A significant portion of my job responsibilities was to serve as an advisor.  I joke that I served kings and fools.  The former in a figurative sense and the latter in a definitely literal sense.

Most definitely.

On several occasions, the definitions overlapped.  The last Deputy Commissioner I served under was a small man in every sense of the word.  Insecure, he would surround himself with mainly women in his inner circle, and the occasional yes-man.  He excluded pretty much all of the uniformed commanders in the command.  When I explained some pretty egregious errors involving public safety, threats to officers, and even national security, he would laugh and pooh-pooh what I said.  Which makes no sense because what I defended weren’t originally my positions or thoughts, but rather the views of the prior Deputy Commissioners of Legal and Counterterrorism / Intelligence, and the Chief of Detectives.  Kings.

Basically, this “king” was just a top-level secretary.  He would make sexual jokes during staff meetings, say the N-word (quoting a source but utterly unnecessary and just a show of power), focus on making pins and T-shirts, boast about his Tesla, and give out “commands” like mail out the documents.

I was so ashamed to be in the presence of this man.  My Chief asked me once about a staff meeting where he was conspicuously absent and what was discussed.  I replied everything and nothing.  Chief chuckled and says quite apt.

Kings and fools.