The Globe Buries the Lede
Like all good New Englanders, we love to read about public servants who get fired for gross incompetence. This morning, the Globe ran a story with the headline “Officials move to fire dispatcher accused of falling asleep on job.”
Horace White, a dispatcher for the city of Boston, was suspended after he dozed off and didn’t respond to emergency officials’ pleas for equipment at the scene of a fatal accident. He had also been suspended for one day back in March when he fell asleep while on the clock. That looks pretty bad, right?
But that’s nothing compared to the information revealed in the seventh paragraph of the story.
But [Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce] said officials moved to fire him after they learned he had allegedly doused the porch of a Dorchester home with gasoline and lit it on fire on June 4, while three young children were upstairs.
Listen, we’re all about public safety working as efficiently as possible, but the dude (allegedly) doused a building with gasoline and tried to light it on fire. No wonder he’s falling asleep on the job—he’s busy being a crazy bastard when he’s off the clock.
We’ve got to give credit to the Herald, which put the pertinent information front and center.
A Boston public works employee suspended twice for sleeping on the job faces firing after allegedly torching a Mattapan home in a boozy spat over a necklace, authorities said.
This is why we need two daily papers.