how Delta would be doing this all the time. Short of this kind of situation, overbooking issues are supposed to be sorted at the gate.

I've had them ask for volunteers on a few flights after being seated, but every time someone would take the passes.

I think removing people after boarding is mostly weight restrictions. Dunno tho.
 
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