mrken30

One big problem in the US is that many Police have no accountability. They can do as they please without consequence.

lansbury

I see the guys lawyer is now claiming he has substantial concussion, a broken nose and 2 teeth knocked out.

dc koop

Not always. Police departments have an Internal Affairs division which investigates misbehavior by police officers and in cases where it's actually occurred have the power to recommend disciplinary action against that officer.

Giantaxe

Given he was in hospital from Sunday until Wednesday night, "claiming" probably isn't the right word to use here.

scrubbedexpat091

The officer did get suspended.

lansbury

Well if you call having their certification to be a police officer withdrawn or suspended as without consequence I guess they are not accountable.

The problem is here there are too many departments called police which are nothing more than private security and not certified.

Giantaxe

I have no idea what the solution is, but my perception is that confrontations like this tend to end up in violence all too often in the US.

Giantaxe

He got put on paid administrative leave.

lansbury

I have seen people with those sort of injuries, and the length of time he stayed in hospital under advice from a lawyer, makes claiming a good choice of word.

lansbury

and what is that if not suspended from duty?

Giantaxe

Broken nose and two front teeth missing are pretty easily verified. So, no, "claiming" is a piss poor choice of word given what it insinuates.

Giantaxe

The original claim was that the police didn't face consequences in the US, with the response being that this officer "did get suspended". That's a little misleading given that "paid administrative leave" isn't a consequence per se, but standard practice whilst an incident like this is investigated. The officer may or may not face actual consequences down the road, of course.

fakey

They forcibly removed a paying customer at the behest of United employees.
What do they think is going to happen, when this is standard procedure ?
The only reason this incident became the issue it has, is because of a) cellphone footage showing what happened and b) in the other 50,000,000 incidents like this, fortuntately for the airline, Americans are so compliant, they just obey orders unquestioningly & do what they are told by the man in uniform.
This guy resisted, so on behalf of United airlines, the police enforced United airlines policy - by putting him in hospital

fakey

I dont have any solutions either , but I think there is an inherent tension between the perceived rights of all Americans to 'freedom'-
& imho the American experiment has clearly demonstrated that a lot of people can't handle it very well

fakey

He should have shot him, then he'd definitely have got away with it.