Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
On July 28th, while working as a bank teller, Jim Nicholson found himself being robbed. Of course, the bad guy wasn't robbing
Jim but was robbing the bank Jim worked for.
Worked... as in past tense. Why? Because Jim actually foiled the robbery and as a reward for protecting its interests the bank fired him. Yes, that's right. Jim did something most would consider heroic and the bank fired him for violating policy. When will we (society) learn?
Policy on September 10th, 2001 said that everyone on a plane should just cooperate with hijackers. Policy on September 12th was pretty much the opposite. Things had changed. The hijacking could no longer be viewed as a simple political or criminal act or statement but instead had to be considered a matter of mass murder. Surrendering to the hijacker's will could mean dying, so you might as well die fighting at least, right?
As a father, I've taught my two daughters NEVER to willingly give in to a rape attempt; to fight until they are incapable of fighting anymore. Why? Because if you surrender to the rapist, how do you know that the completion of the rape is his final objective? If you surrender yourself to the criminal, he can do whatever he wants to you - which may include kill you. So if you fight like you're resisting an attempted murder then it's probably more than he wants to deal with.
I know there is a difference between robbery, rape and murder. The concept, though, is the same: don't willingly surrender. All that does is empower the criminal. Law enforcement professionals nationwide have enough work to do without criminals being reassured that if they rob certain banks, everyone will cooperate and they'll likely get away. If they stop committing the crimes, they might not get caught. That depends on how stupid they are as a criminal - but why encourage them?
Rather than having policy that prohibits people from acting courageously, why not have opinion statements with some flex? Why is Jim Nicholson not being praised for his heroic actions? Why would any employer punish an employee for protecting company interests? Oh, yeah... liability and insurance. Look where we've brought ourselves...
Personally, I am
glad that there are citizens in our country who are willing to tell criminals, "NOT TODAY." I'm
glad there are Americans who are willing to stand up against crime, show courage in the face of danger and show the criminals that committing crime doesn't pay. How much safer could our country's streets and places of business be if such an effort were society-wide rather than only performed at the hands of law enforcement?
What do you think?
