Fired for gun confiscation?
McGraw, according to the transcript, then asked Nagin, “He (Compass) said that you were concerned about image and that you criticized him for showing emotion including on my show. You know, when I asked you about it and we talked before, I said, ‘Was he fired?’ and you said, ‘No, he wasn’t fired.’ And I said, ‘If he hadn’t wanted to quit, he would still be here?’ and you said, ‘Yes, he would have.’”
Responding, Nagin said this: “And I still stand by that. But he had to agree to step down because we were starting to get lawsuits.”
McGraw asked, “What kind of comments were bringing lawsuits?”
And Nagin replied, “Well, he made a comment about something with guns and the NRA fired up. And it was just a comment that kind of got us in trouble.…”
The “comment” at the center of this firestorm was Compass’ announcement that nobody other than law enforcement would be allowed to have guns. He was quoted by various news organizations declaring, “No one is allowed to be armed. We’re going to take all the guns.”
September 26th, 2006 at 11:07 am
It’s pretty clear that he wasn’t fired for the gun confiscations, but rather as an indirect result of it. Nagin clearly supported and defended (and perhaps even ordered) the confiscations. Compass was most certainly NOT fired for what he did. He was fired as a matter of political expediency to help Nagin survive the civil rights violations scandal and resultant lawsuits and stay in power.
In any event, he got a lot less than he deserved. Too bad Nagin will never pay for his crimes.