My Letter To Walgreens

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Good store, bad policies...

As many of you are aware, the Walgreens company recently fired a pharmacist for defending his life and the lives of others during an armed robbery attempt at one of their Michigan stores.  The bloggosphere immediately started talking about this event and I certainly felt it my duty to write the company and share my displeasure with them of how they handled the situation.  I've started my own private boycott of their company and I urge anyone who believes in rights, self defense, honor, and decency to join me until such time as they apologize by offering this man his job back in good standing.  Below is my letter to Walgreens.  It has to go via snail mail as it's too large to submit via their customer service form.

Dear Walgreens,

I'm writing to you in regards to the recent firing of pharmacist Jeremy Hoven for violating company policy on  May 8th at 4:30 a.m.  During this incident Mr. Hoven not only saved several lives, which is really of the utmost importance, but he also prevented loss to your company by preventing a robbery.  Normally these would be things that the American public would tend to call heroic and valiant.  Now, I am fully aware that all companies require policies in order to run effectively.  I certainly understand that violating a company policy can lead to disciplinary action up to and including termination.  Most often these policies leave room for some discretion on the part of the company so they have some latitude in how they handle the discipline of the employee.  Obviously, a worker who comes up $10 short at the register will likely not be treated the same as one who purposely embezzles or cleans out the til one evening.  And of course, the character of the employee is normally taken into account when dealing with such situations.

Company policies are not law and are primarily there for the benefit of the company.  How a company enforces its policies shows a lot about the character of that company.  This is especially true when a very public event occurs that puts your company and your policy in the public spotlight.  In my opinion you have shown poor judgement and a remarkable lack of character in your handling of this situation.  Your policy attempts to abridge a persons legal constitutional rights as well as any persons God given right to self defense.  Even a person of modest intelligence could see from the situation that unfolded that morning that it was highly likely innocent people were going to die if Mr. Hoven took no action.  And yet, you enforced "company policy" to its maximum limit in order to what?  Punish Mr. Hoven for defending himself and others?  Prove how serious you are about "policy enforcement"?


I must inform your company that I too have policies. They tend to be enforced at my discretion as well.  I am, as Mr. Hoven is, a licensed concealed weapons carrier.  I regularly exercise my 2nd Amendment rights under our legal system.  I take a very dim view of companies who don't support the constitutional rights of the American people.  I take an even dimmer view of a company that follows "policy" to an unreasonable and extreme end in a situation that literally begs for discretion.  Sadly, in my area I have two choices for local pharmacy stores like yours.  That would be CVS and yours, Walgreens.  I've always thought highly of Walgreens and never had a bad thought about shopping there.  I would, given the choice, choose your store over others.  As of today however, I'm afraid that I must exercise my policy and no longer do business with your company due to the poor application of your policy toward Mr. Hoven.


One last thing I would like to point out to your company regarding an incident like this.  You have just angered an enormous number of people, myself included, by your actions.  People who take the Constitution's 2nd Amendment seriously, who take the right to self defense seriously are a large, thoughtful, and passionate population of the highest law abiding character.  The NRA boasts over 4 million members currently.  There are an estimated 80 million gun owners in this country.  Over the course of the last 20 years all but two states have enacted some form of legislation legalizing concealed and open carry.  Professional anti-gun rights organizations have been reduced to sniveling, ineffective, irrelevant paid hacks, while amateur gun rights promoters freely give of their time and energy to promote our rights.  They are also a large group with instantaneous communication ability and a very large audience.  An audience that tends to marry words and principles with action to defend those.  You, Walgreens, have angered them.  The vast majority of this population works hard and spends money.  They pay attention to things like this and act accordingly.  You won't see protests or pickets from these people.  You will and have already gotten a barrage of letters condemning your actions.  I also suspect you will see a drop in profits at a time in our economy when that can be ill afforded.  Your shareholders might not appreciate that.


As of this moment I consider myself and my family personally boycotting your company.  I also call for a boycott of your company by everyone who believes in the God given, constitutionally protected, right to self defense.  This boycott will be lifted only when Walgreens apologizes to Mr. Hoven for the overzelous enforcement of its company policy and offers him his position back in good standing with your company.


Sincerely,


Signature




A few links for those wishing to read more on the story.


http://www.freep.com/article/20110510/NEWS06/105100429/Worker-gun-turns-tables-bandits-Walgreens


http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2011/05/18/local_news/4820927.txt