Wait, what?
I need help understanding something. I'm just a fragile woman, spirit broken by the patriarchy, and I lack the analytical skills that society unfairly assumes are the only valid cognitive skill for assessing difficult life problems. My glorious feminine intuition isn't up to the task of grasping how a city's police force can be disqualified by "conflict of interest" from investigating the claims of a prominent state official whose son is on the City Council. I'm not sure which party is involved, is that important? Can you big strong men help me? And then I need you to move a couch. Then shut up.
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6 comments:
Let me see if I can couch this plainly.
Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. Just go make me a sammich, and bring me a beer along with it.
Eric Hines
Thanks, honey-bunny! I figured it wasn't important.
To attempt a serious answer to your question, I suspect the reasoning runs something like this: the city attorney is beholden to the city council and Ellison's son, as a member of that council is, sort of, her boss. The cops declined to investigate because in some sort of tenuous chain of command kind of thing, they work for the state's AG, the position for which Ellison is running.
A slightly stronger argument would be based on the appearance of a conflict of interest concern. The appearance is a serious thing. When I was on active duty, USAF regulations made the mere appearance of a conflict of interest a crime. USAF officers had to be above suspicion. I suspect the officers of the other services faced the same requirement.
That's all I got on this.
Eric Hines
I have to disagree, though. If there's a conflict, it's one that puts the onus on the City Council member (Ellison's son) to resign. In other words, he sees that his dad should be investigated, but his own city is paralyzed and unable to do so because they're afraid it would offend him. It's not the cops who have a conflict of interest here. They might as well say they have a conflict of interest because they can't bear to be mean to a political fellow-traveller, in which case they ought not only to recuse themselves from this specific investigation but disband altogether.
I mean, what's next? We can't investigate the mayor for embezzlement, because we voted for him and don't like his likely successor? What if the police chief's daughter runs for mayor? Does she get a pass on her speeding tickets openly? Do they have to bring in an outside law enforcement agency to give her a citation?
“No controlling legal authority”?
If there's a conflict, it's one that puts the onus on the City Council member....
Hence your confusion. In which I join. However, these guys' argument isn't serious. Instead, it's time to turn the blackguards out.
Eric Hines
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