It's hard to recount all the ways Caren Turner self-destructed along Route 9W, but suffice it to say she didn't earn any gold stars as a mother, as a lawyer, as a citizen of Tenafly, or as a rational human being.

But as the chairman of the Ethics Committee for that carnival of corruption and incompetence known as the Port Authority, she demonstrated that she was born for that job.

She's lost that position now, forced out after her boorish performance in front of a police dash cam, while trying to explain to two cops from Tenafly's patrol unit why they should swoon in her presence.

And we should not let this example of civic engagement pass without acknowledging the equanimity of these two officers, who were clearly well-trained in the de-escalation of situations involving arrogant bullies.

It helped, of course, that they knew the law much better than the blathering lawyer.

The cops pulled over a Toyota that had front tinted windows and a partially-blocked license plate on Easter weekend, and subsequently learned that the three occupants - including Turner's daughter and "Ph.D. students from MIT and Yale!" - could not produce a registration or proof of insurance.

You'd think with a whole car full of brainpower, they'd have remembered to get the car registered.

So the cops were right to impound the car and were under no obligation to explain that to Turner, who pressed the issue to F-bomb extremes.

Remarkably, the officers absorbed the rant and never flinched.

We have been conditioned to believe there is a disposition toward hostility and egotism in individuals who are drawn to police work. But we too often overlook the integrity in the majority of cops who exemplify professionalism while under the onslaught of aberrant behavior.

Even Turner's sponsor marked this as a superb example of that professionalism: "She acted completely inappropriately, and her resignation was appropriate," said a perplexed Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, who endorsed Turner for the Port Authority board last year.

"And the cops were completely respectful, they were acting within the law by saying that she should ask the driver, because the driver is responsible for the infraction. That's what makes this whole thing so irrational."

The important takeaway from Turner's meltdown was her attempt to shame the two cops because they had "ruined" the Easter holiday for "a lot of people," overlooking the part that these cops were spending their own Easter weekend on the side of a road getting berated by the village idiot.

One officer replied, "I would hope as a commissioner that you'd understand the job police officers have to do."

Not likely. Clearly, Turner was unencumbered by clue.

But if just a few more of us understand their jobs a little better today, it will have made this vulgar ego trip up Route 9W worth it.

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