supervisor's order

Officers were drilled on teamwork, trained to respond to a supervisor's orders and never to react to a simple taunt.

But when Mr. Williams refused to comply with the supervisor's order to remove it, he was told to leave until he was ready to follow instructions.

Mr. Selman, who joined the department in August 1993, was suspended and eventually dismissed on Jan. 11 for failing to follow a supervisor's order, said Officer Robert Samuel, a police spokesman.

"A fireman made his way up to the apartment against his supervisor's orders and he didn't even know I was there until he stepped on my foot - I wasn't wearing shoes - and I cried out.

But that might be changing, he said, citing a recent ruling by the California Supreme Court, which agreed to hear an employment lawsuit brought by a former L'Oreal manager who ignored a supervisor's order to fire a cosmetics saleswoman and hire someone more attractive.

He should have known there would be something screwy, that just maybe he would find himself not a shop steward or a crew supervisor but a slave driver working men sixteen-hour days nonstop for two weeks to meet the district supervisor's order: 'We don't care what else isn't ready.

He had been on restricted duty in the police motor pool in Woodside, Queens, since 1993, when he was ordered to give up his gun after allegedly striking a fellow officer and disregarding a supervisor's order, the police and his lawyer, Michael Hardy, said.