This must stop, here, there, and everywhere.

As frequent readers here know, Ethics Alarms has been referring to the Axis of Unethical Conduct (an Ethics Alarms term, and a fair one) as a totalitarianism-leaning, anti-American phenomenon for years now, as I have tracked the frightening progress on the 2016 Ethics Train Wreck and all of its many offshoots. I have used made this point frequently and, I recognize, emphatically to the point that many object to those and related labels as inflammatory and biased, which they are not because my assessment is objective and accurate. I could also say, with justification, “If the show fits, wear it,” and even “If the shoe fits wear it, you assholes.”

Today I was sent promotional spam by my old hometown newspaper, the lone surviving conservative #2 paper in Boston (The Dominating Axis representative is the always Democratic Boston Globe) after the slow amalgam of four newspapers with long histories of service to the people of New England: The Boston Herald, the Boston Traveler, the Boston Record and the Boston American. That headline above was all I needed to spark a head explosion with several subsequent explosions that left bits of brain and bone on my keyboard and computer screen after I read the entire report.

To summarize (but do read it yourself after you’ve spread out some plastic covering so the clean-up will be easy), Joseph Abasciano, a Boston police officer with a distinguished service record, on disability status and without restrictions on his travel, went to Washington D.C. in January of 2021 to participate in some “Stop the Steal” demonstrations. While there (and before his trip) he issued several tweets from his personal Twitter account (that did not identify him as a Boston cop) taking the position that the 2020 election was stolen, supporting President Trump’s contention that the election results were corrupted, and attacking Vice President Pence for not using his position to delay the transfer of power. Officer Abasciano attended the rally on that fateful January 6 but did not participate in the riotous mob many participants in the rally subsequently brought to and into the U.S. Capitol. He did not approve of the riot, and in fact tweeted,

“What I saw today frankly made me weep for our once great nation. The Political Elitist Class has successfully turned Americans against each other. Patriots and Law Enforcement trying to do their jobs in a no win [sic] position. I fear this Treasonous election has killed the republic.”

Nonetheless, he was doxxed by another Boston cop and terminated by the Boston Police Departments on the grounds that his anonymous social media content justified firing with cause. This occurred after an initial investigation vindicated him ( a sixth grader should be able to figure out that the officer did nothing that is not fully protected by the First Amendment) after the new Boston mayor Michelle Wu, an extreme progressive, Democratic, woke ideologue with less-than minimal regard for the Constitution, appointed leftist totalitarianism-embracing police leadership. It, in turn, held its own fascist-style investigation that found Abasciano guilty of “sanctionable conduct justifying his dismissal” for undermining the mission of the Boston Police Department.

It has taken two full years for that completely illegal decision to be reversed by the Civil Service Commission. Now he has to sue for damages. The attempt to intimidate police and others in the government from daring to oppose the woke regime in Boston (and Massachusetts, and, until very recently, the nation itself) was successful. The process is the punishment for speaking out.

That this could occur in the cradle of the Revolution is terrifying, another metaphorical canary dying in the mine of democracy and liberty. The story should have been publicized nation-wide long ago, so that Wu’s sinister regime was exposed for all to see and for decent citizens to rebuke.

I challenge any Democrat, progressive, Bostonian, Wu supporter or Trump Derangement victim who thinks the newly elected president is the existential threat to democracy to defend what was done to Officer Abasciano, and to defend the currents in American politics that caused it.