The Moose Is Loose

Moose Resigns as Montgomery Police Chief [washingtonpost.com] During the Washington sniper crisis of October 2002, Charles Moose, Mongomery County police chief, became a media star with his daily press briefings, especially his coded communications to the snipers. Then the County ethics board nixed his contract to write a book, saying it is unethical for a public employee to "profit" individually from his official duties.

What a bunch of crap. These sorts of things have been going on for decades, from Vincent Bugliosi and the Tate-Labianca (Charles Manson) murders to Marcia Clark and the O.J. Simpson trial. It's a little different from "Son of Sam" laws, that confiscate royalties earned by convicted murders on books about their crimes. And the consequence here is that the public has lost a valued career officer. Bad result.

 Posted by glenn