Robert Nappe, a cop, decided he wanted to volunteer in training Iraqi officers. When the police department denied his leave, he retired instead, and headed over to Iraq, where he stayed for a year.
Now he’s back, and wants his job back. Bound by the rules of the Civil Service, and the union, the Police Department denied his request. So he is now taking them to court.
He says “I don’t think that’s asking a lot considering what I did, where I did it, and how I did it.”
Yes, fine, wonderful and noble thing that you went to Iraq and trained police forces for less than you made for the police (according to him)… of your own volition. Nobody made you go. You retired when you couldn’t get leave. You knew, in advance, that you were giving up your position to do something that was clearly important to you. And hey, I respect that. Seriously, I do. But to come back with a sense of entitlement, as if the city now owes you a job, and to drag it through the court system is, IMHO, absolutely ridiculous.
I just can’t get over the delusional sense of entitlement some people have. You make your choices - stick by them.
I was all set to rant and rave about how the guy went off looking for a heros welcome, rather than performing some noble sacrifice. But then, I guess there is some question about the legality of his request.
I also tend towards thinking ‘screw him.’ He retired knowing at that time that this was an irrevocable decision.
I also tend towards suspecting he is an asshole whom the force wants to be rid of. The change in rules means that they have grounds to let him back, if they wanted to, but they clearly don’t want to. It sounds to me like they were glad to get rid of him and they want him to stay gone.
After some reflection, I stand by my initial reaction, for the reason that **Jess ** points out. When he made his decision, he had no indication that it was anything but a permanent choice. He did what he did based on that, and so he should stand by it.
If the guy was over there working with the Army or actually fighting I’d say, “fuck all of you all, he has a right to expect some entitlement for providing a service that is essential to the existence of our country and your quality of life but almost no one is willing to do it, and on top of that it was shitty in general that his police department wouldn’t give him the leave.”
However the problem is he worked for a private security force. And I’d be shocked beyond all belief, given my knowledge of such things, if he wasn’t making a damn fine wage over there (more than for example, a police officer makes) doing what he was doing. I know about the type of companies that have private security forces in Iraq and all of them pay very well. The guy didn’t go over there to risk his ass for the country he went over there to make some money training mercenaries.
He isn’t entitled to anything. And he’s probably flat out lying about things as well.