United Fesses Up, They Did Wrong

United Airlines vows not to call police on passengers as CEO apologizes for fiasco

Samantha Masunaga and Tracey LienContact Reporters

United Airlines said it will no longer call on law enforcement to remove paid and seated passengers who have not agreed to give up their places on sold-out flights, one of several moves the airline announced Wednesday to try to quell a week of consumer outrage.

The Chicago airline’s chief executive, Oscar Munoz, told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” on Wednesday morning that he felt “shame” when he watched the video of a passenger, Dr. David Dao, being dragged off a sold-out United flight bound for Louisville, Ky., on Sunday by Chicago airport police.

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United has said it needed to bump four passengers to make room for airline employees who needed to travel to Louisville. The airline reportedly offered $400 and a hotel stay, and then $800 to passengers to induce them to give up their seats. When there were no volunteers, United selected Dao and other passengers to get off the plane.

Dao refused, prompting airport police to pull him screaming from his seat.

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Also on Wednesday, the Chicago Department of Aviation put two more officers who were involved in the onboard fracas on administrative leave, joining an officer who was suspended earlier. The passenger, Dao, took steps that could be a prelude to a lawsuit, and President Trump weighed in on the controversy.

During his interview, Munoz apologized to Dao, his family, passengers on the plane, United customers and employees, pledging that this “will never happen again on a United Airlines flight.”

“That is not who our family at United is,” Munoz said.

Later Wednesday, United said all customers on that flight are receiving compensation for their ticket costs.

Such moves are the right first steps, branding experts said. But they believe the airline will have to do a lot more to regain the trust of customers.

“They have so destroyed the connection and trust they’ve built up over the years,” said Eric Schiffer, chief executive of Reputation Management Consultants in Irvine. “And it wasn’t just the beat-down of a customer that everyone could project themselves being — it was the response afterwards, which was so cold and done with such a lack of empathy. It made people believe they just don’t care."

After the videos and photos of Dao’s removal from the plane generated public outrage, Munoz initially said in a letter to employees that the 69-year-old physician from Elizabethtown, Ky., was a “belligerent” customer who “refused to comply” with requests to give up his seat.

Munoz apologized to Dao in subsequent statements, calling the incident a “truly horrific event.” In Wednesday’s interview, Munoz said his initial words “fell short of truly expressing what we were feeling.”

Munoz said the airline will conduct a “deep and thorough” review of many of its policies related to this, including the incentives offered to give up seats once people are aboard an aircraft. If no one chooses to leave the plane, despite the compensation offered, Munoz said United will not put a law enforcement official on the plane to take them off.

“To remove a booked, paid, seating passenger, we can’t do that,” he said.

This change could spread to other airlines, analysts said.

“It just seems like something that is rare enough where there’s a lot of upside to be able to promise passengers that this is not going to happen to you and it’s not costly to do,” said Seth Kaplan, managing partner of Airline Weekly. “There’s just no downside to doing this.”

In 2016, airlines posted an involuntary bumping rate of 62 per 1 million passengers, down from 73 per 1 million fliers the year before, according to a recent report from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The bureau said the 2016 figure represents the lowest annual rate since 1995.

Delta and American airlines did not respond to requests for comment on whether their policies would change.

Although United has denied reports that the Chicago flight was overbooked, the incident has resulted in increased scrutiny of this common airline practice.

Jan Brueckner, professor of economics at UC Irvine, said overbooking can actually benefit consumers. If an airline flies with empty seats, it forgoes revenue on the flight.

“Eliminating empty seats is a good idea because it keeps fares down,” he said. “People don’t like it because it’s crowded, but still, they care more about the price than anything.”

Rather than changing policies on overbooking, airlines should adjust their compensation policies to get more volunteers to take a later flight, he said. Currently, federal rules cap the compensation amount that airlines can pay for involuntary bumping at $1,350.

President Trump also brought up this point in a Wednesday interview with the Wall Street Journal. Trump said airlines shouldn’t be prevented from overselling flights, but should eliminate the maximum value of compensation vouchers so passengers have more incentive to give up their seats.

On Wednesday, Dao asked a Chicago-area court for an order requiring United and the city of Chicago to retain all recordings, video and reports of the incident, as well as the personnel files of the aviation department officials who pulled him from the flight, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Thomas A. Demetrio and Stephen L. Golan, attorneys representing Dao, said they planned to hold a news conference in Chicago on Thursday morning.

In his interview with ABC News, Munoz said he had reached out to Dao and left a message, but hasn’t yet been able to connect with the passenger.

When asked whether he believed Dao was at fault, Munoz hesitated before saying, “No, he can’t be. He was a paying passenger sitting in a seat in our aircraft, and no one should be treated that way, period."

Is Rant Immoral? Racist? Does Shopper Deserve To Be Banned? Is This A Symptom Of What Ordinary Americans Are Feeling?

Mall bans shopper for life after ugly rant caught on video goes viral

Dave Urbanski December 22, 2016 9:22 am

Image source: YouTube

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A white woman caught on cellphone video leveling a xenophobic tirade at two women identified as Hispanic has been banned for life from the mall where the incident occurred.

The now-viral clip shows the shopper standing in a long line at a JCPenney in Louisville, Kentucky, and complaining after one of the Hispanic women cut in line to add items to her companion’s cart, according to the video poster, the Courier-Journal reported.

“It don’t bother me if I say it, and I don’t care if everybody hears me,” the white woman said. “I think everybody here probably feels the same damn way I do.”

She then added, “Go back to wherever the f*** you come from, lady.”

When an employee behind the counter asked the woman to watch her language, she yelled back, “Hey, tell ’em to go back to where they belong! If they come here to live, then act like everybody else. Get in the back of the line like everybody else does and be somebody. That’s the way I look at it.  … Just because you come from another country, it don’t make you nobody.”

Here’s the clip. (Content warning: Strong language):

She wasn’t done.

“You’re probably on welfare, the taxpayers probably paid for all that stuff,” she added before facing others in line. “It’s true! We probably paid for every bit of that stuff, you know that? Probably all the food they get and everything else.”

When one of the women she targeted replied, “I say sorry,” the ranter responded, “That’s OK. Speak English. You’re in America. If you don’t know it, learn it.”

“And I’m sorry that I’m that way,” she added, “but you all need to realize you’re not the only ones around here.”

Renee Buckner, who posted the video on social media, wrote in the description that the portion she captured wasn’t the entire episode and that others told the woman she was out of line, the Courier-Journal said.

Jefferson Mall, which houses the JCPenney in question, said on Facebook that once the woman who issued the tirade is identified, she will be “permanently banned from Jefferson Mall, per our Behavioral Code of Conduct,” the paper added.

In a statement, JCPenney said it wants to reimburse the women target in the video for their purchases and apologize, the Courier-Journal said:

We are deeply disturbed by the incident that took place at our Jefferson Mall store, in which one customer made extremely inappropriate remarks to two other customers while standing in the checkout line.  We regret that innocent bystanders — both other customers and a JCPenney associate — were subjected to such discriminatory remarks. We absolutely do not tolerate this behavior in our stores, and are working with our associates to ensure any future incidents of this nature will be addressed quickly and appropriately. In the meantime, JCPenney is asking for the community’s help in identifying the two women who were targeted for such remarks, as we would like to reimburse them for their entire purchase and offer a sincere apology for their experience.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said he’s “sad and disappointed to see conduct like this” and hopes the incident can get conversations going about “basic human values, dignity and respect” during the holidays, the paper reported.

“I personally denounce the intolerant actions of one woman at Jefferson Mall, and also feel that this incident could rise to the level of criminal conduct,” Jefferson County Attorney Mike O’Connell told the Courier-Journal, adding that she targeted women should contact his office if they want to take legal action.

The Rev. Timothy Findley of the Kingdom Fellowship Christian Life Center spoke on Buckner’s behalf and told the paper the incident occurred while she was Christmas shopping Tuesday evening and that Buckner called him right afterward.

“We all shared the same reaction,” Findley told the Courier-Journal, “shock, disappointment, but not surprised.”

(H/T: New York Daily News)

Knockout Game Victims Go Unreported, Is It Racial Discrimination By The Media?

BLACK MOB ATTACKS VICTIMS 'LIKE IT WAS A GAME'

Prosecutor's son left with concussion in 'random' assault

Published: 13 hours ago

 BOB UNRUH About | Email | Archive

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Roaming gangs of black youths descended on a festival in Cincinnati, carrying out a number of attacks that resembled the “Knockout Game,” a nationwide phenomenon in which randomly selected victims are struck in the head, sometimes fatally.

In one attack, Sunday night, about 20 black teen girls kicked, stomped on and punched a man who was trying to catch a bus.

WKRC-TV in Cincinnati reported David Manz, who is white, was heading to his night shift at Dunkin Donuts when the girls attacked and left him with bruises, scrapes and broken ribs.

“They ran straight at me and attacked me,” Manz told a reporter with Cincinnati’s Channel 12. “It was as if it was fun to them. Like it was a game.”

The reporter noted that it looked like a “Knockout Game” attack.

A surging number of black-mob attacks, mostly on white victims, has been in the news for several years. Many of the incidents have been documented in author Colin Flaherty’s book “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.”

They include random mobs attacking neighborhood visitors and people at public events such as festivals and fairs.

Multiple fatalities have been reported, police confirm.

Black mobs routinely terrorize cities across the country, but the media and government are silent. Read the detailed account of rampant racial crime in “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.” At a special discount to $4.95 today only.

WKRC’s report noted the attacks happened last weekend while thousands of people were in town for the annual “Taste of Cincinnati” festival.

“There are also stories of random violence. People jumped, punched, and kicked by groups of teenagers,” the station reported. “One victim said the thugs seemed to enjoy hurting him.”

Reporter Deborah Dixon said one of the victims was Jon Deters, the son of county prosecutor Joe Deters. He was punched and fell to the ground, then was kicked and now has a concussion. His girlfriend tried to intervene and also was punched out, the station reported.

Detectives told WKRC the victims were not robbed, and there were no arguments ahead of time that would provoke an attack.

Flaherty told WND: “It was days before any of this hit the press. And when it did, the anchor introduced the first story by saying, ‘By most accounts, it was a successful weekend for the city of Cincinnati.’ We see that a lot: Reporters pretending racial violence is not a fact of life in their city. When it is.”

Flaherty said every reporter who covered the Cincinnati story “knows that racial violence is commonplace, especially near the University of Cincinnati downtown.”

“This school year, students have been the victims of dozens of cases of black mob violence and black on white crime,” he said.

“The police reports are easy enough to find at the university’s website. Yet none would put this latest violence in context: Cincinnati has a problem. And people will do anything to not talk about it. That’s the bad news,” he said.

“The other news is that the violence and denial in Cincinnati is not any better or worse than the racial violence and denial in Louisville, Cleveland, Fort Lauderdale — its a long list.”

A report from Cincinnati’s WCPO-TV had additional information:

WCPO and others reported only days earlier on a black teenager facing charges as an adult for what authorities are describing as the revenge arson of the home of a white woman and her two children. And his arrest, and that of a juvenile, may be just the tip of the iceberg, authorities say.

Thaddeus Shields, 18, was facing a court hearing, and a 17-year-old whose name was not released was facing juvenile court. Authorities, meanwhile, say their investigation continues, and more perpetrators may be arrested and charged in the May 13 attack in Middletown, Ohio.

The alleged black-on-white crime culminated a campaign of terror against the mother, according to a report by WCPO-TV.

The station reported that the victim, Jennifer Saylor (originally reported as Jennifer Chitwood), came into conflict with members of a local gang about Thanksgiving last year when her home was burglarized.

“I caught them coming out … with my TV – my flat screen – and they threw it,” she told the station.

She reported the incident to police, and two weeks later her home was again hit by burglars.

“We took my daughter to school and back, and they were going around my house with my flat screens,” Saylor said.

As a result, according to Middletown Police Lieutenant Scott Reeve, a 16-year-old was charged. And that, Saylor said, brought on the harassment.

“They don’t like you calling the police on them,” Saylor said. “They said, ‘If you guys call the police we’re coming back for you.’ Every time I walk down the street I get called names by girls and guys. (They say), ‘You’re the one that called police on my brother. You’re the one that put my cousin in jail.’”

Saylor, who fled the home before the fire with her sister and her children, a 4-month-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, recently reported to police that the gang had been harassing her again.

She said they were “jumping in and out of my yard, throwing things at my window.”

Then, she said, “they started throwing flares, and kicking my door.”

That was when she decided to flee for her family’s safety through a back window of the home.

Three hours later, the fire was reported. It gutted the home, destroying all of the family’s belongings.

Police described the arson as an act of retaliation, and although the local news reports included images of the woman and the alleged arsonist, none appeared to mention the racial factor.

Here’s one report:

And another:

Black mobs routinely terrorize cities across the country, but the media and government are silent. Read the detailed account of rampant racial crime in “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It.”

See a trailer for “White Girl Bleed a Lot”:

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/05/black-teens-attack-victims-like-it-was-a-game/#CXRq2jOjtQMpc14z.99