Several years ago, I worked for the local police department in a sweet job in the warrants and booking department, the office of which was located inside the jail building. I was stoked to work there, having just started taking college classes for Criminal Justice. Bonus- I worked graveyard, which, while being hell on one's social life, was the most exciting time to be in that job, and paid a small shift differential.
A couple of the chicks on my shift were kinda ghetto- baby mama types who got government assistance. I have no idea what their qualifications were to get hired, but they had both been there since before I started.
One of them, Robyn, was about five months pregnant with baby number two by baby daddy number two. She admitted laughingly to everyone that she wasn't sure which of three guys was the father. She also regularly knew the various thugs and gangbanger types we booked in- some of them were exboyfriends. Class act, I know. Also, she didn't even have custody of her first kid- a toddler that her mother was raising.
Robyn was a party type, and openly had continued partying (drinking and smoking, both Newports and pot) during her pregnancy. One night, she had a bag of weed in her purse, and cracked herself up by showing it to me and a couple of other girls in the office.
I was furious. Despite my better judgment, I contacted my supervisor and told her. Another girl in my office, Shannon, did the same thing.
If I knew how it would wind up, I would have skipped chain of command altogether and called in a police officer. In case you don't know, bringing contraband into a jail is a felony.
But I didn't call an officer. I went through chain of command. Next thing you know, several days later, end of shift comes around (7:45 a.m.) and the supervisor comes in to get me, Robyn, and Shannon. We were all three taken to the city physician for a drug test. Yep, I turned in a drug user/bringer of pot into the jail, and I got to go pee in a cup.
Needless to say, Robyn tested positive for marijuana, and Shannon and I were clean. So what was her punishment, you ask? Was she unceremoniously sacked? The answer, sadly, is no. After a snow-job to the department shrinks, Robyn got to keep her job. Her only punishment was two weeks' suspension, for which she got to use her vacation and comp time that she'd been saving for maternity leave.
When she returned, she and her ghetto friend started harassing me regularly- whispering loudly to themselves that I was gonna get my ass kicked. My supervisor was totally lame in the whole mess, so I requested a change to day shift. Day shift I got, losing that shift differential pay and also the excitement that graveyard had brought. I resigned less than three months later.
(Posted by Skwerly)
Was this in Atlanta? My god, I can definitely relate to your dilemma. I used to work at a title law firm with the "ghetto mamas", where they contributed absolutely nothing but chaos. The attorneys were too chickensh*t to fire them for fear of a discrimination lawsuit. Man, those ghetto b*tches would get away with murder!! Needless to say, they made life so miserable for me and other co-workers that we went off to greener pastures.