Injustice on United Express Flight 3411

By jamesbaxley 

I’m assuming that you’ve seen by now the video of the passenger, more importantly a doctor who was dragged off United Express Flight 3411 at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. Dr. Dao was literally dragged down the aisle of the flight by three men twice his size while cell phones recorded the incident. I assume you saw it (or at least read about it) because when I tallied the views of the videos on Youtube they were well over a million views.

I’ve been to O’Hare several times and it is a nice airport but the people, not so nice. I’m not just talking about the TSA agents, but everybody who works there from luggage handlers, security, and even those who work in the concession industry. The concession industry from my experience, is an industry which is rife with rudeness and disdain.

The irony to this story is that Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago and Governor Bruce Rauner of Illinois can’t control the gun related violence and gang violence in their own city to the point that the thugs are now working for the airlines.

Because of the stupid policy by [all major carriers] of overbooking flights just so airlines won’t lose a dollar or two is why this incident took place. It is United’s fault that this event even occurred, not the Dr. Dao’s.

But I’m not writing this post about how airlines overbook flights intentionally. The news is starting to come out about this doctor’s past: He is a Vietnamese doctor, a pulmonologist who was reportedly convicted of multiple felony drugs charges in 2004.

Dao was arrested in 2003 and convicted in 2004 of multiple drug-related offenses including fraudulent prescriptions for controlled substances and trading prescription drugs for sexual acts. 

Dao was placed on five years of supervised probation in January 2005, and in February 2005, Dr. Dao surrendered his medical license to the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure. In 2015, the board lifted the suspension and allowed him to practice medicine with some restrictions, the report said.

Having said this, we all agree that he committed some serious breaches of his doctor’s oath. But despite the seriousness of his crimes, all has been settled with the state of Kentucky and the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure and Dr. Dao is back at practicing medicine.

The articles which are starting to bring this incident to light are implying that maybe Dao deserved to be dragged off the flight. Maybe because of his past, we should forgive United Airlines. This is certainly the case in the comment sections of these posts.

So my question is: If somebody had made a mistake in their past and paid for it, should it be okay to look the other way when they are mistreated? If so, then what’s the point of a criminal justice system if time served doesn’t really have any significance?

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