The St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners' bungling doesn't get enough attention. The best defense for beleaguered St. Louis County Police Chief Mary Barton is that she had nothing to do with hiring Police Chief Mary Barton. On the job for slightly more than ten months, Barton’s tenure can charitably be described as a no-good, dirty-rotten experience for all concerned. But it’s the St. Louis County Board of Police Commissioners — not Barton — that owns the curious decision to miscast her in a role for which she’s so obviously ill suited. Last spring, the board inexplicably passed over an obviously more qualified candidate in Lt. Col. Troy Doyle, widely viewed within the department (and on the outside) as the likely successor to retiring Chief Jon Belmar. Doyle is suing the county for race discrimination over having been snubbed for a white candidate with less rank and experience in Barton.