the verdict of history

"Do you think I was completely wrong about the Corona Virus?" I ask.
"I'd say you were a hundred percent wrong," says the Brig.
"Do you not think I had a point about the risk of the police getting out of control?" I enquire. "I know the police are quiet at the moment. They're quiet because Chief Of Police Martin Callanan was fired after being caught trying to frame hero cop Maurice McCabe for child abuse. They're quiet because Callanan's successor as Chief Of Police Noreen O'Sullivan was fired for her complicity in Calllanan's nefarious activities and for multiple manifest and manifold corruptions of her own. They're quiet because of the discovery of the scam whereby the Police Training College was laundering money for the mafia. They're quiet because they were caught falsifying statistics for Ireland's murder rate. They're quiet because of the discovery of another of their scams whereby they claimed to have tested a million car drivers for drunk driving while no tests had taken place and the cost of the imaginary tests was again being laundered on behalf of police officers unknown. Do you not think I was even a little bit right in saying that this Corona Virus panic could give the police bad habits? Or could give them an excuse to return to some of their bad habits from the not so distant past?"
"No," says the Brig, "because if that started to happen, people would put a stop to it."
"They didn't put a stop to Kinneavey," I said grimly.