To: U.S. Department of Transportation

Sanction United Airlines and protect all passengers immediately

We demand airlines that breach basic human rights, like United, be officially sanctioned and that the Department of Transportation adopt a full passenger bill of rights to protect passengers to ensure every passenger is able to travel without fear of harassment, bullying, or arbitrary violence from airline staff, TSA agents, or local law enforcement.

Why is this important?

Yesterday, United Airlines and Chicago aviation police officers forcibly removed a passenger from a flight that the airline overbooked—pulling him from his seat and dragging him through the aisles. Video captured by outraged passengers shows the man, with a bloody face, being dragged through the plane.

United Airlines, which overbooked the flight, had chosen the man, it said, at random—and the man, who other passengers say is a doctor who needed to return home to see patients, refused to leave.

This is the latest alarming incident involving passengers having their basic rights and freedoms infringed upon on a domestic flight. People of color also bear the brunt of deteriorating rights on domestic flights—that this passenger, who identifies as being Chinese, was treated this way follows the many instances of people of color being mistreated on domestic flights.

The industry must be regulated to protect passengers.

United Airlines issued a blanket apology to all of the passengers on the flight, and CEO Oscar Munoz released a statement saying they would call for a "detailed review" of the actions of their employees. But that is not enough.

The United States Department of Transportation oversees the airline industry. It's time for the U.S. DOT to reign in the airline corporations and law enforcement officers who act outside of human decency.

The U.S. DOT must sanction United Airlines and immediately adopt a passenger bill of rights that ensures all passengers can travel without fear of humiliation, harassment, or assault.