by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP<\/span><\/p>\n This column has been known to cause some stir for the politics being read into it, but mostly the column is apolitical.\u00a0 However, I am very nervous and followed the senate confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh closely.\u00a0 It started for me after the allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a teenager were well in motion.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t the sexual misconduct that caught my attention, it was the people with law degrees saying the onus of proof lies on Kavanaugh.\u00a0 In other words, the accuser should be considered telling the absolute truth and the accused should be mounting a defense, if he was even in the vicinity or can remember where he was on that specific date 35 years ago.\u00a0 Scary stuff!!\u00a0 Especially for someone who works with the public.\u00a0 And to make it even scarier, the senator from Hawaii Mazie Hirono said \u201che is very much against women\u2019s reproductive choice,\u201d therefore he must have committed the act he is accused of.\u00a0 That sent a chill down my spine.\u00a0 He has an opinion against her opinion, so he must be guilty of attempted rape.\u00a0 Imagine if they believed everything against cops that is thrown out there.\u00a0 Oh wait, they already do!!<\/span><\/p>\n If we have learned anything from Ferguson, or Freddie Gray, or any of the big cases is we must wait for an investigation, or at least the second half of the videotape.\u00a0 Essentially, a case must be investigated before it is set out in public.\u00a0 The \u201crush to judgement\u201d is something cops deal with all the time, and there is not really any training for it at this point that I am aware of.\u00a0 How do you handle being under such amazing scrutiny and now find yourself going crazy?\u00a0 It is interesting that the accusers will say you have got some guilt when you falter under scrutiny, but isn\u2019t that normal.\u00a0 The accusers will say you must have done it when you get angry or over emotional, but again that is a normal emotion to being falsely accused as well. \u00a0Then there are those that pile on with other accusation or even made up lies which will cause more emotion and more of the appearance you are just starting to lose it.\u00a0 We don\u2019t really know the truth in the first place, but the destruction an accusation can do can make an entire life unfold.<\/span><\/p>\n Okay, so I have said nothing new.\u00a0 Now let\u2019s talk about what to do if you are accused.\u00a0 F. <\/span>B. Meyer who was a famous Baptist minister in England once said: \u201cWe make a mistake in trying always to clear ourselves. We should be wiser to go straight on, humbly doing the next thing, and leaving God to vindicate us.\u201d The cops I know have a different standard: you can tell a man is guilty by the effort they put in to prove they are innocent.\u00a0 I am not sure either is right, but both should be considered.<\/span><\/p>\n I was once writing a book with a lawyer.\u00a0 We were going to call it \u201cGetting Away with Murder\u201d<\/u><\/em><\/strong> and it was about how people got away with heinous crimes by just following a few simple steps.\u00a0 We did our research and found the number one step was right out of F. B. Meyer philosophy, keep your mouth shut, deny it and go about your usual work. \u00a0\u00a0I was surprised how frequently cops try to defend themselves when confronted.\u00a0 Or start telling the story and it falls apart.\u00a0 Why does it fall apart?\u00a0 \u00a0Because the number one factor in memory is rehearsal and when something bad happens what is the most natural thing you want to do?\u00a0 Try to forget about it?\u00a0 Additionally, when you want to rehearse what do you do\u2026talk to someone, right?\u00a0 Number two major mistake.\u00a0 How many friends or girlfriend or boyfriends end up tripping up people who talked to them in desperate mode right after an event?\u00a0 If you are going to talk, go to a police psychologist who understands the need to keep privileged information, how and why stories change, or or go to a friendly lawyer if one exists.\u00a0 You have privilege with both lawyer and psychologists in a court of law.\u00a0 Privilege is the same as confidentiality except you own it and make decisions about it.\u00a0 It is easier when your union is strong as it will push the issue of keeping yourself shut down, but as a cop you still must listen to their advice to make it work.\u00a0 The problem is sometimes the training doesn\u2019t make up for the natural instinct of the body, which is to talk and forget about it.\u00a0 My agent at the time never wanted the book \u201cGetting Away with Murder<\/span><\/strong><\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 She was in the process of opening a business for mismatched socks.\u00a0 But I still think it would be a good one.<\/span><\/p>\n My first play I did at Notre Dame was a familiar one to all called \u201cThe Crucible<\/u><\/em><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 (Yes, I acted amongst other things in college.)\u00a0 It was about the Salem witch trials where a person was accused of being a witch and either had to admit it to possibly live or deny it and die.\u00a0 I was Giles Corey, an older man that was pressed to death with tons of weight rather than admit the ridiculous claims against him. \u00a0The reality, my character had a squabble over land with the person who was behind the witch accusations.\u00a0 You might say was on the wrong side of bad politics!!\u00a0 With the radical groups that have come about, cops are also \u2018Giles Corey\u2019 waiting to happen.\u00a0 Groups like the radical part of Black Lives Matter<\/u><\/em><\/strong> are looking to accuse them, and the radical parts of the \u201c#MeToo<\/u><\/em><\/strong>\u201d movement will probably produce more accusations against cops eventually.\u00a0 Radical groups always seem to have a faction that accuses cops.\u00a0 As in \u201cThe Crucible\u201d where the actors proclaim, \u201cGod is Dead,\u201d we are questioning how our country will survive this Crucible.<\/span><\/p>\n But, we will survive.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know who is right on the Kavanaugh hearings.\u00a0 Both sides have an argument and, in my eyes, and I can see them both.\u00a0 I don\u2019t like knowing that someone is living with whatever kind of memory of a sexual assault and I used to \u201clike beer\u201d too.\u00a0 What I am more interested in is that the pendulum swings back to \u201cinnocent until proven guilty\u201d because we must learn something from this entire process of the destruction of lives.\u00a0 Giles Corey\u2019s last line of his life was \u201cmore weight\u201d as he was being pressed to death.\u00a0 I hope this is not a situation where we need more weight to understand!!<\/span><\/p>\n