0506，United passengers faced a tough choice

天天用英语365天第126天

张鹏飞

1、United Airlines now plans to compensate all passengers who were on board its Chicago-Louisville flight on Sunday when a passenger was dragged through the aisle, injured and bleeding, for not giving up his seat. When I heard that, my cynical side kicked in. No question the thuggery was traumatic, not just to the immediate victim but to every passenger. But the gesture also had the creepy feel of a payoff intended to make those passengers speak less harshly of the incident to the media, or in court if necessary.

2、Negative publicity has already cost United hundreds of millions of dollars in stock losses. Now with a potential lawsuit in the works by David Dao, the doctor who was hauled off, the video shot by other passengers could be devastating to United. So could their testimonies.

3、CEO Oscar Munoz went from weakly apologizing while separately praising the crew for their handling of a “disruptive and belligerent” passenger to acknowledging. “No one should ever be mistreated this way.” Chicago Aviation Security has put the three officers who dragged Dao on leave for not acting according to procedures.

4、At one level, that's expecting a lot. Things happened so rapidly, there was hardly time to plan a response. Also, with officers acting so aggressively, there was a risk of escalating physical confrontations. But to his point, when ordinary people have the power in numbers to protect someone who is being mistreated without putting themselves or others at risk, they should use it.

5、It shouldn't have to come to this. Abuses of power cannot be tolerated. But in the meantime, we should all behave like our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers and use our technology, voices, consumer power and other influence to look out for one another.