@jmyrlefuller Good grief, did United retain the services of Roger Stone or something?
It is important to understand here that United was perfectly within its legal rights to do what they did -- bump him, ask him to leave, and call the cops to remove him involuntarily if he refused. A lot of the outrage is ignoring that basic fact.
The problem for United is if they pussyfoot on this, they risk endorsing/encouraging a
false public perception that you have the right to refuse to be bumped. And if people come to believe that, United would be buying themselves a whole boatload of future trouble from surly passengers refusing to move, and generating more of these incidents. Maybe including by some people who hope to generate their own
perceived six-figure windfall through physical resistance.
It is surely a public relations nightmare for them, and the CEO should probably do a better job of pointing out 1) the legal obligation to move if told to do so, and 2) the fact that they called the cops, and the cops handled this.
But they can't -- and shouldn't -- back off the idea that this guy was absolutely wrong for refusing to disembark when told to do so. And if part of that PR battle is leaking that this guy is a bit shady...I can't blame them for that either.