[quote=harvey][quote=no_such_reality]It’s coming to an election season, we’re going to be bombarded with ads from the Teachers unon saying basically ‘protect the children’, sadly, I feel like I read an article every week with a teacher preying on children.[/quote]
And that gets to the crux of it.
I understand the point that an arbitrary list of “malfeasance reports” is probably not very meaningful and could be intended just to stir the pot.
The question is whether this information can be used toward any specific policy decision; at the end of the day is this collection of stories useful for voters who want to make an informed decision on a policy change?
Or is this stuff just mud-slinging?
The answer depends upon whether these stories are examples of problems than be corrected with actual policy changes, or whether they are just “stuff that happens everywhere at work.”
For me, I think stories that emphasize the sheer magnitude of these incidents is illustrative and useful information. Particularly:
– The widespread practice of unions using their power to prevent necessary corrective actions in the public-sector workplace
– The lack of criminal investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by law enforcement and public officials
These are real issues, and there are real policy changes that can be made to correct them. But first the public needs to be made aware of the extent of the problem. If this thread can contribute in small way to that purpose, then I say it’s a good thing.
(But I’d rather not hear about some dude with his pants down.)[/quote]
Yes, most of it is “mud slinging.” Public employees seem to be the current target for the MSM’s drivel. In the private sector where there are no unions, an employee who they “suspected” of doing this will just be walked out, given severance in exchange for a release and not even be given a reason for their discharge. That will never come out because 99% of the time, the employee desperately needs the severance and the employer’s perfunctory telephone or letter “recommendation” and so can’t take the matter any further.
The difference is, in the private sector, the employer would believe their “stupidvisor” who is beholden to them and even has possibly been with the firm since it was created. But the “real” reason for discharge will just be the stupidvisor’s envy of the employee or feeling “threatened” by his/her superior knowledge and skills or remembering that that employee made cheerleader over them in HS or the church choir soprano over them last year. ROTHALYAO, all of this has happened!
Those private sector employees who were coerced by their employers NOT to sign union cards when they had the opportunity sold themselves down the river, IMO. They may as well be working in a “right to work” state.
The unions are there, in part, to prevent unfair, malicious and discriminatory treatment in the workplace of its members. If departments and agencies actually have the documentation and witnesses to prove their charges against the employee, they WIN! But if they’re just trying to get rid of someone currently on the bad side of one or more of their lackeys and/or “coddled old-timers,” they LOSE.
Regarding criminal “investigations” and subsequent charges against local public officials and employees, the VAST MAJORITY of them have never been prosecuted (wisely, by the DA) or the defendants have been acquitted by a jury. IMO, these “witch hunts” are the absolute biggest waste of taxpayer money on the planet and the defendants end up having the “last laugh” when they sue the prosecuting agencies and win an award for their attorney’s fees (paid by taxpayers). More often than not, the “trumped-up charges” were originally “instigated” by a “political rival” of the defendant with a chip on their shoulder as heavy as a boulder :=[
