This remains a continual puzzle to me. (Behavior on DU.)

[hunter]

43. What's a person to do?

Raise the bounty and/or wait them out. Eventually someone on the plane is going to crack and vacate their seat. Refund those people's tickets, shower them with cash and comps, and be on your way. Or find another way to get your crew to where they need to be. No blood shed.

Most of all, don't screw up and put yourself in this position. There's a reason I always think twice before calling the cops. I've witnessed them responding with unnecessary violence.

I'm a pacifist because I must be. The berserker gene is strong in me. Violence is NEVER justified in civil disputes; it's not even justified in the vast majority of violent crimes.

When I was a young man I had a bit of a temper. I once came across a stranger in the act of breaking into my car. He was acting as if it was his car so he didn't look suspicious. I picked up a piece of broken brick and I threw it at him. It whizzed millimeters past his head (lucky for me) and he looked up in pure terror and ran away. But the instant I threw the brick I felt a similar level of terror knowing I'd resorted to deadly force for something so damned trivial. He may have been trying to steal the car for all I know, but so what? Having my car stolen wouldn't have killed me.

I've also got a knife scar on my arm. That was a violent crime against me, but once I'd got the guy to drop his knife I didn't hammer on him any further. He was another fellow who ran away.

I was a skinny squeaky highly reactive kid in middle and high school, a favorite target of bullies who would call me queerbait and beat me bloody. There were teachers and school administrators who'd tell me I should act more "like a man." Yeah, right. Blame the victim. The testosterone didn't kick in until after I'd quit high school. That made me at times more of a danger to myself than I'd ever been. I was stupid.

United Airlines and the airport cops are stupid.