loquitur

Look, cops lie. I have seen it over and over again. I'm not a criminal defense lawyer, but even from my bit of remove from the criminal justice system, I have seen cops lie. They claim to be doing it for a good reason, but there's just no excuse for it. They also know, because they also have to testify all the time, that it's really really <i><b>really</i></b> rare that they get caught and punished for it. That's why they do it.

There was a case very recently, I forget where, that involved a cop testifying he had never interviewed the 17-y.o. defendant before his parents arrived. Turns out that the kid turned on the "record" function on his PDA when the cop was interrogating him, and it picked up the cop's voice, and (I think) the time stamp. The cop was cross-examined at the trial and now his career is pretty much destroyed. The kid got jail time. But I think this is a GOOD thing - the cops should know that "big brother" is watching <i><b>them</i></b>, too. (Does anyone recall seeing the news stories about this?)

This comes back to my larger point that I tend to make a lot: accountability is critical. Everyone in a position of responsibility or power should feel that they are being scrutinized -- and that goes from the lowliest clerk who has the power to deep-six your application all the way up to the President (who <i><b>is</i></b> scrutinized).

And let me just point out, this is a systemic issue that has existed for decades. It has next to nothing to do with Bush.