I have to say, the criticism of our Dec. 24 editorial on cops and steroids surprised me.
All the editorial, which I wrote, said was that law enforcement has an obvious steroid problem, and it should stop ignoring it.
The Star-Ledger recently documented it, and the leaders of the two biggest police unions acknowledged it by agreeing that steroids should be added to the list of drugs that officers are subject to random tests for.
The editorial wasn't particularly disrespectful. It did note that steroids make people aggressive, and that's dangerous when the guy taking the steroids is a cop. But that's just true.
I will, however, admit the timing was unfortunate. The editorial ran on Christmas Eve and stayed up on the website through Christmas because we don't run a new editorial on Saturdays. And Christmas, of course, is a time when most people want to be home with their families, and when a good number of police officers are not. They are on the streets, working.
But all the editorial did was state an obvious fact well known to many. There's nothing wrong with that.
Look, a good number of journalists are arrogrant jerks who always think they are the smartest person in the room and rarely are.
My father said that to me when I went to work for a newspaper 30 years ago. He wasn't wrong. It's an uncomfortable truth, but it is a truth. And I take no offense at someone pointing it out.
I don't know why police officers get so upset when someone points out a truth about their profession.
