(Newswire.net — November 3, 2014) — ATLANTA —Kenneth Tate finally got a job that he loves, working as a $42,000-a-year private security guard at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The highlight of his career was when he was assigned to accompany US president Obama when he visited the CDC.
It was not only that Mr. Tate’s bosses had entrusted him with such an important task, it was that, as an African-American born in Chicago, he was going to meet the nation’s first black president, a man he deeply admired.
At the end of an perfect day at job, Tate escorted Obama and the Secret service to a presidential limousine aka “Beast”, and decided to take a picture on his cellphone as a memento.
Suddenly, all hell broke loose. The agents first jumped on Tate pulling him away from the limo, than angrily complained of it to his boss. At that moment, Tate lost his job.
“This was unjust and has been a nightmare,” Mr. Tate, 47, said in an interview last week. “I’ve tried to rationalize it. It won’t go away.”
It was not only Tate, however, who lost his job over this incident. Apparently, while pulling him off the Beast, Secret Service agents discovered that Tate was armed with a CDC-issued firearm. He even rode armed in an elevator with Obama. Since it was a serious violation of Secret Service protocols, Secret Service Director Pierson did not reported the incident, until answering on the Capitol Hill of another security breach when a man armed with knife jumped over the fence and reached the White House entrance before he was arrested.
The next day, Ms. Pierson resigned, however, Mr. Tate believes that he is the real victim.
“From the reports, I was some stranger that entered the elevator,” he said in an interview.
According to Tate, the day president Obama traveled to the CDC was not different than the any other day. He was issued a 40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun and two magazine clips and he had holstered the weapon on his belt under his suit jacket.
Mr. Tate said he did nothing wrong therefore he does not deserve to be punished. He was not aware of the protocol and did everything by the book. Well, except that photo, but he didn’t know that he shouldn’t take a picture.
Day before, Mr. Tate won $800 playing his birthday digits in the lottery. Now unemployed, he looks back with sadness on the day he met the president.
“It was something to tell my mom — if I meet him everything will be complete,” he said. “I didn’t know it was going to be my job.”