Such friendly skies
It was obvious that David Dao – the guy violently thrown off that United flight because United wanted to give his seat to one of their employees – might have a concussion. His lawyer confirms that he does have a concussion. But a concussion is not all.
David Dao, a 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor, was hospitalized after Chicago aviation police dragged him from the plane as the airline sought to make space on a flight from the city’s O’Hare International Airport to Louisville, Kentucky.
Demetrio said the law stated that passengers could not be ejected from planes with unreasonable force. Chicago runs the airport and the city’s department of aviation employs the three officers who dragged Dao off the plane.
Dao, who was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday night, suffered a significant concussion, a broken nose and lost two front teeth in the incident, and he will need to undergo reconstructive surgery, Demetrio said.
He lost two front teeth! They slammed him into that armrest so hard that they knocked out two of his teeth!
So I guess now we all know where we stand. We can buy a ticket and show up on time and get in our seat, all as we’re supposed to do, and then they can decide they want our paid-for seat back, and if we say no because we really do have to get where we’re going at the scheduled time, they can knock our teeth out.
Is it Utopian and extreme of me to think that’s not reasonable?
The city of Chicago, which Demetrio said had also not contacted the attorneys and family, is also potentially involved in any lawsuit because of the officers’ involvement.
Chicago’s Aviation Department said on Wednesday that two more officers had been placed on leave in connection with the incident. One officer was placed on leave on Tuesday.
I look forward to Jeff Sessions’s news conference in which he defends the “officers” and thanks them for keeping us all safe.
What you accept is what you get. I am encouraged that many passengers did not accept it.
Pink News reported that the Dr Dao who’s legal/pharmaceutical problems were spilled by the media has a DIFFERENT middle initial from the Dr Dao who got assaulted. I haven’t seen this addressed anywhere else so far.
So now we know the difference between airline enforcers and Mafiosi.
The latter are more honest.
They both say “Do as we say, and you won’t get hurt”; but the Mafia will say it to your face, whereas the airline hides the information in reams of tiny print that no-one reads because it isn’t necessary to click on the ‘terms and conditions’, let alone print and read them, to buy a ticket over the internet.
Today, a friend of mine asked, “How *do* you remove someone with minimum use of force?”
I’ve had no special training, just observed a few demonstrations of taking control of a noncooperative person. After 3 tries, I lifted her out of her chair, after which, it was easy to get her arm in a hold and push her gently but firmly to the door. At no point was she hurt or scared, just a little astounded at how strong I was (mostly an illusion created by proper leverage). I then explained that anyone working as an officer is *supposed* to know those techniques, but way too often, they just use confrontations as an excuse to be violent.