All tech and media posts will be to Kindred Crowd, including one today on "saving the music album."

I'm troubled by this story. Occasionally, police organizations take the view that a work-related punishment -- such as a suspension, demotion, or firing -- is to be equated with a civil or criminal punishment, such as a fine or prison sentence, etc.

This is not the same thing. Police departments that have human resources functions cannot view those functions as part of the criminal or civil justice system. It is an abuse of position for the justice system (in this case, the Attorney General's office) to argue that an officer has suffered enough by his or her diminished career prospects (that is not made explicit in the case linked to above)

Certainly, a drunk driver who kills an innocent person would always argue against prison time and in favour of being demoted at their non-police job as, e.g., a sales clerk, a movie-ticket taker, a lawyer, a senior executive of a company ... a Captain in the military. But that option is never available, of course, to drunk drivers whose actions cause death and who are not police officers; and it should not be for police officers either.