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But he still has
His job, benefits and pension all at our expense. But more importantly he still has his badge and stalking capabilities. END PUBLIC UNIONS!
He is still walking around
He is still walking around with a gun too. Anyone else would have their license pulled in a heartbeat.
Suspension involves turning
Suspension involves turning in service weapon and badge.
Of course he should be fired, but stop blaming unions.
He should be fired and perhaps prosecuted. No question.
Allow me to speak on behalf of unions. A personal story: A friend of mine, who belongs to a union, and who is good worker, is being harassed because she is 68 and extremely obese. She works full time, but makes only about $35,000 a year, plus some benefits. That's barely enough to get by on in NYC, so she has a second job. She is being harassed because the university where she works wants someone young, pretty, and even cheaper.
No worker is perfect, and that includes you and me. The union asked her to work on a few very minor things to make her boss happy. She did. Her boss continued to to harass her, so now the union is filing a grievance on her behalf.
My friend will probably be pushed out of her job eventually on some pretext, even though her work is as close to flawless as is humanly possible. If she loses her job, she will be in financial trouble -- like most of us. She could go to court for discrimination, but these cases are almost impossible to prove. Courts are for rich people, not people like us.
Also, please remember that unions brought you many rights on the job. People died for the rights that you take for granted.
Instead of complaining about unions, complain about CEOs who make huge amounts of money and benefits, even when they trash a profitable company. Complain about the fact that they hide their money overseas and don't pay their fair share in taxes, leaving us to hold the bag. Complain about the fact that the few jobs they do create are usually bad ones or are temporary; the rest get shipped overseas.
And again, of course, this guy needs to be fired, and perhaps prosecuted.
Excellent post, FryingPan.
Sorry to hear about what your friend is going through. Your support of unions is absolutely spot-on. Unions are an absolute necessity for protection of workers against unfair labor practices, retaliatory lay-off/firings, various types of discrimination, and to see to it that workers receiving a living wage that will support him/her and/or their familiy or families, assuming they have family.
It's way beyond disgusting and disgraceful that unions have declined so precipitously here in the United States, leaving workers vulnerable and unprotected. This decline of unions here in the United States, which began during the late 1960's, when President Nixon took power, continued with Carter, began to snowball when the Reagan Administration took power, and has continued to snowball to this day. It's a nasty situation, overall.
I understand going forward he
I understand going forward he cannot be promoted, do we know if he has been demoted? I would think that conduct unbecoming would warrant a demotion as well.
Demoted?
The POS is caught breaking the law, and were going to allow him to stay in a position to uphold the law.
This is like Obama receiving the Nobel PEACE prize while bombing Yemen.
I think he can STILL get promoted...
If he quits the BPD and works for another PD like the Cambridge PD, Newton PD, Worcester PD, the NYPD, you know what I mean. I'm sure thats the loophole he'll use as he "only lost the right to be promoted in the BOSTON Police Dept." OTOH since every PD now knows what he did, would you take him as your next police chief?
4 months?
he of course should be fired immediately, and criminal charges laid where applicable. Unbelievable. Most American workers (85% who are Employee at Will) would be fired for far less.
This
is a Sargent and probably pulls in $200k a year
$138k
According to the Herald, McCarthy made $138,594.74 in 2013.
http://bh.heraldinteractive.com/projects/your_tax_dollars.bg?src=Boston2...
Well, at least he can never
Well, at least he can never be promoted where he can make the serious money!
Oh, that's a brilliant move.
Exactly what we need patrolling the streets of Boston: an angry, embittered officer with absolutely no hope for advancement, nursing a grudge against his victim and his employer, and allowed to carry a gun. Recipe for disaster much?
Missing the problem
He broke the law. People make mistakes. I don't think a cop needs to be fired every time he does something illegal depending on the severity of the crime. Stalking is a relatively low danger problem.
However, he violated the public trust by accessing databases to retrieve her address to be able to go to her house. His job gave him that access in trust that he wouldn't abuse it...and he did. He shouldn't be allowed back into a position where he is still allowed that trust because he's proven he can't handle it properly.
That is why I think he needs to be fired or reassigned in some way so that he can no longer have access to databases that have things like people's addresses/personal information. This is where his punishment did not satisfy his crime.
He didn't actually break any laws.
I have no problem with him being fired, but legally he did not do anything criminal.
My guess
This is a deal worked out between the BPD and the union. The BPD probably feared losing an arbitration and being forced to take him back, pay him back pay, and make like nothing happened. The union probably realized that he should be lucky to have a job, even with the sanctions given to him- he ain't getting paid for 4 months, is getting some kind of 8 month probation, and screwed up his future with the organization. It might not be a good deal, but there were 2 really bad scenarios out there, so this is what happens in the end.
I don't know MA law that well
I don't know MA law that well, but even if stalking is not a crime, wouldn't improperly accessing police databases be a crime?
Stalking is a crime.
But this isn't even close to meeting the criteria for the actual statute to charge him with it. He obtained the information legally after a legal traffic stop, but went further and went to the persons house.
The worst part about this whole situation is that he propositioned her for sex in the first place. He is a police officer with enormous power and should not use is power to find someone to have sexual relations with.
This guy
This guy needs to go. You think so, so do the rest of us. The difference is we can't do anything about it; you and your fellow police can, or could have. That you haven't is a tremendous stain on all of your reputations.
Actually stalking and
Actually stalking and harassment is illegal.
And nothing he did would legally fit either of the two.
Nt
Since when, Pete?
Since when is requesting a blow job, following, and lurking while in uniform and on duty NOT stalking or harassing?
Seriously, dude, pull that thin blue line out and get real!
Color of Law
Pete thinks Color of Law means he bleeds blue.
Fortunately, the FBI has a different idea.
McCarthy doesn't belong on desk duty. He's a sexual predator who belongs in jail. Sticking up for him disgraces every policeman who does it. Time to take out the trash.
Go talk to a US attorney sock puppet.
This case wouldn't stand a chance for any color of law in federal court.
Again, I'm not saying the guy should or shouldn't be fired, or that what he did was right. But legally, and,criminally, there really isn't a case against him.
Stalking is more than just a word, it's a crime.
Requires 3 separate instances of a physical threat to do serious harm to another human being. This did not happen here. If you charged the officer in court with this crime, the judge would dismiss it before it even got to an arraignment.
Criminal Harrasment would also require 3 separate instances of putting someone in emotional distress (probably only 1 or two at the most here).
So again, legally this person could not be criminally charged with stalking or Harrasment.
relatively low danger?
Stalking is relatively low danger compared to what? Do you really intend to make light of a police office stalking a citizen?
There is nothing minor about
There is nothing minor about stalking. He propositioned a girl for sex while on duty. When she refused, he followed her for miles in his cruiser. When she managed to get away from him, he looked up her address and then went to her house and waited for her. He should be fired immediately. No more job, no pension. Why should taxpayers have to pay for stalkers? How many more times did he do this? This cannot be the first.
Higher standard
Police need to be held to a higher standard, not a lower one. They have tremendous power and influence over every day citizens, and need to conduct themselves accordingly. When they don't, when they break that standard, they need to be held accountable, not slapped on the wrist. This was not a "mistake," this was a blatant violation of the law and the public's' trust. This guy should have been immediately fired, arrested, and prosecuted. But instead he gets a vacation.
therapy?
did I miss the part about him seeking professional help with his little "stalking" problem?
He should get the shit beat out of him first,
Then be fired. How about that idea?We have a serious pendulum problem here. This sounds like an unhinged guy, a dangerous guy, and it's psychotic that he's going to stay a cop. Psychotic.
By the way, remember when that Boston cop
Sent Yvonne Abraham a nasty email, off duty, from his own computer, and Menino immediately declared him "G-O-N-E"? Contrast that scenario, and that officer's quick and apparently unilateral dismissal for bigoted speech, with Mayor Walsh's limp and resigned response to this far more severe abuse of power. Group psychosis. This whole city needs therapy if you ask me.
The one question I would have
What did happen to that cop?
I know people hate the arbitration system the BPD and the unions have, but it is civil service. Menino blustered a lot, then things passed into the past and we heard do more about it. I got blasted here recounting his comments on Chick Fil-A, and they could have stuck until the national media pointed out what kind of a fool he was. Let's face it, unless you were on his list, which although it was full of big shots like Chiofaro, a public employee union, or a petty grudge like his vendetta against Walsh, was not that big.
Caught in Southie
"Caught up between the old, new Southie", that was the name of the article written about Maureen Dahill back in January's Globe when she lost the senate seat. It mentions how she uses her blog "Caught in Southie" to unite the yuppies & the old school Southie people, keep them up on things, crime, ect. Well, thanks a lot for the heads up on the stalker!
No, she did not blog about Joel McCarthy being a lifelong Southie guy that she has known her whole life. If he was the yuppie next door or the newbie junky breaking into cars there would certainly be a story.
That sucks. So does the fact that his poor wife (advertises on Caught in, Maureen's site) has to look at that Pig for 4 Months.