A video of two off-duty Massachusetts State Police troopers brawling inside a Quincy bar is the latest black eye for the embattled agency — and a disgraced former prosecutor is using it to redirect attention from her own ethics record.
The stakes are straightforward: taxpayers fund this department, and they deserve competent policing. Instead, they're getting bar fights caught on camera and a revolving cast of progressive activists weaponizing every scandal to undermine law enforcement institutions from the inside.
The video, posted by the Instagram account What's the Word? — which has roughly 330,000 followers — shows two men seated at the bar at Reel House, a seaside restaurant in Quincy. The man in the dark shirt stands, approaches the man in the white shirt, and punches him approximately six times in the head. The seated man slumps, apparently unconscious. The bartender covers her mouth. Patrons rush in.
Both men are state troopers, according to the social media post. MSP confirmed Sunday that the agency is aware of the video. The purported aggressor has been relieved of duty pending a formal duty-status hearing, and the Office of Professional Integrity and Accountability is investigating. The department called the conduct "serious and inconsistent with the standards required of every member of this Department, whether on duty or off duty." Neither trooper has been identified.
Enter Rachael Rollins — the former Suffolk DA and U.S. Attorney who resigned in disgrace amid federal investigations into her own misconduct. Rollins took to social media to attack the entire department.
"Who in the hell is in charge of the MASS STATE POLICE?" Rollins posted. "Objectively, we have the most dysfunctional State Police Department in the country. Can MSP be put into RECEIVERSHIP?! Where do these Troopers work? Who vetted & hired them?"
The Boston Herald noted Rollins' own history: she was forced out as U.S. Attorney after federal investigations into her misconduct. MassLive did not mention Rollins' ethics record in its coverage, focusing instead on the incident itself and the MSP's formal response.
Rollins also used the moment to attack Norfolk County DA Michael Morrissey over former Trooper Michael Proctor, whose racist texts surfaced during the Karen Read trials and related lawsuits. "HOW DOES DA MORRISSEY STILL HAVE A TAX PAYER FUNDED, STATE JOB!?" she posted, adding: "Apparently, incompetent men get a pass."
This is the progressive prosecutor playbook in action: win office by promising reform, violate the rules yourself, resign in disgrace, then blame the cops when the institution you helped erode shows cracks. Rollins oversaw this department as Suffolk DA. She was the top federal prosecutor in the state. The dysfunction she now decries festered on her watch.
No honest observer disputes that MSP has real problems. The Proctor texts, the Karen Read saga, the Sandra Birchmore case — these aren't trivial. But the person shouting loudest about the rot is one who contributed to it and was caught violating the public trust herself.
The open question: who actually holds both the troopers and the prosecutors accountable when the people in charge of accountability keep proving they can't police themselves?
