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Security Guard Who Helped FedEx Worker Toss Boxes ALSO Fired
By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 30, 2013
Modified Jul 30, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jul 30, 2013
Modified Jul 30, 2013
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The security guard who was caught on video helping a FedEx worker chuck boxes into the back of a truck has been fired, too. Over the weekend, FedEx announced that they'd terminated their employee, whom we hope hasn't done something crazy like hiring a hitman to run some of us (okay, me) over and make it look like an accident. And now the man in the video has come forward to say that he too has been fired, by the security company that employed him to protect "high value" packages.
"As an armed guard, I am supposed to be watching the freight," former security guard Bob Marge tells ABC 7. "I was trying to expedite the freight into the truck. I did make a lapse in judgment by throwing the freight in... I hurt a lot of people by doing that, and I just wanted to come clean and let them know I feel very bad about what I did." Marge, a former NYPD officer who is hopefully above using his old police connections to get revenge on an innocent blogger who was merely doing his job, adds, "I was a little upset for a few days, but then I realized that they did the right thing."
Did they? We're not at all sure the punishment fit the alleged crime, but that wasn't our decision to make. But we stand by our decision to publish the video, which had fewer than a dozen views on YouTube when a tipster sent it to us. It's clearly newsworthy to see how a major shipping company handles their boxes, and videos don't just "go viral" if the public isn't interested in them. (As of this morning, it's been viewed over 1.2 million times.)
To be sure, not everyone here agrees 100%. Gothamist's Chris Robbins was on vacation when we posted it. "When I saw this headline ("Watch A FedEx Worker Toss Boxes Into A Truck Like She's Chucking Hay Bales At The County Fair") in our afternoon email I was furious," Robbins said, sitting on a horse, approximately eight feet above the ground. "I just felt like it was an abuse of our Internet megaphone that is more usefully leveled at powerful people or subway defecators, not someone who was doing their job in a manner that would likely not make most package deliverers blush.
"It's like posting a video of an Itamae eschewing gloves—while technically against the law, who are we to question the reasonable methods of an expert? What do we care about more: our package treated in a manner that would otherwise have been unknown to us without this video, or our package getting to its destination on time and (seemingly) intact?"
And Deputy Editor Jen Carlson adds, "I was really disappointed to see this video go up on the site, since we all know well enough that when we post something like this there are consequences, and this woman was definitely going to be fired. I don't think pageviews and traffic are worth hurting someone's life over when the 'crime' is something pretty small like lobbing boxes that seemed to clearly hold nothing breakable."
For more judgment, I also spoke with former New York Times ethicist Randy Cohen this morning. Check back later today for his thoughts on what an asshole I am! [UPDATE: Here you go.]
Tagged
fedex
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page views
sanctimony
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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