The two Newton Police offers were sent to Watertown to assist with logistics at the funeral of Boston Fire Lieutenant Edward Walsh Jr., Ellen Ishkanian reports in today’s Globe.
[Newton Police Association president Eddie] LaValle said he understands how bad it looks for the Newton police union to complain about lending a hand to help with traffic and logistics at the funeral of a firefighter from a neighboring town, who was killed in the line of duty.
But, he said, as union president he had no choice but to object to the chief making a decision to use officers scheduled for a day off to assist in another town.
Disgusting! He should resign immediately. I pray that our officers were not on board with this and have the decency to help out a neighboring town, especially under the circumstances!
The sense of team that brought tens of thousands of uniformed personnel to this area over a two+ day period (w/o pay) must be rocking this morning. Why would anyone go there?
They still got paid – they just did not get the OT pay that they would have gotten for the OT paid detail.
Stephen, It’s easy to be generous with other people’s time, money and contract. Forget about what the event was. The question seems legit. Guy is doing his job as the Union Representative. Funerals and parades require paid workers some of whom have contracts. The situation doesn’t dictate the details of the contract.
Was there any public statement about this from Newton Police Association? They don’t seem to have a website.