Dr. David Dao was hardly the first passenger forcibly dragged off a United flight by law enforcement. He wasn’t even the first Asian male dragged off. He wasn’t even the first Asian male whose dragging off of a United flight was caught on video.
We can theorize, of course, whether an older white male in a Make America Great Again hat is less likely to be dragged by law enforcement, or whether United’s post-Dao reaction is primarily the cause of the change since the last Newark – Shanghai self-upgrader removal.