A law-enforcement official who abuses his power by intimidating those he regulates, who hands out disproportionate penalties to select groups, whose misconduct merits a lecture by a federal judge, who conducts personal business on company time and/or equipment — and, through it all brags openly that he is accountable to no one — would, in a sane and just world, get punished.
That means suspended without pay, perhaps demoted, perhaps even fired.
But not in the "Through-the-Looking-Glass" world of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. There, he gets protected — "reassigned," rather than removed from the payroll for obvious betrayals of the public trust.
That, in brief, is the story of Andrew Cohen, who until last week was the federal fisheries police agent in charge of the Northeast region, anchored at Gloucester's NOAA headquarters in Blackburn Industrial Park.
Read the complete story from the Gloucester Times.