There's no justice here
I used to be a relatively frequent contributor to the local paper's Letters to the Editor; so frequent, in fact, that some of my letters were passed over to give others a chance to have their voices heard.
When the electronic version of the paper came out, readers were invited to post their reactions online. Fortunately, because there was no need to "make space" in the printed edition, all opinions were welcome. That is, until some impolite and undereducated people started using the online comments as their bully-pulpit and starting spewing spam.
The paper's reaction was to remove the capability to post comments anonymously - in order to comment, you had to have a Facebook account. Although I question why some people would say things on Facebook that they would never say in person (despite the fact that comments on Facebook have more permanence), my real problem with that website (and other social media sites) is the amount of personal information that is available to determined hackers. So, I don't have a Facebook account, or a Twitter account, LinkedIn profile, ...
And because of that, I can no longer post my opinions in the local newspaper.
The story I most want to comment on is the current trial of police officers accused of covering up the misdeeds of one of their own. As the evidence mounts, and it becomes more and more clear that severe repercussions will befall those officers who abused the public trust, the most senior of the officers charged has decided to resign.
He states that the "stress" placed upon him during the period between the alleged offense and the current trial has made him too unhealthy to continue in his job. He has decided to retire, two months shy of the trial's next court date. By retiring, he will automatically have all charges against him dropped. Why? Because the charges are laid by a departmental disciplinary committee. And if he's no longer a cop, he's no longer bound by their rules.
Without a guilty plea or a guilty verdict, there is no way the disciplinary committee can revoke or reduce his pension; or reduce his rank (thereby affecting the amount of his pension). He knows that. He's taking the same dishonourable path as his former boss, the Police Commissioner, who also resigned to avoid facing disciplinary action.
I don't know the law well enough to say whether a policeman can be brought up on criminal charges for obstructing justice. I do know that it's unlikely this officer will face any jail time for his alleged offense.
What I hope is that the victim of police violence at the heart of this affair will have standing to sue this corrupt officer in civil court for his role in the coverup.