Yes, police do enforce any company rules.  In other words, if this was a bar, your home, a business and you wanted someone to leave, you can call the police to make them go.  Its your property and you have the right to admit or not admit someone on that property.  Also this is airline security which enforce you know airline security.  Airline security is not part of United and their action actually is their own.  Since United is the one that called them it's still their fault that the incident happened.

As for the overbooking policy, you better check every airline because they all do it.  Federal regulations actually allows them to do it and regulate how they reimburse customers for overbooking.

It's time for the Government to up the bump price above $1300.

And that fact that United Airlines didn't even offer the maximum amount is effed up. Overbooking, trying to be cheap, and then calling security is three strikes.

It does not matter if you are on the plane or not on the plane.  Not sure why people keep thinking this is a distinction.  Federal regulations allows ALL airlines to bump passengers when overbooked even if they are on the plane.  This means that your ticket means nothing as far as you having rights to fly on any particular plane.  Usually all things get handled before boarding but it doesn't matter if you board or not board as you can still get kicked off.   

United called security after asking him to leave repeatedly.  Since United cannot enforce removal of a passenger, security was called because no matter what he was going to get bumped.  As I have stated, he played a bluff but once security came on the scene, the rules changed.  Now he was being asked to leave by security and by refusing the onus was now on him. 

On another issue, I am not even sure that this guy will be able to sue United.  Federal regulations allows airlines to oversale and bump passengers from planes so United was in their legal right.  Since it was security that removed the passenger which caused him to get hurt, then only airport security can be placed in the claim.  Should be interesting to see if a lawsuit gets filed and if United can be claimed. 

As I had some time to kill I actually looked into the matter.  So the company that runs this particular flight is Republic Airlines.  So the planes are United but the company is an affiliate who actually do the service.  Also the flight was not overbooked, it was sold out.  This is a huge difference and may come to bite United even though they were not servicing this flight.

this wasn't  'overbooking'. Overbooking is when more than one of the same seat/ticket is sold and they are forced to reallocate people. This was a fully booked flight but there weren't two people showing up for one seat or whatever.

the United people at that airport realized last minute that they had forgotten that they wanted to (or supposedly NEEDED to) fly 4 of their employees to Kentucky for a job the next day.

That's not overbooking. Those employees never purchased tickets and were never in the system for particular seats. They just last minute tried to force them on. 

Also almost universally with flights airlines are not supposed to attempt to take people's seats away (even for overbooking) if they have ALREADY boarded. A lot of things were done wrong here, some very likely falling under the not legal category 

do a little more research. You're on here arguing about a story you don't know well (clearly). This was NOT overbooking. Overbooking does not occur with employees who don't pay for tickets. The whole reason this situation occured was because LAST MINUTE United wanted to squeeze some of their employees on the plane for a flight and screw over 4 of their customers.

Overbooking would be if there were 4 seats sold to 8 people and (obviously) in that case pre-boarding the airline would have to reallocate half of the people due to their mistake

He very likely does have a case. I also am almost certain that legally speaking there is no clause that someone can be removed from a plane without merit. This isn't overbooking, this isn't a disorderly passenger, this isn't anything- except for United last minute wanting to fly some of their own people. There certainly is NOTHING in a ticket contract stating that your seat can go to an employee for a non emergency

I actually read the regulation and it states airlines can involuntarily force passengers from flights if overbooked.  It does not make any stipulations of whether they are on the plane or not which means airlines can do it at any point they choose.  Actually the only thing the airline has to do is first ask for volunteers before resulting to any measure they deem to use.  The regulations is pretty open on this part and it’s the discretion of the airline how they go about this policy.  Usually this all happens way before boarding but in this case it did not which of course is the problem that got United into this spot.  Interesting enough, when reading the regulations, it appears that United is the least company to bump you off a flight as all airlines have to report this to the DOT.

Which regulations are those? Can't find it in here
https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights
https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/contract-of-carriage.aspx#sec21
It's all about denied boarding, after boarding there's nothing about forcing passengers from flights due to overbooking. (Now they're saying it wasn't even overbooked, perhaps trying to cover themselves with some other obscure rule about making room for employees?)

Did you not read those rules.  Since it does not stipulate when or where but what must be done first before involuntary bumping means its up to the airline how they proceed after asking for volunteers.  Here is the part you need to pay real attention to.

"OT rules require airlines to seek out people who are willing to give up their seats for compensation before bumping anyone involuntarily"

Nothing about when, only that they need to ask for volunteers before kicking you off.  This is what I mean.  There is no mandate on the how, when or where so the regulations are very open to the discretion of the airline.  When regulations do not state exactly a rule then its open.  

Really? Did you even read/watch what happened?

First of all it is on the contract for the ticket that he may get removed at this economy class (the ticket) if the plane is full; he knew it and took the risk by buying it... Second, they asked him nicely... And he refused to leave the plane. Then like always in this kind of situation, the airport security removes any person refusing to attempt... And that was far from being "violent" and far from being abnormal... If the guy would not have resisted like crazy, he would not have getting hurt... That's his own fault, they cannot just ignore it and leave him on the plane at the end 

Seriously this story and the people reacting to it shows how people today do not want to follow rules or guidelines and feel so entitled... The dude refused to comply to a valid request and then some people are chocked because they forcely (different than violently) removed him from the plane.

I mean, the only thing that sucks here (imo) is the airliner not being so good at managing their seats :) But nothing else. the dude did not comply and he got removed, sucks, but expected...