Daily Archives: May 25, 2011

El Segundo firefighter Michael Archambault arrested at Costco for allegedly shoplifting five products worth $354.95 (Booking Photo)

by Michael D. Robbins
Director, Public Safety Project, PublicSafetyProject.org

May 25, 2011


Michael Archambault

El Segundo firefighter Michael Joseph Archambault was arrested on April 12, 2011, for allegedly shoplifting $354.95 worth of merchandise ($389.56 counting tax) from Costco. He allegedly concealed five products in a trash can that was inside a box, paid only for the trash can, and then exited the store where he was detained and arrested.

Michael Archambault is entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. However, the information against him appears quite damning. As a sworn employee, will he be given a “professional courtesy” that is not available to every other citizen in similar circumstances? Shoplifting is a crime of moral turpitude, a disqualification for many government jobs and positions of authority and public trust. … Continue reading

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Could Firefighter’s Arrest be the Result of a Culture of Entitlement?

CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT

El Segundo firefighters and police officers have developed a culture of entitlement that has been fomented by their unions since at least the early 1990’s, if not earlier. This sense of entitlement appears even stronger among the firefighters than the police officers, although both the firefighters and police officers feel entitled to wildly excessive and unsustainable salaries, benefits, and pensions unheard of in the real world of the private sector, all on the backs of the overburdened taxpayers.

The firefighter and police unions aggressively campaign for the City Council candidates who will give them the largest salary, benefits, and pension increases in their union contracts, no matter how excessive and unsustainable, and they aggressively campaign against the candidates who support fiscal responsibility.

The El Segundo Firefighters Association (the firefighter union) has even used fear and intimidation to pressure voters into supporting their endorsed candidates. They sent out a Senior Scare Letter to elderly voters, threatening them with “the possibility of our paramedics not being available when you need them” if the three candidates they endorsed were not elected! Continue reading

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