Officer Fired For Bringing Trayvon Martin Target To Gun Range

[one_voice]

PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A police officer accused of bringing targets resembling Trayvon Martin to a gun range has been fired.

Port Canaveral Interim Chief Executive Officer John Walsh told WFTV on Saturday that Sgt. Ron King was leading a target practice with two other Port Canaveral police officers and a civilian port employee when he pulled out the targets April 4. Walsh says King asked the group if they wanted to use the targets and they said no, telling King to put them back into his patrol car.

Port Canaveral is about 50 miles southeast of Sanford, where the 17-year-old Martin was killed in 2012 by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense. His trial is set for June.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/14/trayvon-martin-shooting-target_n_3079566.html

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/port-canaveral-police-sergeant-fired-trayvon-marti/nXLdC/

[lunasun]

1. Not only fired but I hope the dept. also stops using his private business

he had a contract with them for gun safety classes I believe

[dmr]

2. What an ass. Glad he's fired.

Shameful.

[Fawke Em]

3. Wait... have we turned government over to corporations so much so that

mayor or county executives are now called CEOs?

Did anyone else catch that?

[DrDan]

4. here he is - explaining his firing

[socialindependocrat]

5. In support of being human

At least give me a chance to say my piece before blasting me to the heavens.

I worked in a large corporation where there was a "zero tolerance policy"
on a number of things. This means that if you do something that was against the
acceptability rules - just once- you were fired.

What it did was to keep everyone on-guard for fear that they would not think
and break one of the rules and lose their jobs after 25 years of service. Humor
was reduced to saying the most innocuous things behind closed doors or in
one-on-one situations so you could deny whatever you may have said.

Some people are very dichotomous thinkers and by George - a rule was a rule and
you followed it without question. You didn't even ask to have anything explained you
just went back to your office and tried to keep your nose to the grindstone.

The best example is men being afraid to compliment any woman about how nice they
looked even if they really looked nice. Women could say that they thought a male
coworker's new suit looked "sharp" but that was o.k. cause men weren't perceived as
being victims of harassment.

It leads to a workplace that is devoid of humor and puts a crimp on developing
interpersonal relationships with your coworkers.

When we did training on harassment it was incumbent upon the offended party to inform
the offender that they didn't appreciate whatever comment was made and that they
didn't want to be exposed to that type of humor or action again. The second offence
was reportable and there would be some sort of punishment that would be meted out by
the personnel dept.

My vote would be for, at least, a warning for the first offence before someone loses their
job. The "zero tolerance" system makes for a very fearful environment whether it be in the
office or in the lab or in the plant. Just think of constantly being aware that you shouldn't try to
say anything that will make anyone smile or would be considered a joke because someone
in the room may take offence.

O.K - said my piece - feel free to tear me up.

(I can say things like this because I'm retired now and I can't lose my job.)

[Fumesucker]

6. Sometimes what you think will make people smile reveals a lot about you

I think this was one of those cases and the person revealed something about himself that means he should not be a police officer.

[DevonRex]

7. First, this was so far over the line of human decency

that any normal human being should have known not to do this. On your larger point, I've worked with juvenile people before who simply used your way as an excuse to say and do anything they wanted to once. And they said and did a lot of things once. Oh so innocently. Because of them, the rules were changed to a no-warning system. Juvenile people ruin things for the rest of the workforce.

[FourScore]

9. Oh good grief! Really??

Last edited Sun Apr 14, 2013, 07:01 PM - Edit history (1)

You're going to equate a young man losing his life through gun violence to complimenting a woman on how she is dressed?

I don't think you get it.



It might just be that your employer needed those rules.

[gollygee]

10. There's nothing funny about a gun target that makes it look like

you are killing children. A specific child whose parents are mourning him. This is not funny, but it says a lot about the character of someone who would think it was.

[freshwest]

8. OTT!