It surely wasn't intentional, but Michigan State Police brass likely elicited a few chuckles when they recently booted a couple of law-breaking troopers to the Upper Peninsula.
Troopers Jeffrey Hadley and Donald Bolen are doing U.P. work time on the taxpayers' dime, pending results of an MSP internal probe of their crime. In November, Cheboygan post partners Hadley and Bolen illegally "shined" and shot a white-tailed deer at night, while on duty, from a state police vehicle, without a license, and two days before firearms hunting season opened.
Then they lied to cover their bloody tracks.
Both boys in blue subsequently took a few days' time-out in the Cheboygan County pokey after they pleaded guilty to poaching a monster 10-point buck.
But they're back on the job, though shunted off to the wilds of the U.P., where they may well be performing great feats of hypocrisy (writing tickets to and otherwise policing our fellow flanneled Michiganians).
Perhaps they're even investigating poachers. Which brings us to the most unwittingly comic/ironic aspect of their temporary banishment: Isn't sending poachers Hadley, 45, and Bolen, 41, to the U.P. akin to leaving the chicken coop door open to a famished fox?
Look, we don't want to cast aspersions on the good folk from the U.P., but poll the average north-of-the-bridge denizen on their favorite gourmet dish and more than a few are likely to say poached venison.
Hadley and Bolen may even become folk heroes to some, heralded for their ability to scout bucks from a vehicle, or to perfectly angle a spotlight for an efficient kill.
The temptation is to laugh off these two -- state Department of Natural Resources documents detail their post-kill buffoonery, including Hadley's bizarre attempt to enter his pilfered prize's antlers in a Cheboygan MSP post's big buck contest -- but the reality is that state police leaders need to be dead serious when they dole out punishment to these scofflaws.
The state needs to come down hard on badge-wearing criminals. A couple years ago, MSP bureaucrats famously whiffed by wrist-slapping repeat offender Dave Meder, then a trooper at the Traverse City post.
The poaching Troopers case offers a perfect opportunity to send a far stronger message, both to criminal cops and to the public.
Hadley seems least deserving of continued state employment. He lugged his personal rifle on the on-duty safari, a clear indication of premeditation. He cynically and willfully broke state laws, and lied, lied, and lied some more in the aftermath. Who'd trust him in any continuing law enforcement capacity?
State police Director Col. Peter Munoz needs to keep that thought in mind when he lays down the law.
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