A Lawman in Winter

You must read this great article about Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and all of the problems that he and his NYPD have been having lately.

Basically, it's the story of a great career coming slowly, painfully to an end.

Kelly has been the police commissioner since 2002. He has kept crime very low and prepared the city brilliantly against terrorist attacks. His record of service is extraordinary. No one can say he hasn't done a great job during his tenure.

And yet ... to everything there is a season. The NYPD has been caught up in so many scandals in just the last couple of years that it's hard to keep up. Kelly has had some controversies himself. Most distressing, the NYPD under his reign has gone from being a crime fighting/terrorist thwarting organization into an authoritarian gestapo. People are being busted just for the sake of it and not because it's really making the city safer. He's done his job well -- and he just can't quit.

There's something almost Shakespearean about Ray Kelly's current dilemma. Let's just hope that it ends well, both for him and the city he serves.