I’ve always liked Scott Holman, the former Cloquet detective who is now suing the city and others after being fired from the police department. I mentioned to former mayor Dave Hallbeck the other day that Scott and I have always had a healthy fear of each other. That made the mayor laugh, probably because he knew exactly what I meant: Sgt. Holman could be an intimidating figure, but I think he respected the different perspective I had on the issues. At least, I hope he did.

Officer Holman ran for mayor years ago when Cloquet was debating design standards, police dogs and sales tax. He did...