jehrler
I don't see any reason to assume the captain intended security SOP's be bypassed to comply with his request. He probably expected the purser to grab one of the FA's busy doing cabin service, if that's what it took. The Purser seems to have come up with a compromise on her own initiative, that didn't require interrupting cabin service. But she should probably have called the captain to let him know she had pushed the decs under the door, which would have been easy enough to do. Still, nothing that a reasonably well adjusted person needs to get all worked up about, still less something that rises to the level of diverting the aircraft merely to offload the perceived insubordinate crew member. Old time pirates may have pulled that kind of crap with crew members who fell out of favor or were surplus to requirements, but such behaviour has no place in modern airline operations.
I agree that staff discipline as it relates to this incident remains UAL's call. But there is also the little matter of the reason given government agencies for the diversion, which according to as yet unconfirmed reports may have involved a false claim by the captain of a compromised security situation aboard the aircraft. I'm given to understand that the TSA would tend to frown upon such things and has the power to levy large fines and worse.