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I’ve downloaded a copy of the report from the Alaska investigation. I started reading the testimonies of the people who were witnesses to the issue. They all say the same thing. Todd Palin was the one pushing the issue.

The report says that Sarah Palin handled the firing of the public safety official properly. What, then did she supposedly do wrong? She didn’t rein in her husband.

There are so many problems with this report that it might only take until morning before people expose the flaws in it. Here are a few that I spotted:

• It was Todd Palin’s behavior that was in question, not Sarah’s.
• Sarah was required to rein him in if there was a question of ethics violations, but the report shows no indication that there were any.
• The report did not recommend any charges be filed or any disciplinary action be taken against her.
• Todd’s concern, and it’s clear that it was shared by Sarah, was for the safety of her sister, her father and the people of the area where the ex-brother-in-law served as a state trooper.

Here’s the text of an e-mail sent by Sarah Palin. Remember that they found nothing wrong with how she handled the matter, only in how she handled her husband.

In sharing a few personal examples with you including the trooper who used to be related to me - the one who illegally killed the cow moose out of season, without a tag - he’s still bragging about it in my hometown and after another cop confessed to witnessing the kill, this trooper was “investigated” for over a year and merely given a slap on the wrist… though he’s out there arresting people today for the same crime! This is the same trooper who shot his 11-yr-old stepson with a taser gun, was seen drinking in his patrol car, was pulled over for drunk driving but let off by a co-worker & brags about this incident to this day… he threatened to kill his estranged wife’s parent, refused to be transferred to rural Alaska and continued to disparage native in words and tone, he continues to harass and intimidate his ex. - even after being slapped with a restraining order that was lifted when his supervisors intervened… he threatens to always be able to come out on top because he’s ‘got the badge’, etc. etc. etc.) This trooper is still out on the street, in fact he’s been promoted. It was a joke, the whole year long “investigation” of him - in fact those who passed along the serious information about him to Julia Grimes and Tandesky were threatened with legal action from the trooper’s union for speaking about it. (This is the same trooper who’s out there today telling people the new administration is going to destroy the trooper organization, and that he’d “never work for that b****, Palin”.)

Anyway - just a personal example of what I’ve personally seen out there and had to live with for two years - and this is what people in the Valley are putting up with (those many residents who know of this trooper time-bomb who’s supposed to be “protecting” them). [emphasis added]

You know what, if I were Todd Palin I would be trying to do something about this myself. I would also be concerned about how the investigation was handled.

Police forces are often ‘old boys clubs’. We know that in Tacoma, where I live. The former police chief (David Brame) was hired on the force and promoted after failing a psych. exam and harassing a female coworker. Later he was promoted to police chief by the local old boys club (the political arm). Then, when his career was threatened by his wife who talked to a reporter, he shot her in front of her children and then killed himself. She lived for a short time in a coma and then died. So, yeah, if I saw this type of thing going on, I would be concerned, too.

One of the biggest problems in domestic violence cases is when the perpetrator is a law enforcement officer or judge. This man was clearly a danger to his ex-wife and her family. The investigation, run by other state patrol officers, did nothing to solve the problem. Thanks to union lawyers a dangerous man was allowed to carry a gun and intrude into people’s live with the authority of the law.

When Todd Palin approached the head of the state patrol about the then closed investigation into that trooper’s behavior, the file he provided to him was compared to the old file to see if it could be re-opened based on any new evidence that he provided. He provided the information because he was not allowed access to the personnel files of the trooper, nor was the governor (according to testimony). The only thing that could be done was to give the information to people who had access to the file to see if anything disappeared from the file. That seems to be the intent behind Todd Palin approaching it that way. The response from those who reviewed the files was that it could not be reopened. To be honest, I would have questioned that finding myself. However, Palin’s handling of the issue in this way shows that both he and Sarah were doing everything they could within the restrictions of the law.

But the fact that there was no examination of the original investigation to see if there was any impropriety about the way that it was handled is a big concern to me. Cronyism has buried many investigations that later show up as valid and chargeable.

If I were Sarah Palin, having witnessed this and heard about these things from residents where she lived and was mayor, I would be concerned, too. And as governor, being aware of this problem, it’s her responsibility to look into it, and if she isn’t satisfied with the results, it’s her responsibility to look into it further. Even though she fired the guy over his mishandling of budget issues, I think she would have been justified in firing the guy for not dealing with a problem officer in his charge.

This report makes it clear that Sarah Palin was dealing with a problem. She was not carrying out a vendetta against a former brother-in-law. Regardless of her previous connection to the man or to those he appears to have terrorized, this problem needed to be dealt with. The testimonies in the report make it clear that she did everything she could to handle the issue properly as governor. When legal lines where shown to her she did not cross them. Even this partisan investigation came to that conclusion.

The conclusions in this report are a farce. In my opinion the evidence presented in the report does not support the conclusion. But I’ll let the legal beagles point out the details of that.

Follow-up: After pondering what I read in the report I think the whole issue comes down to one simple question: When Todd Palin pushed to get the corrupt trooper fired, was he acting in self-interest?

So let me answer that question with a question.

As a human being with family, friends, coworkers, acquaintances and even strangers living in your community, would you want a cop working in your area who:

• Violated a domestic violence restraining order against him;
• Tasered his 11 year old stepson;
• Threatened to kill his estranged father-in-law;
• Flagrantly violated the law in front of another officer and then bragged about it;
• Drank alcohol in his patrol car;
• Was pulled over for a DUI but let off by other officers;
• Openly derided ethnic minorities?

So was Todd Palin acting in self-interest in his efforts to get this guy fired? You would have to think that he’s cold and heartless to not be moved with compassion for the people of his community.

The report assumes that he was acting in self-interest and then condemns Sarah Palin, as governor, for not taking action to stop him. I don’t know what he was thinking, but I think it’s safe to say that no one else does either. And clearly his actions would help others in the community, not just him and his family.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 1:15 am and is filed under Abuse, BlogNetNews.com, Campaign 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.