It must be oddly freeing to have an ongoing, very public work-related crisis, because Officer Andrew Cohen seems to have a lot to say these days. And why the heck not? It's an interesting opportunity to take a look into the mind of what a veteran police officer -- one that no longer has to play politics -- really thinks.

On Friday, the Chron ran a story about an incident at a ballgame. As the article states: "The San Francisco Police Department removed a 12-year veteran from street duty . . .after an initial investigation into complaints that the officer had struck a Giants fan in the face without provocation during a recent game . . ." The struck fan was a 24-year-old Marine Reserve corporal; the officer, Anton Collins, who usually patrols the 'Loin, was temporarily reassigned pending an investigation as to whether Collins used unnecessary force.

"Reassigned pending an investigation" is something that Officer Cohen knows a thing or two about. In his opinion, we (being the general public) should lay off a little and "stop biting the hand that saves (us)." We won't reprint his letter in its entirety -- it's very long -- but you can check it out on his Web site, www.insidethesfpd.com.

Among the highlights, in our opinion, are his insights that:
-- What happened wasn’t highly unusual, but because somebody took a picture or video of it, it became newsworthy.
-- The officer's attempt to deal with the fan was at the request of an usher, these fan ejections are common at every game, and Giants/Dodgers games are more rowdy (and drunk) than usual -- thus officers tend to be on higher alert.
-- Cohen is in favor of holding back judgment -- he believes it likely that "something happened in a split second which caused Anton to feel threatened," reminds us that an officer's own safety is of high importance, and that Anton’s actions may have been justified.

One of the other main points involves public relations -- or the lack thereof.