(Police officers dragging a passenger from his seat.Facebook/Audra Bridges)
People are rallying around the passenger who was forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight on Sunday, in response to what many see as attempts to vilify a victim.

On Tuesday, the Louisville Courier-Journal published an article reporting that the passenger, David Dao, had “a troubled history in Kentucky.” The article cited drug-related felony convictions in the early 2000s that it said cost Dao his medical license, saying the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure allowed Dao to resume practicing medicine in 2015.

One of the few details to emerge about Dao as the video of his removal from the United flight went viral was that in refusing to leave the flight he described himself as a doctor who needed to get back to his patients.

Soon after the article was published, however, many on social media accused the Courier-Journal of attempting to justify an incident in which Dao was dragged from United flight 3411 by law-enforcement officers. Dao suffered injuries to his face and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.