After 35 years, New Orleans police career, Sgt. Bobby Guidry probably thought that his supervisor wanted to give him a gold watch or final slap on the back. After all, he was fifteen minutes away from retirement and literally packing up his car to leave. His supervisor, however, suspended the veteran officer for wearing the wrong color shirt — an act that will affect his post-retirement status.
Since the Hurricane, officers have been wearing black uniforms — though the traditional powder-blue shirts are scheduled to be reintroduced by the beginning of next year. Guidry wore his shirt because of its connection to his 35 years of service and the 18 men who died during it.
The supervisor’s suspension will bar his retired police commission as well as his acceptance into the NOPD’s reserve unit.
The question should be why the supervisor has not been suspended for this moronic act and why
Superintendent Warren Riley has yet to act to correct this outrage.
It is beyond a mere stupid act. It shows an utter lack of judgment.
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bureaucracy at its best!
Bob,Esq:
I like that scenario too. Let’s see what happens here.
Mespo:
Don’t forget the context of an honest cop trying to stick it to a retiring corrupt cop.
Bob,Esq:
You know you’re right about that corruption, but if this is pretextual, it does prove that the NOPD is also the stupidest force around.
“Work place bullying plain and simple.”
Considering the NOPD is one of the most corrupt in the country, it may be best to wait for the dust to settle on this one.
You may be correct Rich. As others have said, there’s obviously bad blood but a professional manager would have addressed problems long ago, not tried a last minute, chicken-shit way to harm someone’s retirement pay.
Obviously there’s more going on here than meets the eye and Guidry may be less of a victim than he appears to be.
A policeman showing an utter lack of judgment? Good thing those guys don’t carry guns!
I agree with JT and Mespo, this was an act of workplace bullying and unbelievable stupidity. One has to wonder why this officer wasn’t notified he was wearing the “wrong” shirt prior to the day he’s supposed to retire. It’s a very minor error that is easy to correct, if the upper echelons in the department found it so objectionable.
Work place bullying plain and simple.
Not just that, why did he wait until the end of the day to act? His choice was easily recognized and remedied shortly after he arrived at work. The only way this makes sense is if a higher official didn’t see him until his retirement party and then instructed his supervisor to act. This would also explain the delay in remedying the situation. In this case the supervisor would be an innocent fall guy.
BTW I understand the officer’s motivation but they’re called ‘uniforms’ for a reason. 🙂 Suspension is a wee bit excessive, though, since it’s so trivially remedied. (What, the precinct doesn’t have any spare shirts?)
Besides the senselessness of the cause, you would expect the department to bend over backwards to keep its retired corps healthy. The city can call on them in future emergencies.
It sounds like Officer Guidry got under somebody’s saddle. Why any employer would bother spending money to deal with this non-issue with 15 minutes left in an employee’s career is amazing. Good luck to Officer Guidry. I agree with Prof. Turley that someone should be investigating the superintendant for approving such nonsense.