Man arrested for walking with golf club

[Panacea]

Unbelievable. A 69 year old man was arrested for walking down the street with a golf club..

The officer claimed he threatened her with it. He denies it. It's not on her dash cam video. He initially pleads guilty, but when the police review the video they realize the charge is bogus, and it gets dismissed. They return his golf club to him.

Officer than makes some racially charged comments about the incident on FB, linking it with Ferguson.

She gets put on desk duty. Local community leaders want her fired.

I agree with them. This officer works for a department under federal review for its use of force. She sued (along with other officers) to block policy changes on use of force (they lost). Sounds to me like she doesn't want to change, doesn't want to learn, and has no problem racially profiling people.

She needs to be off the force.

[Andara Bledin]

Yeesh.

This is pretty low down on the list of police abuses in the US, but yeah, I totally agree with you on her being the wrong person for the job.

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

Is a non-portable pension involved? Because if there is, that's why she's probably not going anywhere.

Unfortunately every job that's got one of those has a hard time firing, because employees tend to take less than what would be market value for them in the absence of one. And firing then becomes a huge deal, because you're essentially cutting them off and you now have what simply amounts to someone just being underpaid period. It's why a lot of Unions and even management are very reticent to pull that trigger. You are economically boning them in what may be an out of proportion manner. In some ways, it's a huge degree of leverage an employer has on the employee.

I think a lot of these problems would solve if cash value of a pension in relation to money left on the table got exported to a 401k. Then sure, fire them. But otherwise, realize it's sort of like a lawsuit occurring extralegally where massive financial damage happens to the individual above and beyond simple job loss. It's not like firing a kid from Wendy's because he got caught hurling epithets.

[Gravekeeper]

Conversely though, one asshole cop kept on the force can cost taxpayers millions in lawsuits. As forces like the NYPD know quite well ( and yet still continues to act like, well, the NYPD ).

[D_Yeti_Esquire]

I totally agree.

My whole thing is you've got to find a way to remove someone like that but the only way you really can is to agree to cut them a check because your compensation scheme is overly punitive to people that leave.

If you could make some sort of system for porting a pension out, you would fix so many problems in education and civil service. I know so many people who wouldn't even work where they are if they could just get that money out.

[Panacea]

Is a non-portable pension involved? Because if there is, that's why she's probably not going anywhere.

That's an interesting idea. Certainly, no one has a right to a job long enough to vest in a pension, and if you get fired you lose it. But a lot of times public employees fight a firing just to keep that pension.

Given that pensions are better for retirement than 401K's (the biggest ripoff of worker savings ever), I can't blame them. A policy like this might help make it easier to get rid of bad cops like this.

[Andara Bledin]

Given that pensions are better for retirement than 401K's (the biggest ripoff of worker savings ever), I can't blame them.

How are 401ks a ripoff?

[TheHuckster]

They're only a ripoff if you consider the past few years when the recession really hurt people's retirement funds. Any other time they've been quite beneficial.

[Andara Bledin]

They're only a ripoff if you consider the past few years when the recession really hurt people's retirement funds. Any other time they've been quite beneficial.

I didn't lose any money when the shit hit the fan, myself. I stopped having any sort of growth beyond what I was putting in and what my employer was matching for almost half a year, but at no time did my 401k balance decrease.

[Panacea]

How are 401ks a ripoff?

Most people don't know how to manage their own retirement funds. So they hand the job over to managers. Most people's funds are managed in accounts with high loads and fees, which is great for the managers, but steals away return over time.

Seriously; people lose thousands of dollars over time because of this.

Pensions have their risks as well, but there is a bail out fund (Pension benefit guarantee corporation) that acts like an insurance company of sorts for pensions. 401Ks have nothing similar; if you hit a down turn in the market right before you retire it can really, really hurt you.

I'm lucky; I have both a pension and a 403b plan (similar to a 401k but safer, and for educators) so if the market doesn't do so well I will get at least something. Plus I have a Roth that I actively manage myself . . . after taking the time to learn how.

I'm cynical. When I rolled over my first IRA into a new account, I got ripped off by my new manager because I didn't know any better. I lost 8,000 dollars as a result.