I think it's also important to remember that Dao didn't become unruly until after he was selected--at random--to be removed from the plane. Prior to that, he didn't exhibit any of the characteristics that Rowe specifies as criteria for ejection from an aircraft. Many of his fellow passengers vocally protested his removal, so one might surmise that they didn't find him loud or creepy or suspicious or stinky.

Imo, if a crew decides to de-plane a passenger for safety concerns, they obviously have authority to do so. But when it comes to removing passengers who were selected for removal *at random*, then the airline had better recommend extreme caution. I bet if United had a big old reset button they'd do this one differently, to hell with Rowe's cry of "damn the torpedos."