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Police: Upset firefighter threatened to pull a Dorner

Boston Police report a firefighter apparently unhappy at being told he was healthy enough to return to work allegedly threatened on Tuesday to use his army training to destroy anybody who got in his way:

The firefighter made the following statements to the BFD Commander, "smashing a fire truck into a wall. I am Army trained and have weapons and ammunitions in a storage locker. Dorner will be child's play." The firefighter further stated he was “upset with City Hall, Fire Department Headquarters, and the Firefighters Union Hall."

Police say detectives responded to BFD headquarters on Southampton Street Tuesday afternoon after a fire commander and a union rep got off the phone with the firefighter. Police did not identify him, but WBZ reported he was Kenneth Veiga, a 24-year BFD veteran.

Police say the firefighter was summoned for a clerk's hearing in West Roxbury District Court on March 4.

Innocent, etc.

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Comments

...retiring as a captain after a temporary promotion, right?

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Right?

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I say they give him the benefit of the doubt and let him retire now with whatever pension he has. The union pushes him to seek help for his legitimate mental health issues from serving our country oversees.

Then he faces the judicial system for his violent threats. Hopefully he gets the help he needs, and no one gets hurt.

Is it worth it for the city to fight him for the disability pension that he most certainly be seeking? I'm not sure, thats why HR people get paid the big bucks.

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I don't see where it says he was actually deployed somwhere and has PTSD or similar mental health issues because of that, just that he's an army veteran.

Do you have more accurate info?

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It may not have anything to do with military service (anyone can suffer from PTSD, even civilians and especially emergency service providers no matter their field) so that could be an irrelevant point. Clearly something is going on though, and its roots are yet to be determined.

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but I was responding to Pete's post stating this firefighter needed help with his mental health problems from military service.

I'm not making light of mental health issues, but at some point threatening to kill people seems like grounds for lawful termination of employment. In the private sector, you would almost never get to threaten your employers like this without repercussion.

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(which may be unfair), but

But I've seen some of these cases, and I'm guessing the man could at least claim he had mental health problems from being a veteran. If he was forced back to work, it most likely means it was an "on duty" injury, which would mean the city could simply deem him unfit for duty for a variety of reasons.

For "stessful" civil service jobs, your employer has the duty to get you help if you need it or request it, especially for a civil service job where the city basically has no choice but to hire you.

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I hope I am reading this wrong. But what exactly do you mean by "stressful" civil service jobs, and that the city basically has no choice but to hire you.

I would hope you recognize that the civil service jobs, especially, police, fire, ems are extremely stressful. If you've never done CPR, seen suicides, GSW's, fought a fire, drug overdoses, mangled vehicles, burn victims, homicide victims, and then go home to your family and kids as if it was just another day in the office.

In this case, logically, you're right, he will try to get some kind of pension if indeed he is to be terminated, but the way I read that, it didn't seem quite fair to depict this fire fighter as someone who was looking for a pension. Sounds like he needs some help, and yes, there are plenty of programs available.

If I just read that wrong, then sorry.
Also - I'm not looking to defend anyone, but FD, PD, and EMS signed up to do this, but that doesn't mean you can't suffer from PTSD.

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I've worked in a civil service job for over 15 years. I know the stress involved. My speculation is that this firefighter may have had problems before the city even hired him, which in my experience is true more often than not. Basically, this person may have squeeze through the cracks and should not have been hired in the first place. Firefighters, cops, and EMTs need to be mentally healthy before they even take the job, and I don't think the initial hiring/screening process does the best job in weeding out those who might not be able to handle the stress of the job.

And his words about "being in the army, dorner" etc made me speculate further that his problems may have been from things other than the job.

I also wasn't speculating about him looking for a pension, but about how the city will handle it (in another posters question about what will happen to him).

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