First, I’d like to reference a couple of videos that I have referred to before…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
and
Among the things that you will learn from those videos – which feature an Attorney and a Police Officer telling you….
The police and prosecutors CAN and WILL use everything you say against you – including twisting it around in any way possible to make it look bad for you.
If they already consider you a “person of interest”, you can gain NOTHING by talking to them.
The police can and will lie to you (and to the media and to the public).
In recent weeks we have seen the West Valley City Police Department go out and “search” for Susan Powell near Elko, serve a search warrant at the present home of Josh Powell in Washington State, and now “search” again for Susan Powell near Topaz Mountain.
The first time it was easy to tell it was bogus.
No calls for volunteers to assist with the search
Over such a large area that would have been very smart. Plus, local volunteers would know the area much better than LEO’s from hundreds of miles away.
They invited the media and cameras along.
Would they have done that if they REALLY expected to find her body out there?
They were going WAY too fast in the examples where they had the media photo them on their ATV’s.
A real, serious search would have been much more coordinated and meticulous.
They said that they photographed and documented all of the mine shafts they cleared.
Police don’t photograph locations that have no evidence. They only care if there IS evidence. The photos and everything were for the benefit of the media and the public to make it look good.
Many of us pointed these things out when asked by the local media. That was a red herring, a show to see if Josh Powell reacted in some way.
What they were doing was playing the “Hot, Warm, Cold” game, and watching to see if Josh freaked out or otherwise told them “hot”. They then went and took his computers and other items to see what they could find out.
Then this week they start another “search” out near Topaz Mountain. This time they did it a little differently…
No media out on the search with them – they are in the area but not with the actual search party.
This makes it look more real.
They make a show of having “cadaver dogs” out there with them.
Are all of those dog teams real cadaver dogs, or only one or two real teams and the rest out there to make it look good? They learned from the last show that it wasn’t good enough, and that people didn’t buy it.
They claim to have “found bones”.
This was the test. Did Josh freak out? Apparently not.
They initially said that the ME was on the way, then they said that the ME would be out the next day.
Then they said that the ME would come out if an archeologist determined that the bones were modern – versus cowboy, pioneer, or Native American.
If they really thought they had something, I wouldn’t see the ME waiting. They wouldn’t want to risk anything. The ME would have been out there in a heartbeat – as well as the FBI, etc.
Then they say that there aren’t really any bones (when they already said there were) and now it’s just the hit from the cadaver dogs.
But digging hasn’t revealed anything yet. Honestly, I don’t know if I believe there was even a hit by the dogs.
It makes you have to question if there really was a hit of any sort, or if these are yet more – well, lies – designed to try to get a reaction out of Josh Powell. And that brings us to the crux of the issue.
Is doing what they seem to be – playing this “hot, warm, cold” game – fair to the Powell family?
Is this going to end up eroding the confidence that the public has in the West Valley City PD?
Her father flew to Utah when the “discovery” was announced. If they are indeed lying about this to try to get a reaction from Josh, this is certainly cruel to her family.
Some people will say “Well, if Josh would just talk to the police, he could save them the heartache”. To those people I will refer you to the videos I mentioned at the beginning of the article. What if he is innocent? Talking to them won’t help him.
They have the responsibility to focus on ALL avenues of investigation, they can’t hold off on the others until he is ruled out. They make it sound like they can’t do anything else until he talks to them. That’s incorrect.
The overall bigger issue is this – if it turns out that this was indeed another red herring from the WVCPD, is it eroding public confidence in them? Can we really trust in what the police tell us?
I guess that the good thing that can come from this is bringing to the public awareness that the police CAN and WILL lie to you, to the media, and to the public in general. Now that the public is aware of this, it might make them better jurors.
Knowing what you know now, take a look at this article again…
http://blog.icarryutah.com/2010/05/31/probable-cause-statements-information-and-belief/
Next time you hear something reported or hear about a Probable Cause Statement, remember that the media is reporting what the police told them. Is it all true? Is any of it even factually correct? Most likely not. Keep an open mind.