I don’t know. Why does anyone confess to a crime while being tortured, if they’re not guilty?
IANAL and legally United may have been well within it’s rights. The thing is they shouldn’t have done it. If I own a business, sure it’s my legal right to ask someone to leave, but morally I shouldn’t be calling the cops on a customer who was not doing anything wrong up until the point he was asked to leave. I’m with all the other posters that think United should have continued to increase the offer or charter a plane for the employees if the auction reached a point where that was the cheaper option. There are lots of other situations where I could legally call the cops and have someone hauled away for trespassing. That doesn’t make it a good idea or morally correct.
A vast majority of the time, yes, but not always. “Not by self help” has never been an absolute hard line. As with many things … it depends.
You know, the underlying rules and laws of our society are a lot more malleable and ad hoc than you may believe. Compare 1950s America to today for scores of easy examples.
Does the passenger have any legal or moral obligations?
Don’t think that’s comparable. YMMV. Our respective worldviews won’t allow agreement on this matter.
Who does the CEO serve?
Any? Of course. But recognizing that doesn’t get us anywhere if we don’t agree on what those obligations are.
I’d like to think there is broad agreement, and that any disagreement is over fine points that would almost never crop up and cause real trouble.
Hey Czarcasm, I’ve asked you twice already and you either didn’t see it or are dodging – care to respond? Here’s what prompted the first question again:
And my question:
And again after you said that you aren’t assuming anything:
Care to respond?
I can’t help feeling that all of the people on radio, in print, on message groups, etc. that feel that people should cave into people in authority (air crews, police) and not stand on their rights reflect the bully mentality in our society. People like Clay Travis who this morning was pontificating that you should unquestionably do whatever the cop tells you no matter what.
Cop tells you to stop legally filming as they beat on a black kid? Better do it and complain later so that the police can claim the cop was right even though he made up a law that doesn’t exist. See it’s not about your rights or if The Big Bossman (flight crew, cop, landlord, employer, etc.) is wrong. It’s about giving in to the bully because Fuck You! You do what I tell you! and then later deal with the issue so some other bully can say “Fuck you little guy.”
#FIGHTTHEBULLIES
You absolutely should stand up for your rights.
But remaining on someone else’s property when they tell you to get off isn’t a right.
This isn’t difficult.
“Stockholders” is the pat answer. Things, of course, can get more complicated than that.
Ah yes. Little guy prevailing against United Airlines in court over being bumped. Even if he wins, how in debt will he be after lawyer fees? Is that a realistic solution?
Remember that if your landlord illegally evicts you that you don’t have a right to live there.
And, by his logic, I should be able to go to the house in which he is currently residing, and order him out of my house with the force of the police behind me.
The fact that it’s not my house, and I don’t have the right to make that order is something that he can later deal with in court.
Actually IMHO he was* right.* By standing up for his rights under DOT regulations and his contract he exposed United’s egregious, immoral unethical and illegal policies. He stood up for every United passengers rights.
We have a legal expert, a handful of pundits and United itself admitting they were wrong.
The difference is that, because of the special circumstances of being, you know, someone’s home, the law treats landlord-tenant relationships differently.
Again…this isn’t difficult.
It is when you have the right to be there and they do not have the right to evict you.
If you have a valid lease and paid up rent, the owner of that land cant just order you off. You arent the one trespassing- he is.
I’m fairly certain that his lawyer will represent him on a contingency fee basis.
Exactly. No one is saying that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize or is even the new Rosa Parks, but I admire him for saying I’m right, you’re wrong and I won’t be bullied. Of course even better would have been, as he’s being dragged off the plane, he yells, “I am not an animal! I am a human being!”