Wow! Details about the doctor thrown off the United Airlines flight on Sunday are emerging. He’s quite a character, but I’ll explain why we should not become sidetracked by his past.
I do approach this topic cautiously. Surprisingly perhaps, what first comes to my mind is the law surrounding the presentation of evidence in rape cases. In most jurisdictions, the rape victim’s past sexual conduct is inadmissible as evidence (usually attempting to show a character trait of promiscuity). This is to protect the victim against specific acts of rape that are not necessarily implicated by past behavior.
Before we go into details about this man, let us understand that he may be a pretty shady character, but that does not mean he was not violated or wronged in this situation.
Anyway, here’s the story. The passenger’s name is David Dao. He is 69 years old.
Dao, who went to medical school in Vietnam in the 1970s before moving to the U.S., has worked as a pulmonologist in Elizabethtown but was arrested in 2003 and eventually convicted of drug-related offenses after an undercover investigation, according to documents filed with the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure last June.
As for Dao’s history as a doctor in Kentucky, the medical licensure board documents allege that he was involved in fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and was sexually involved with a patient who used to work for his practice and assisted police in building a case against him.
Dao was convicted of multiple felony counts of obtaining drugs by fraud or deceit in November 2004 and was placed on five years of supervised probation in January 2005, according to the documents. He surrendered his medical license the next month.
The Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure permitted Dao to resume practicing medicine in 2015 under certain conditions.
There are even more lurid details that I will not repeat here. The NY Post has additional info. Dao also appears to be a great poker player.
My Lawyer Hat is On
His salacious past proves nothing, both in law and in fact.
Shagging a patient as a married man and dealing drugs may not be ethical, but that does not shed light on what happened onboard the plane on Sunday.
So here’s the point of my post — just because he was bad yesterday does not make him bad today. Sure, many will now just throw him under the bus, wholly discounting what happened to him. But if his story is ultimately discounted, it will not and should not be because of his checkered past.
Why are you posting this information?! You can’t repeat negative information about this man’s past and ALSO say “oh but we shouldn’t take this into account…”
You are taking part in smearing this man! This post is highly unethical. Shame on you!
I’m putting it in context immediately before someone else does. People will soon say he is a drug dealer / cheater, therefore a liar. We should not make that mistake.
Quit kissing up,I stopped by your website and the 4 comments won’t matter anyway this guy is a thug in my,opinion. Sorry bust bubble wake up open your eyes..imagine your mom or dad being dragged out.
We get it you are a United shill
Sorry you didn’t read the post.
Matthew, are you deficient is some way? What is wrong with you?
Quit kissing butt,I stopped by your website and the 4 comments won’t matter anyway this guy is a thug in my,opinion. Sorry bust bubble wake up open your eyes..imagine your mom or dad being dragged out.
You haven’t read the article aren’t you?
Before your react you should read every details carefully.
I salute you Matthew for backing up Dr David Dao and it’s really intelligent not to judge a person by it’s past. Unlike other articles I have read which is literally trying to shade the story by covering by this criminal cases.
He IS a drug dealer who ruined lives and wrecked families. Clearly obvious from his odd behavior on board. Look at his psychiatrists statements then it will make sense. Okay to hit a cop? Listen to cops then fight sue whatever later. And for Gods sake use your legs and walk off the plane like the 3 other passengers did.
Bigger question is why does a drug dealer get off with no jail time? God help us all.
My god the majority of you people are a absolute idiots. This so called doctor is the one who has the problem. Polietly asked to deplane under a system that all the airlines use, he throws an epic and most likely calculatred fit. And he’s celebrated like some kinda of persecuted sole by legions of mindless dotards. He was getting off that plane, how het got off was totally his choice. So open your eyes and get off United’s back.
Actually, most airlines use a system where they deny board by not actually allowing people to board. United set this up by their inability to account for the seats they needed for their own employees and their decision to go the cheap route rather than recognize that they needed to pay a little extra to account for their mistake.
Exactly. I have volunteered to be bumped at the boarding gate should they need the seat. They have bumped me twice. It was at the gate not on the plane. Have we stooped to such sad management that United didn’t know? Their method of ‘selecting’ those to give up a seat is flawed to say the least. You buy a ticket, you expect a seat. Seems there is a contract involved here.
“Seems there is a contract involved here”.
There is – it’s called the Contract of Carriage. Suggest you read it before you make yourself look even more foolish. And having a ticket does NOT guarantee a seat on the flight.
He IS a drug dealer who ruined lives and wrecked families. Clearly obvious from his odd behavior on board. Look at his psychiatrists statements then it will make sense. Okay to hit a cop? Listen to cops then fight sue whatever later. And for Gods sake use your legs and walk off the plane like the 3 other passengers did.
Uh, Earmantrout….Maybe you should learn how to spell before leaving a comment.
The airline does not have a right to forcibly removed a person who was peacefully objecting to this process. They let him board and seated him. Their bad. Their is a price for everything. If they offered more than $800, perhaps they would have gotten volunteers. The airlines are accustomed to abuse. I was held in a plane waiting for departure on the tarmack for 4 hours once. This is not okay. They did not allow us to get off the plane. So, they can hold you hostage or throw you off with physical force. The police state mentality has infiltrated the airlines.
Maybe you should spell check yourself before you critize other people!
Mike…Before you call others “idiots” you should learn to write and form sentences correctly. You have too many mistakes for me to bother correcting. Your post reads like it was written by one of those “idiots.”
The major newspaper of record in the man’s hometown made a point of writing the story, which is what Matthew referenced.
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/04/11/david-dao-passenger-removed-united-flight-doctor-troubled-past/100318320/
Because he’s working for United to discredit this guy.
Truth is, it doesn’t matter who this guy is at all. It could have been anybody. Could have been your grandmother getting slammed into a headrest because some dipshit male stewardess was late for his flight.
Matthew clearly got paid out by united after his little “re-accomodation” incident, probably signed some paperwork, and now is basically shilling for them.
matthew I saw this info
David Anh Duy Dao is the guy with the record… The doctor on the plane was David Thanh Duc Dao
can you verify this….
Incorrect. More Fake news… See LA Times.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-united-david-dao-20170412-story.html
You are so right. I worked with this Dr. He was always cooperative. I have never seen him mad. What I saw was fear on one video which some ppl say anger. We dont know all the details about his past and the drugs he wrote for ppl. As for the affair i think the lady might have had buyers remorse. He never left the wife and just by chance she helped prove a case against. His past has nothing to do with being grabbed and dragged. That could have been me 5 years ago. I took my kids and grandkids to Disney. On the way back they wanted 2 ppl to get off for their staff. They looked at my two grandsons and quickly I said no way.. We are staying together. They were in their teens. What if the computer picked a child? As a parent you would have to drag me off the plane too. This could be your family or you. If they treat one person this way they will continue. Next time it could be a child. No common sense left in the world.
this doctgor has a history of mental health issues, a part you omitted in your article, I guess we are supposed to feel sorry for this doc that was just convicted of opioid fraud and having homosexual sex with a patient in return for the Rx, while none of that is relevant to the story the fact that the medical board stated he had issues with anger management IS relevant, but omitted so we can feel sorry for him, was it fair,no, but did he contribute to the issue being blown up, yes, . The licensing records also reveal how Dao was “the subject of many complaints” while working at Hardin Memorial Hospital.
The Medical Executive Committee there “took a strong stance in 2002, and put [Dao] on a corrective action plan due to his disruptive behavior” and referred him “for evaluation and anger management,” the papers say.on on the doctor though should be considered,
Ok, one more time.this guy will sue the crap out of United.United has told the world United beats Asians. The political fallout has reached world wide.They might be reduced to a crop duster outfit. The verdict on Munoz is out.
Want to know why I wrote this? Go check out the banner headline at the Daily Mail that just went up…
I understand, but as blogger, and for me you are a journalist, one has always to see through the information “fog”. Is this information really important for the “case”? Or are you being manipulated by United PR/Lawyers machine?
Um thanks for plastering this on your blog and helping them spread the garbage. You’re a moron if you think posting/spreading toxic garbage is fine as long as you weren’t the one that created it.
You might want to do some more investigative work.
http://www.inquisitr.com/opinion/4139555/wrong-dr-david-dao-united-airlines-passenger-may-not-be-kentucky-doctor-defamed-by-media/
Bogus story – go do a little research before posting your foolishness.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-united-david-dao-20170412-story.html
Trying to smear the doctor is a pathetic low life low blow.wait till the lawyers rip United…
Watch your language. If I have to clean up one more of your comments, I am blocking you.
You are a low life. Watch your posts.
You obviously have a problem with facts and logic.
What does this have to do with anything?
We have author on BA with a shady past – getting banned from an airline
Why don’t you write about that?
It’s dominating headlines now! It has a lot to do with everything. Before you read hatchet attacks by the Daily Mail (see above), read why it doesn’t matter.
What’s clear is this is someone who has a history of manipulating.
There are no innocent parties in this mess, and that further underscores that.
So he manipulated his way to getting dragged off the plane? Wow!
Matthew: I get your point here. Unfortunately, in most of the cases when a big corporation does something bad people will try to find something bad about the other person involved. Yes, the guy was not a saint but it doesn’t change the way thing happened. He was traveling with his wife and that should be enough shame for him to have his wife witness the way he was treated. As for the accusation of “needing anger management” that is exactly what United’s lawyers will try to use against him. However, it seems there is an entire plane that can testify that the guy did not show any alteration, he did not curse anyone, he did not put a show. He just wanted to get home and the only time he screamed was when we had being dragged of the plane like a dirty rug. The way United handled the situation cannot be justified.
Sorry, but this post looks like being written by the PR and lawyers of United (in fact, maybe someone from United dig the dirty info from the Doc and send to you?).
It´s a shady practice, demoralizing the victim. I know it, sometimes, works, but it´s immoral, at least.
United can´t ran from the facts: there was NO overbooking; the passenger was already seated; then suddenly 4 members of United need a flight (can´t United provide ground transportation or other flight?); United ONLY offered $800 (why the ground agent up the offer?); according to the blogs, a ground agent (not the crew) said he/she would randomly choose 4 passengers; then a ground agent (not the crew) asked the Doc to leave the plane; the Doc refused and the ground agent asked for the police to “solve” a private matter (there was no security issue involved); and last but not least, why the hell the Doc come back to the plane?
I know the blogs depends on the airlines, but they also depend on the readers. A very fine line to walk.
Oh please….you could have EASILY have posted saying “Other people are smearing the doctor and that is wrong” without linking to the article OR repeating the smears…
It isn’t too late for you to edit this post and remove the smears and remove the link to the smears…. Have some self respect…you know that repeating it is the same as SPREADING it!
bravo to the author. The doctor is a fraudster and convicted felon, and all I see are losers on the internet defending a convicted felon.
Even Christ was a “convicted” felon. Does this matter for the facts? United can´t hide the facts, although their PR machine is working around the clock to bury the facts.
Speaking of Christ, it was the “doctors of the law” who were involved in the trickery and manipulation that got him crucified.
The lawyer’s creed is that it does not matter what one does, all that matters is if the State can prove it.
Whoever can afford the greatest fee, is the party that is right.
Tricks and manipulation for money. There is a word for that.
It parallels the oldest profession.
It is United and their legal team trying to divert attention and discrediting the victim by digging up his history and flaming it.
Your blog repeatedly mentioned his past when it has no relevance to the case; I cannot see why you keep commenting on his past, and then add – it has no bearing on this case.
So why do you keep harping on the victim’s past?
Examples: “let us understand that he may be a pretty shady character”, “His salacious past”, “Shagging a patient as a married man and dealing drugs may not be ethical”.
If you want to be completely neutral, send the link, state the quotes, and do not add irrelevant comments.
You are already judging him, yet tries not to appear so.
A neutral commentary is “his history has got nothing to do with the case”.
No need for “pretty shady”, “salacious past”, “shagging someone else as a married man”, etc, and then say it has nothing to do with the case.
All these are distracting the readers away from the main issue.
Henry, what united did was wrong. Lets create an unreasonable process and when it doesnt work, lets get police who are there for our safety remove a passenger so united can fly their crew to Louisville. United may have followed their procedure but they are clearly in the wrong. Customer Paid for his ticket, boarded his flight and then was removed so united can accommodate their crew. You can defend United all you want, they are the WORST airline in the states. I would rather spend extra money on a flight with someone else then put up with their crappy FA’s and system.
Why are you posting this information? This has absolutely nothing to do with what happened. Why assist in shining light to it?
The Associated Press reported it.
The background of people involved is relevant to any news story.
https://apnews.com/29541e658b0946b99397bd92c7831821
If this man was a convicted rapist, it wouldn’t make United’s actions ethical. His past is simply irrelevant.
I see you defending your right to post this article, but what you’re doing is demonizing the victim (because most people only read the headline). Its not your fault, but it is your problem. Take this comment for example:
henry LAX says: “bravo to the author. The doctor is a fraudster and convicted felon, and all I see are losers on the internet defending a convicted felon.”
That’s on you, Matthew. And anyone else pushing this irrelevant information. I cleaned this up nicely for you, but I assure you there were some choice words in my original voice. Your article should be how shameful the media is for demonizing the victim of this atrocity. Shame NYPost.
Matt, first and foremost you’re the first travel blogger that got me interested in this industry. I’m a long time reader but first time poster. Unfortunately, I have to agree with the majority of posts here; however, the toxic responses and personal attacks are uncalled for.
Based on your articles posted to date regarding the incident it shines a horrible light on your opinion of this incident, and whether intentional or not makes you appear to take United’s ‘side’ in this horrible event.
By now almost every other major travel blogger has commented on the legality’s of what’s happened, especially of the fact that this most likely was by no means legal for United. The flight was not overbooked, everyone had boarded and been seated, the law allowing them to denying boarding in the event of an oversale does not apply. United’s own contract of carriage does not allow for removal for any possible reasons he was removed.
I keep checking back to your blog to get your honest opinion from a legal stand point based on your background, and rather than see any such feedback your latest article just further calls out the victims past. And regardless of your intentions, all this does is article does is make you appear to be helping United’s PR team.
M
Hi Mike, appreciate your comment and thank you for reading. A post is coming later toady on the legality of the incident.
omg You are so right… they all were seated. No matter how you try to fix this mess he was assaulted… the very definition of assault and battery.
What did united promise you for this. I would not be surprised if united is defaming this guy’s character. United His past has nothing to do with why he was treated like an animal
Still think so after Oscar’s new apology?
Matthew,
I understand why you posted your article. Regardless of how they try to smear this man, the ultimate responsibility lies on United and their archaic, unthinking way of handling this situation. Had they gone on board and offered a $1,000 plus free flight and hotel accommodations, they probably would have had a 4th volunteer give up their seat. If not, you raise the offer to $2,000, then $3,000 and eventually someone will take the dough.
Instead, now United faces a multi-million lawsuit that will be settled long before it reaches a court room, and for big bucks. The CEO should be replaced for not thinking of this situation in rational terms. A carrot always works better than a stick.
what a loser you are!! this has nada to do with Aviation.
Just like how some media houses were reporting trayvon martin’s school grades after he was murdered. Irrelevant information to act as fog over the situation,
United can pay all you bloggers all they want to release messy details of his life, but its irrelevant in the court of law.
Don’t agree with you Matt. As you pointed out in a court of law it would not matter only the facts matter. And, to my earlier point, the basic premise in business is that the customer is always right or you won’t get the customer back (including lawyers who don’t buy into that will lose clients if they don’t provide customer service). I’ve fired two law firms from our account not for their lack of legal ability but for their customer service and have not once hesitated to inform others of my experience.
I don’t care if the man committed murder. In fact, to your point, if he has psychological problems that we are presented with two issues: 1. It does not matter b/c he was already on the plane and was given a seat. 2. It really matters b/c he is not stable and TSA should have him on the no fly list
Either way, throwing someone off a plane already seated for employees needing to be positioned is wrong – be it United or Emirates.
The Daily Mail really isn’t a good source – they are click bait news. The Lousiville article – okay. Fair. I don’t think posting the DM was fair of you it poisons the well in the PR war that we are all now witnessing.
Who cares about about this guy’s past. You have discredited yourself with this post. Now I know not to ever click your headlines again
Sorry you feel that way but it was brought up because it has become a news item and I wanted to properly put it into perspective.
The passenger is a nut. That’s clear even before all these irrelevant “revelations”. But, as a stockholder of United, I’m not paying that idiot. I’m paying Oscar “I commend you” Munoz. And I don’t want to pay him any more. Fire him – if nothing else, pour encourager les autres.
As a United retiree with 32+ years in Sales and Customer Service, this story, like the handling of Dave Carroll’s broken guitar, deeply upset me. Overbooking became a common practice after years of people calling to make reservations, but not showing up or bothering to cancel resulting in planes leaving with empty seats. In the ‘old days’ of mathematics, once you sold seats to the number of passengers who made reservations, the plane was sold out and subsequent callers were placed on waitlists (I’m assuming this still happens since I retired in 2002). According to my sources, but flight was not overbooked…which is why all passengers were boarded and then the call came that the four ‘dead-heads’ had to go to Louisville so passengers had to be removed in order for that crew to get to the Louisville flight. How this situation was handled was inexcusable, but since I was not there, I cannot comment on what led up to the removal in the manner in which it happened. I don’t know if Republic Airlines (the United partner in this case) or United was responsible for crew scheduling, but that’s where this all started. With all the complaints about overbooking done by the print and electronic media and many people on multiple sites, perhaps ALL airlines will take a second look at their overbooking policies. As for the payoff for voluntary removals from flights, at what point does any company pay out for inconveniences? Are the airlines going to be held at ransom because no one wants to voluntarily deplane? I’m sure the dead-head crew was harassed to no end on the flight and it wasn’t their fault. It was not the crew’s fault and it’s true that the ground crew makes the call on deplaning…not the air crew. The pilot does have the final say, but per policy, no United employee can make physical contact with a passenger…unless in self-defense. Thank you Matthew for posting this story…I hope my input helps to make some of the story a little clearer. One final note – the customer is NOT ALWAYS right…probably 99% of the time, but NOT always. I said it when I worked and I still stick by it–no matter what who the customer is dealing with.
Newspaper and you got the wrong guy. He will sue newspapers next. https://www.reddit.com/r/aznidentity/comments/64s1mm/united_airlines_tries_to_a_smear_campaign_against/
Just a quick fact check .. the internet is a beautiful place and i understand its always good to jump at a topic while its hot but heres something that is floating around
“Once again the media confused him with the wrong person. The person in the United Airlines incident is David Thanh Duc Dao, not David Anh Duy Dao, the man convicted. The article first appeared on Louisville Courier-Journal because news media have no idea who this David Dao is and why he is so adamant not to leave the plane. So they’ve managed to find another Vietnamese American doctor of the same name. Many Asian Americans and doctors have now pointed out that the media have got the wrong David Dao to start off with anyway.”
I hope the Dr gets a nice big lump sum.
Whoever inserted this pointless and irrelevant nugget into the discussion seems to have forgotten blaming the victim is usually recognizably the last resort of the guilty as sin. It’s more a signal someone realizes they’re losing the optics war.
I’m just waiting for one of your commentors to chime in with criticism of his clothing, or to question why he was on that flight at that time of day to begin with.
UA is going to keep trying to make itself out to be the “true victims” here. The question will be if sufficient people will be OK with the idea an airline, because of its own lack of foresight and planning (itself not a good image for UA), being able to come onto the plane, tell you that you have to be inconvenienced because they can’t get their sh*t in one sock, then when you reasonably expect to be able to travel, bring in a bunch of allegedly-sworn thugs (alleged because they seemed to have forgotten their badges as far as the videos I’ve seen are concerned – a ball cap doesn’t count) to forcibly remove you, up to and including assaulting you causing injury. Then blame you for not putting your travel needs, and the contract for transport you made with them, on the backburner for their convenience.
You all can nitpick the contract of carriage and the law and the FARs and all the rest of that stuff if you like.
Out here in the none-AvGeek normal-people world – you know, the customers? – no-one cares. All we see is a guy who paid to go home and was dragged off a plane bloodied and broken so “a bunch of airline employees could get their free flight”.
UA borked this from beginning to end, and now is scrambling to cover up the abject failure on the part of the people on the ground there. A crisis doesn’t just happen, it’s an accumulation of errors and mistakes that could have been stopped at any point but weren’t.
ORD Airside Security stepped up to put the brakes on the optics of errors on their side. UA needs to do the same. Before its self-inflicted un-forced borkage wounds get septic.
Yes! Turns out the doctor trading drugs for sex IS NOT the same guy!
Whoever first got out the story smeared this innocent man for nothing.
This just gets worse and worse.
Wow. Let’s hope the worthless Daily Mail is sued for every available dollar! If United are behind the smear, it’s even worse.
Let’s keep it real. First off, he’s mentally ill, it’s obvious and I would not want that mf in any hospital I was in. Secondly, he screamed and cried like a baby, picture yourself on a business trip, you got to get to Kentucky and this moron is causing a stink, wouldn’t someone just get up and say here’s my seat, give me the 800 bucks, rent me a car, I’ll drive the 5 hours. Nope, people watched this manic act like a 2 year old and did nothing. Yes the airlines are pigs, the cops are pigs, but if you think that guy gave a normal response to what was happening, you’re out your minds too. A pig says leave, you leave. I’m not in the mood to get beaten by airport pigs, and I don’t have time to care. He held the whole fight up, went totally nuts, over a seat. Now I’m sorry, a normal person doesn’t do that. A normal person just leaves and curses them under their breath. His past is extremely disturbing and he should never practice again. Anytime a doctor gets busted for drugs, you bet your a they are taking them too. I don’t see why people are sticking up for a mentally ill idiot. He still didn’t fly did he? Nope. So who won. So far United wins. And he won’t win a lawsuit because they have the right to take our a off any plane they want to, just like you have the right to throw someone out of your car. He’s a loon.
Shady past, but the problem here is that people know that United didn’t bloody him because they knew about his background. People realize that this could happen to any customer, any elderly passenger apparently. It could happen to the most upstanding citizen.
People relate more to him as the 69 year-old grandfather, than the person w/the criminal background.
Much of the general public and customers are siding w/the passenger because his actions don’t seem that unreasonable. Great that United needs crew on the ground the next morning and wants 4 seats on a full flight to do this. OK, did this occur to United 1 hr before boarding, 30 min before boarding, even 10 min before boarding? Because then they could have prevented 4 passengers from ever boarding the plane in the first place. Which of course is a much easier situation to handle– denying entrance to the plane at the boarding area. Instead, they insisted on 4 volunteers deplaning, or having to remove 4 people from a flight after they are already seated. So… from a passenger’s point of view… what’s up with that? This lack of planning, lack of foresight, doesn’t seem like United is taking this problem too seriously, so why should the passengers? Also, United obviously didn’t convey much sympathy for the cause– perhaps people would be more willing to volunteer if there was a malfunctioning plane or a medical emergency with the crew or something. Instead, sounded like poor planning on United’s part.
Some reports say that this man and his wife initially said he would go willingly, but when he found out the time of the next flight, he said he couldn’t, he has work and patients the next day. From everything I read, even with his shady past, he doesn’t seem to be lying about this. So he is probably sitting down, thinking, “pick someone else.”
People relate to him because they would probably do the same thing and object to being removed involuntarily. They would be sitting there expecting United to solve their own problem with their 4 crew members needing to work the next morning (have a lot of hours to take care of this problem), and besides, if it was such a problem, why wasn’t this problem addressed much earlier, before people boarded the flight? There is something that feels irresponsible about what United is doing, and many people would object too, I believe.
And that is why the general public is horrified to see how it all went down. Despite his shady past, what people resonate with is this elderly grandfather 69 yrs old being violently removed from the flight. That is unbelievable, and for most people, we never imagined this could happen.
Hey Matthew,
Wow! Lots of people who can’t think logically here, I see. I absolutely agree with your point, in that WHATEVER the doctor has done in the past should have no bearing on on how the judge decides this case. Sure, he might be one despicable character in the opinion of most people, but it is just a COINCIDENCE. He may or may not “deserve” what happened to him and you would rather he did not win the case, but if that happened, that would set the precedence for other similar events in the future. Imagine if it was you who was forcefully dragged out after you “accidentally” cut your head open on the armrest when you “fell” – lawyers and the judge say: “This case is exactly like the Dr Dao case, hence the verdict shall be exactly the same. No compensation for plaintiff.”
Intelligent human beings can understand multiple propositions to be true at the same time. Reality does not change to match our predispositions or our biases. David Dao might be a reprehensible human being. That could be true, and yet still it still be the case that his treatment by United and aviation police was inexcusable and inhuman, and that he is owed significant compensation.
We are too quick to mythologize: to try to force reality to fit our narrative. In the real world, there are no good guys and bad guys. David Dao doesn’t need to have a squeaky clean past in order to say that he was wronged. There is no perfect victim. *The very idea that those with criminal pasts, with skeletons in their closets, or even just those who have led untidy lives could never themselves be the victims of violence is a harmful and regressive idea*. If you need David Dao to be innocent in order to take his side, and you reject information that contradicts this narrative in order to preserve it, than you a doing a disservice to the cause you think you are supporting.
Thanks Matthew for discussing this so honestly, you’ve earned a new reader.
I believe you have wrong doctor Dao. Their medical fields are different. It’s a common name
This has been debunked. It is the same doctor.
There is something wrong with the whole incedent relating Dr. Dao’s refusal to get off the plane. It seems as though that he saw this as an “opportunity” when he was asked/told to get off the plane. The public will learn the details in the weeks to come as we see all the facts including the reports from the third party officers that removed Dr. Dao. We, the public, have really only heard (seen) one side of the story.
However, the policy of United should have been different as I am sure it will be after this incedent. Airlines should auction off the removal, using the bid system until they found a passenger who would volunteer to get off the plane.
Wow, great discussion here. Thanks for giving this matter the attention it deserves. I appreciate people really putting thought into it and coming up with some intelligent points.