Some friend he is

Apparently, a boyhood friend of Ramsey County Sheriff candidate Bill Finney has been taking advantage of that friendship over the course of their entire lives. This article provides a lot of evidence that Aaron Foster has had the benefit of having a powerful "rabbi" (cop lingo) such as Finney, both in his personal and professional life. It's not Finney's fault for having an acquaintance that seems to straddle a mighty fine line of acceptable behavior, but the covering up of these transgressions is Finney's fault, as it enabled and probably tacitly encouraged this pattern of behavior.

Why is a civilian impound-lot employee authorized to carry a gun on the job, as well as drive a squad car to work every day? Are any other impound lot employees granted the same privileges? I highly doubt it.

Why was Finney, then a police sergeant, present at the woman's autopsy, when a different agency was investigating the case? He maintains that he "couldn't believe she was dead", and that's why he was there. A veteran officer that couldn't believe someone had died violently? That's tough to swallow. Sounds like a compromised investigation for him to be there at all, based on his friendship with a prime suspect in the case.

Sheriff Bob Fletcher doesn't get off scot free here, either. He has no authority to question whether a carry permit should be granted to Foster or not. Foster sounds like a pretty rotten guy, but he has not been convicted of a crime, therefore Fletcher has no discretion over granting his permit. If he thinks Foster doesn't qualify, he can deny the permit, and then defend his decision in court should Foster challenge it. Oh, right, the Sheriff's Office has to pay the legal fees if they lose. Never mind. The law was changed in 2003 to prevent just this sort of arbitrary discretion. Foster is a bad example, but once you let the sheriff be the final arbiter of who gets a permit, the process is abused for law-abiding citizens. Fletcher, along with the majority of metro-area chiefs and sheriffs, abused his discretion, that's why it was taken away from him.

A side note to Mara Gottfried, the author of the article: it isn't a concealed weapons permit, it's a carry permit. There is no requirement to conceal in Minnesota.