(Ninja M.)
We’ve gotten multiple tips from readers expressing disgust at Safeway, after an employee in California was suspended without pay for intervening in a domestic assault situation inside the store. The police called the worker a hero for stopping a man from hitting his pregnant girlfriend.
CBS 5 in San Francisco says Ryan, a meat clerk at a Safeway in the Monterey area, was going about his job when he saw a man beating his girlfriend, who is six months pregnant.
“Every few seconds he would turn around and push her and then he actually kicked her,” Ryan said. “I told him to calm down and he was just irate.”
He added that the man refused to stop, so he jumped in to break it up.
“I saw no one was intervening in the situation and I just became afraid for her safety and also other customers’ safety,” he said. “The guy was out of control and pretty much lost it in there.”
The chief of police said if the employee hadn’t done what he did, things could’ve been worse for the victim. Despite that, Ryan was suspended without pay from Safeway for violating company policy.
“We understand about policy, but at some point someone has to do something. And in my mind, in this case Ryan did the right thing,” said the police chief.
Ryan has no income and his wife is five months pregnant, but he doesn’t regret what he did.
“How many people have been injured, murdered, whatever in front of everyone because everyone looks the other way and no one wants to get involved?” he said.
A manager at a Safeway store in San Francisco told the news station that employees are supposed to contact store security or a manager if they see a conflict inside the store.
*Thanks to all our tipsters!
Monterey County Safeway Worker Suspended After Stopping Assault [CBS 5 San Francisco]
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Dude’s a hero. Period.
Having been in a similar situation, store policy is there to protect liability of both the employees, and the store itself. If the employee had gotten hurt, he could sue the store. If the attacker had gotten hurt, he could sue the store and the employee. Its a sad reality. Most stores have similar policy in place for that reason. That said, how close was he to a phone? How much time would it have taken to page over the PA: “Security to aisle __ immediately!”? First, that puts the attacker on notice, gives the employee backup to the situation, and if he does go out to do something, he’s already made the required “call” to appropriate people. In one of my jobs, we had a secret code name to page, if we suspected something, or summon that code name to an area. Only those of us in the store knew what it meant, and it worked very well. We were also smart enough to do a confrontation or “take-down” in view of a camera on purpose, which saved our rear ends a few times when people have tried to sue.
Don’t intervene: you break Good Samaritan laws
Intervene: you get fired
Great job, guys!
I understand that companies like Safeway have policies like this in place, although there mostly there to prevent themselves from being sued. But they need to realize, there are exceptions to every rule. Things are not always black & white in this world, and in between are a thousand shades of grey. Not every rule applies to every situation, and therefore a certain amount of latitude is almost always necessary. Following the rules vs. the real possibility of loosing multiple lives (the mother and the unborn child). Hmmmm doesn’t seem that hard of a decision to me. Kudos to Ryan and his heroic action and shame on Safeway for their decision to suspend him without pay. Sometimes it’s not all about the rules and Safeway needs to realize that!