Bad police and bad public employees

Why is it we don’t hear about the reasons the police officer in Minneapolis wasn’t removed from the force when he had so many complaints against him?

Have you ever heard about the difficulty municipalities or government has to remove an employee who is not performing their duties or was abusing the public trust?

Let me preface my following opinion by saying union membership can be a good thing, as is the case with most skilled trade unions. Public employee unions are not to blame, but when it comes to protecting those who abuse the public trust, they can put removal of these bad apples out of reach of many gutless managers who are unwilling to do their jobs.

Why do you think the VA has had such a hard time fixing the well-publicized problems they have? Why is it people in most government jobs can’t be fired without extreme efforts?

I have spoken to a number of people who worked for the defense department procurement office in San Diego, along with several relatives who have worked for a number of other agencies (social services, post office and transportation-related), and they all complained about the difficulty of these government-run entities (both state and federal) not being able to fire someone who violated department rules.

Ninety-nine percent of our public servants need to know how much they are valued and appreciated for serving the public, while at times being at great personal risk. These great people would not be put in the same category as those who abuse that trust. We need these people! Without them, we will all be dealing with Chicago-style violence and lawlessness. We need to fix the underlying problems preventing the bad apples from being removed and not destroying the entire system in the process.

Bruce Watters

Bowler