A city out of control

What’s going on in the city of Cohoes is not normal, not only because the mayor is, for all appearances, out of control, but because the police department is doing nothing about it. And worse: The mayor runs the very department that’s supposed to investigate any crimes he may have committed.

Mayor Shawn Morse adamantly refuses to resign in the face of domestic abuse allegations, despite calls from state and county leaders of his own Democratic party. He certainly needs investigating. But so does the Cohoes Police Department.

To believe Mayor Morse’s version of events demands one disbelieve all his accusers:

His wife, who signed an affidavit saying he attacked her repeatedly over their 19-year marriage.

His daughter, who told a teacher and Child Protective Services last year that he attacked her.

A former girlfriend, who says he abused her often in the 1990s, once grabbing her by throat and carrying her that way until she broke free.

A pharmacist who is now a member of the state Assembly, who said he saw Mr. Morse drag a woman out of his store by her hair in the late 1980s.

Oh, and the mayor’s own face, which a Times Union photograph last year showed bore a scratch — which he denied having — from the reported fight with his wife — which he denied occurred — that had prompted her to call 911 to report he attacked her — which he said she did not, the tape of that call notwithstanding.

And the police force he runs goes along with it. Or looks the other way. Or arrests a critic of the mayor’s over a spat on Facebook. Or, according to the ex-girlfriend whom he allegedly grabbed by the throat, just tells him, “Go home, Shawn.”

The allegations span three decades, over the course of which Mr. Morse wielded varying degrees of authority, influence, and power. He was a city firefighter, a union official, a county legislator, chairman of the Albany County Legislature, and now both mayor and — because he hasn’t filled the vacancy — police commissioner.

Which makes the most recent allegations against him more than physical abuse. Denying his alleged victims the protection every citizen of Cohoes deserves is an abuse of public office, and arguably an abuse of their civil rights.

Mr. Morse says he won’t step down, but will let voters decide in next year’s election. That’s too long for citizens to wait while a bully with a police force behind him does as he pleases.

To his credit, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has asked the State Police to reopen their investigation into the abuse allegations against Mr. Morse. But this needs to go further. The governor should ask the U.S. Justice Department to look into possible civil rights violations by a mayor and police department running Cohoes as if it’s one man’s personal fief, where he can abuse his subjects with impunity.

It is not normal. It is dangerous. And it has gone on far too long. It cannot go another year.