In 2003, Jim Singleton, former chief of police in Pine Bluff Arkansas, was shot in the ankle and knocked in the head while patting down a suspect. He sustained permanent injuries to his ankle as well as brain damage and as a result, he must walk with a cane, suffers from frequent migraine headaches, and his thinking is impaired. After serving the Pine Bluff community for years and sustaining serious injuries on the job, Singleton felt he deserved to retire with dignity and left the force and applied for disability benefits. Five years later, however, The Morning News reports that Singleton is still in the midst of a legal battle over his disability benefits. The state Worker's Compensation Commission has twice voted to deny Singleton any benefits but both times, the state appeals court overruled the commission. The case has now gone all the way to the Arkansas Supreme Court, where, strangely, Wal-Mart and other large corporations have filed briefings arguing that the former officer should receive no disability benefits. Singleton remains baffled as to why Wal-Mart has gotten involved:

"That just blows me out of the water," he said. "I have no clue. My attorney told me, and I couldn't understand it. I don't know why they're getting involved."

The reason Wal-Mart is involved, it turns out, is their fear that this case could serve as a precedent, potentially threatening their own bottom line down the road:

Harper [Singleton's Attorney] said the "big boys" are interested in the case because they fear the Court of Appeals' rulings will set a precedent that will allow more people to collect on disability claims.

In other words, Wal-Mart is pushing for the state to deny an injured police officer the disability benefits to which the Appeals court has ruled he is entitled in order to ensure that they don't have to provide disability benefits to more of their own injured employees. After the Debbie Shank fiasco I didn't think Wal-Mart could get any worse, but they have proved me wrong and taken their greed to a whole new level.

Kenneth Harper, Singleton's Attorney, summed up the case perfectly with these words:

"I really think it's just an ugly situation"

Indeed it is, and Wal-Mart should be ashamed of themselves.