I seriously question that. What right do they have to get the police to force a paying passenger out of his seat, against his will? Seems that the police should also be paying very hard on this one, as well, since they were responding not to a security issue but a business practices issue.
Yep. If the police are smart, they settle that one quick. It's not the coal mining days were the police were expected to be corporate goons. Cameras and regional newspapers made life hard for cops that saw themselves as the enforcement arm of whatever the local big business was. United Fruit still holds the world record, they practically owned the USMC for a couple decades.
The guy was demanding the service he paid for. While United legally can probably cancel a ticket for any or no reason, doing so to a doctor because they want to send an employee... That's just bad PR, right there. If a patient died, that'd be hilariously bad PR to the point were it would likely end up in a textbook somewhere.
Guy did nothing wrong other than being unhappy about being bumped. And he had a fairly correct view of the situation. I'm rarely one to believe certain classes deserve special treatment. "Doctor on the way to a hospital" warrants consideration. Ditto nurse, EMTs, whatever. Maybe if United was sending an emergency flight crew, mechanics, etc. But seriously, they couldn't find someone OTHER than a doctor to ask to give up their seats?