Police had no right to yank a passenger from his seat and drag him off a United Airlines airplane says Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Andrew Napolitano in a new Fox News interview.
Commenting on the much-talked-about incident Sunday at Chicago O’Hare International Airport in which police forcibly removed a passenger from his seat and a commercial flight so space could be made available to shuttle United employees on the flight, Napolitano opines that the passenger had “every right to stay” on the flight for which he had paid. In contrast, says Napolitano, the police behaved improperly in using force to remove the passenger.
Napolitano explains:
When the police arrive, they shouldn’t be unthinking automatons who do whatever the person calls asks them to do. Meaning, if the reason for their call is not a crime, they should leave. They have no right using violence to resolve a civil dispute….
If the passenger is politely or reasonably sitting there waiting for the flight to take off, he’s not committing a crime, he’s not engaged in violence, he’s not doing anything that justifies police force.
Napolitano is a Ron Paul Institute Advisory Board member.
