While I support Palin, I can answer why the commissioner did not fire the trooper. The incidents had happened before he was commissioner and the previous commissioner handled the discipline. this commissioner declined to reopen the case since it did not happen while he was in charge and he thought it was unfair to punish the man twice.Charles L. Cotton wrote:(Not that it's relevant, but one must wonder why the Alaska Public Safety Commissioner wouldn't fire a trooper when an official departmental investigation found that the trooper 1) used a taser on this stepson; and 2) had been guilty of drinking in his patrol car. (See, CNN article.)
I have no idea why the original commissioner did not fire the trooper to begin with. Drinking in a patrol car is a firing offense in any other department I know of.
From what I read of the report on Palin, the commissioner was properly and legally fired over budget disputes, as Palin stated. The so-called ethics violation was that she remembered the family dispute and it might have helped her decide to fire him. This may have been done for "personal gain".