2-3-4 Challenge Book Discussions #1 discussion

Frank fears he will lose his job once they discover the news of his inheritance and he does. The reaction was swift and his former colleagues turned on him. Your thoughts about their behavior?

Its as though his inheritance has put him into another social class and he is not acceptable any more. I guess jealousy of his good fortune would not help either.

It was swift and mean. I can understand being envious but they immediately turned on him, like they never worked with him. The class divide must really have been awful.

I think Frank's earlier transformation to be an honest cop, whom Teddy Roosevelt recognized, already made the other policemen jealous of him. He no longer took bribes, so when he came into a huge amount of money, they had a really good excuse to turn on him. It was vicious, but he responded with grace -- amazing man!

Great point, Charlene. The fact that he no longer accepted bribes had to make them suspicious of him.

He did respond well. Just took it on the chin, let it go and tried to keep the investigation going.

I agree with Charlene. Frank was already a bit of an outcast within the police department. They were just waiting for a good reason to get rid of him. Too bad the workers didn't have basic rights back then. He could have fought for his job if he wanted it back. But now he is better off without them.

Do you think anyone would have supported him keeping his job if he’d fought for it?

Maybe a handful of minority cops. That would probably be the only ones.

Perhaps I'm just too familiar with the camaraderie between police officers today, so it was surprising to me how quickly they turned on him.

I agree that it was jealousy that dictated their actions and, as Charlene said, the others disliked the fact that Frank had the integrity to stop taking bribes, It must have seemed like he was rubbing their faces in their corruption.

I think that Chief O'Brien and Gino Dontallei would have fought for him but they are the minority.

It seems that they’d already believed he was no longer “one of them,” which meant they didn’t trust him. Still, that freeze out was remarkable!

Jonetta wrote: Still, that freeze out was remarkable! "

Yes, it was instantaneous!