Originally Posted by
simpletastes
My questions is:
(1) Do you believe this was in essence a commercial dispute?
If so:
(a) Was United right in calling the cops in what amounts to a commercial dispute?
(b) Were the cops right to intervene in a commercial dispute?
I am not saying I will always agree with this interpretation but the way things work on airplanes is that if you refuse to follow crew instructions and don't back down, your negative and unreasonable attitude indicates that you could also pose a security risk. At which point they can kick you off the plane. That's not a thing unique to the U.S. as far as I know. I seem to remember stories about crew responding in this way to pax questioning their decisions on other non-U.S. airlines as well.
In fact, it sometimes seems that it is an almost industry-wide way of getting pax to shut up and sit down.