Sound Politics: Mistakes were made

March 30, 2007

Mistakes were made

Today's Seattle Times reports that "Cops' alleged lie leaves 17 cases in jeopardy"

Questions over the credibility of two decorated Seattle police officers have led to the dismissal of one felony drug case and threatened the prosecution of at least 17 others, including federal drug and gun charges, authorities said Thursday.

Officers Gregory Neubert and Michael Tietjen are under investigation for allegedly lying in written reports and during questioning by department detectives, according to a law-enforcement source who is familiar with the case.

What's the big deal here? Mistakes happen in every police department. There is zero evidence that these decorated officers intended to put imperfect information in their reports. All of this innuendo about the credibility of our police is irresponsible. Why should these decorated officers be investigated?

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at March 30, 2007 02:32 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Are you serious? These cops apparently filed demonstrably false reports, jepordizing their testimony in a number of felony cases. When cops make mistakes, justice suffers. They must be discouraged from doing so ... just as election officials and ballot counters must be.

Posted by: Stan Shore on March 30, 2007 02:52 PM

2. Stan,

Stefan's comment is an attempt at sarcasm; or at least I hope so.

Posted by: Don on March 30, 2007 03:02 PM

3. Why?

Aside from the libs tendancy to pander to criminals?

The cases should proceed if there is enough evidence aside from the testimony of the officers
to warrant a trial.

If not, the perps walk and IMO the cases were weak in the first place.

Posted by: Jack Burton on March 30, 2007 03:07 PM

4. Jack,

Cops lie. These two guys were making so many busts, a reasonable person could believe some of the defendants were set up.

Posted by: Don on March 30, 2007 03:22 PM

5. I'm a reasonable person who's lives in Belltown. These officers don't need to "set up" defendants - they are hardly touching the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cleaning up the prolific drug dealing in the area.

Posted by: TedS on March 30, 2007 05:19 PM

6. TedS,

Not saying they needed to set up people; just that it looks like they might have. Does not change the conclusion that cops are not to be trusted.

Our founding fathers didn't trust judges, so why should we trust cops.

Posted by: Don on March 30, 2007 05:22 PM

7. our police department is nothing if it is not a slice of out community. you sound ignorant when you say, 'cops are not to be trusted and cops lie'. I'm sure that some do, probably a very small proportion...I'm sure less than the general populace.

As far as setting up defendants...dude you watch too much tv and your grasp of reality is slipping!!!!

Posted by: pj on March 31, 2007 07:03 PM

8. our police department is nothing if it is not a slice of out the community. you sound ignorant when you say, 'cops are not to be trusted and cops lie'. I'm sure that some do, probably a very small proportion...I'm sure less than the general populace.

As far as setting up defendants...dude you watch too much tv and your grasp of reality is slipping!!!!

Posted by: pj on March 31, 2007 07:04 PM