Discouraging Heroism?
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?
Frank,
I agree with you.. By not standing up, we will forever be victims.. However, people are not being backed up.. Employers resort to policy because of liability issues, which I understand.. Litigation has led to this, and if you arent working, you can’t eat, especially if you have a family.. Will society take care of him and his family if he follows his conscience( which I agree with)..Unfortunately, I doubt it
The american public has been taught for years that “fighting back” is a bad thing. Politicians strive to teach people to rely on the government and geovernment agencies for protection, though they and we know that there will never exist enough officers to protect every individual. The more people rely on the government the less likely people are to realize that the politicians serve us, not the other way around. I am always glad to see an American act like a true American, stand up and fight back against a criminal. It is all too rare these days.
At 52, I’m just old enough to remember the end of a different era. Somewhere along the line, but not all at once, we decided that long accepted standards of conduct were no longer enforceable. It felt to me as an observer, with each new compromise, that we were incrementally dismantling all that had worked so well for so long. At the nucleus of each compromise was that same old faustian exchange; trading liberty for the illusion of security. Jeffrey Snyder’s insightful essay titled “a nation of cowards” should be required reading for the entire country. He makes it pretty obvious that we cannot continue on our current path & reasonably expect anything but more of the same continuing decay.
It is a sad commentary, when you do the right thing, you are wrong. This young man put himself in harms way, not unlike Police Officers, the difference is that that is not his job, he was a bank teller and that is all his employer wants him to be. It is a shame he was fired, he felt it was in his best interest to help recover his employers assets, only to be slapped in the face and scolded, lie a little child taking a cookie from the cookie jar. He refused to be a victim and his reward was to become an unemployment statistic.
I have long held the belief that we as a society need to develop the mindset that we will make being a criminal a very dangerous occupation. You enter my home uninvited you will leave in a body bag. Nothing that I own is worth YOUR life. We as a nation have developed the philosphy that it is okay to be a victim. It’s not. I will not put myself in that postion, situational awareness, self protection are my responsibilities and my families safety is my responsibility also. Interfere with my responsibility, my duty and suffer the consequenses. To me this is not a vigilante response. I believe that too many crminals are aware that the judical system, lawyers and society in general feel that thugs are “just misunderstood”, “they had a bad childhood” etc. To me that is total b.s. If a thug commits a crime and gets seriously hurt or killed commiting that crime, then that is just a hazzard of their chosen profession. They should chose a differnt line of work.
Thank you for the comments. You are all SO right. Kim, I especially like your outlook - which I suspect the others share but didn’t voice. Nothing in MY house is worth YOUR life. Maybe if more bad guys believed that…
The bank was clearly over-reacting. As others have noted, there are reasons companies have such policies, but not every violation of policy needs to result in termination. On a more positive note, however, Nicholson is unrepentant and “if he were in the same situation again, he still wouldn’t just hand over the money. Instead, he’d probably go the hero route again.” (From an interview with MSNB “Today”.)