We donʻt know if Mayor Rick Blangiardi threatened former Honolulu Police Chief Joe Logan and his family.

Logan says it happened. Blangiardi says it didnʻt.

Logan’s claims would be a lot stronger if there was audio or cell phone video of the alleged threatening. Anyone who has ever taken their crazy ex to court knows that.

But if it did happen, shouldn’t the police chief be the very person to tell a bully to knock it off because he’s not afraid?

Right?

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Instead, Logan is suing the city saying that Blangiardi caused him emotional distress.

Okay, let’s pretend it did go down like Logan says and that Blangiardi said some mean stuff.

In that hypothetical scenario, some people would see surrendering to the bully’s demand as the smart thing to do because family is more important than things like pride or doing what you think is right.

But others would make a different choice. Some would stand their ground. Some might say, “Nah, that doesn’t work with me.” Some might even smirk and mutter, “Come at me, bro.”

Not because they’re physically imposing. Not because they don’t have much to lose. But because of things like character and inner strength.

But not Joe Logan. He capitulated. He didn’t even have the skills or presence of mind to negotiate his own golden parachute. He left the meeting without securing a payout deal for himself, and then went running to a lawyer about suffering from severe emotional distress.

And that’s why Joe Logan was a wrong number from the start. The chief of police should not be the type of person who responds to verbal threats by first acquiescing, then crying to their spouse, then hiring an attorney nobody has ever heard of to file a lawsuit because their feelings were hurt.

A police chief is supposed to be the kind of person who would stand up to a bully, be it a street thug terrorizing the community or an elected official who is after his job.

Let’s be clear here: Logan is accusing Blangiardi not of threatening violence or financial ruin or anything of the sort. Logan says he was scared that Blangiardi would plant embarrassing stories about him in the media.

Oh fer cryin’ out loud. This is 2025. None of that stuff sticks anymore.

Logan never understood that chief of police is largely an outward-facing position. It’s not enough to sit at a desk and look at spreadsheets like the administrator of a private company. It’s about rallying the troops and being the face of law and order to the people of this island. It’s about standing up to bullies of all stripes for the people who can’t do it for themselves. It’s about inspiring confidence in the department and a feeling in the community that someone good and solid and courageous is looking out for our families.

After the lawsuit was filed came the press conference called by Logan’s attorney in which Logan’s wife held his hand while Logan sat silent but looked pretty unhappy about the whole thing. What was the purpose of that media event since Logan didn’t answer any questions?  If Logan was trying to win public sympathy in order to get a big payout, it fell flat. Nobody feels sorry for a police chief who got scared in a meeting. The taxpayers should not be shaken down for a retirement package that Logan didn’t have the skills or moxie to negotiate for himself in that fated meeting with the mayor.

Logan’s lawsuit uses the term “whistleblower retaliation and infliction of emotional distress.”

We think of a whistleblower as a brave person who reports unsafe working conditions, like, “Hey, nobody changed the oil in the fryer for the last five years” or “there are no working toilets in the building.” A whistleblower is usually someone who is standing up for their colleagues or the members of the public that their employer affects. A whistleblower isn’t someone who blows their own whistle for something that hurt their feelings.

Logan wants people to think he was a victim because he got talked to a little rough. How did a person like that ever become the chief of police? When the rest of us little civilians get bullied or threatened, our recourse is to call the police. We assume that, by nature and by training, they won’t be afraid.

But this isn’t about feelings, it’s about money. Logan wants to get paid for the part of the job that he doesn’t get to do, the two years that were left on his contract and a $250,000 bonus on top of that, a sum close to $800,000.

He says he was worried about how the mayor would make him look in the media, but he’s the one making himself look petty and greedy and small. He’s done the damage to himself.