Amazing that the Almanac is not considering the Dick Winant situation a real loss for Atherton. When this Stanford researcher alleged he was abused by members of the Atherton police department who decided not to body cam the event, the police department (aided and abetted by a complicit town manager and city council) determined it could not properly investigate his allegations because it was unable to interview the officers – even though it waited for months after the complaint was filed before the officers "left" the department.

Maybe Mr. Winant was mistreated, and it's even possible he was the wrongdoer here, but we expect a well-managed (and highly expensive) police department to investigate serious misconduct allegations in a professional way. This was anything but. It was a sham.

The loser? The citizens of Atherton, because their police department received tolerance for a sham investigation when it should have resulted in some major sanctions.