Friday, July 23, 2010

A welcome break in the "thin blue line"

Stoughton, Massachusetts police officer Richard Bennett has been forced to resign after he was found to have left his assigned patrol area to visit a local strip club to have a look at "Bridget the Midget", a porn star who was appearing there.

That outcome is probably as it should be, since Bennett was already in hot water over installing an unapproved laser sight on his duty pistol and then fibbing to his superiors about doing so.

What we find heartening about this incident is the significant number of Bennett's colleagues who refused to cover for his unauthorized little trip to Titillationville:

"Bennett stepped down after five officers reported he left his patrol to ogle Bridget the Midget, a 3-feet, 9-inch tall porn star, Stoughton Police Chief Paul Shastany said. Bennett was also facing discipline for putting an unapproved laser scope on his gun and lying to investigators, Shastany said.

Bennett, who was honored by the department in June for his work in helping catch an accused killer, installed a laser sight on his department-issued handgun and then lied to investigators about it, the chief said."  (emphasis ours)

Bravo to those officers for not covering for Bennett's juvenile butt simply because he happened to be a fellow cop.  Behavior such as this should not be tolerated in any workplace but especially not in law-enforcement, where seconds can make a critical difference in response times to crimes in progress.

1 comment:

P said...

When reporters get basic facts wrong like things about a "laser scope" it puts the rest of the story in doubt.