13 April—The refrain of the Policeman’s Song in Gilbert & Sullivan’s comic opera The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert wrote the words) is: “When constabulary duty’s to be done, a policeman’s lot is not a happy one.”

Obviously Gilbert didn’t have Connecticut State Police in mind.

Take former State Police Sgt. John McDonald, for instance. Please. He should be behind bars and we certainly don’t want him. Remember when, driving drunk, he sped through a stop sign and caused a major automobile accident resulting in permanent physical damage to one of his victims in 2019?

Remember how McDonald, evidently sober enough after eight beers to know how to do an end run around the law, left the scene of the crime [sic—it was far more than just an accident] so he couldn’t be breath-tested on the spot?

Remember how the prosecutor, Jeffrey Doskos, cut a deal with McDonald that allowed the criminally offensive cop to keep his job and his pension?

Remember how McDonald quit the force last fall after being caught lying in his “alternative duties”?

Well, now that criminal scumbag is trying to get some time cut off the minimal probation that he should never have been given in the first place. Why should it matter? I have no idea, but obviously McDonald has something up his bent sleeve that he can’t commit while on probation.

The Connecticut transparency website, which provides information on individual pay and pensions, among other things, doesn’t list former CSP Sgt. John McDonald for anything, so you’d figure he’s not getting or won’t be getting anything from the state. But not so fast.

He is a former state cop, after all, who has managed to take full advantage of and abuse everyone and everything in and out of the system. So we must keep checking.

One wonders if any punishment has been meted out to McDonald’s fellow fuzz who were getting drunk along with him, against CSP regs. FOI law has recently been modified to enhance the privacy of errant police officers.

All we know is that the brewery in Oxford where the cops got drunk has settled litigation—even though I’m sure the unlawfully imbibing law-enforcement officers didn’t give the brewery personnel a choice and the state law about a bar’s responsibility is unreasonable in all events.

Litigation against the state is pending.

The fact remains, however, that if John McDonald hadn’t been a state police officer, just a civilian, he’d have been arrested and treated like any other drunken scum. Same with his drinking buddies and other state cops who break the law. For obvious reasons, prosecutors tend to have an incestuous relationship with cops. And judges tend to respect cops and prosecutors. Or perhaps fear them.

It all accrues to the detriment of justice and the perception of justice. And when scumbags like John McDonald can get away with all manner of mayhem that must offend even his former colleagues, how can the rest of us respect the system?