Regarding your schadenfreude at people who "don't comply with police instructions . . . ", what can I possibly say?   Good for you?   I have no idea how to respond to that.   Nothing like superficial framing lacking any measurable context loaded with emotional value-laden BS, is there?

I find the entire practice of overbooking to be more than questionable.  I agree with black dude, and the people at United took zero responsibility for the fact they created a situation that routinely requires someone's travel, and very likely someone's work, and possibly someone's life to be disrupted, sometimes quite seriously disrupted, even damaged.   They took zero responsibility for creating the mess in the first place, and I find the fact that they were indifferent to the individual's own professional and personal needs to be morally reprehensible.  

But we aren't where we are - having trashed the entire planet - because human beings are so good and so smart.