New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Sergeant Robert L. Guidry, with minutes left on the last shift of his 35-year police career, received a call from a supervisor telling him he had been suspended for wearing the wrong uniform shirt. Instead of wearing the newly issued all-black uniform, Sgt. Guidry, chose to wear the powder-blue uniform shirt that he wore to work for more than three decades.
A Police Department spokesman confirmed the censure, though it quibbled with the term suspended rather, he said Guidry is under investigation for wearing the wrong uniform.
On Sgt. Guidry's last shift, the improper uniform complaint originated in his District and the Department's Public Integrity Bureau then opened a formal investigation with about 15 minutes remaining in Guidry's career.
UPDATE: Riley defends actions, calling punishment "appropriate."
New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley said that a 35-year police veteran who was reprimanded for wearing the wrong uniform shirt just 15 minutes before he was set to retire was appropriately punished. "He suffered the consequences of his actions," Riley said.
As a retired LEO, Soap Box Ravings can see that Sgt Guidry was appropriately punished. It must be true if the "chief of police" says it is.
What is impossible to believe is that the Department's Public Integrity Bureau managed to record a complaint and then start a case plus get the Sergeant suspended before his shift ended. That is fast, especially for a Department with the record of the NOPD.
I suspect the integrity of the Department's Public Integrity Bureau has been compromised. I also suspect someone is, or has, settled an old grudge and since the man with the power is black and the victim is white there may be some racism in play in this game. This is also somewhat evident because the department can't make up it's mind if he is "suspended" or "under investigation."
Soap Box Ravings feels that with what he knows of Police Superintendent Warren Riley (see the picture above) and what he does not know about Sgt Guidry; that the City of New Orleans may have retired the wrong person.
