Good cop - bad cop

The trial against the lone survivor of the German neo-nazi trio and aiders and abetters made international headlines last year and has since receded in the eyes of the world.

It is still chugging along in Munich, Germany, and we reported a couple of times on this blog.

Meanwhile, in Erfurt, Thuringia....

There is a striking account in today's German press that we feel worth sharing.

A policeman is on the witness stand at another event related to the trail, and one brief sentence of his testimony should be chiseled onto the walls of agencies and companies everywhere.

We are talking about an investigative parliamentary committee in the city of Erfurt, the state capital of Thuringia.

Then I decided to remember

The court is dealing with alleged interference into the investigation by the then state police chief of the state of Thuringia.

Specifically, the commissioner is thought to have made a phone call telling his subordinates to "look into a tip" regarding the location of one of the suspects in the murder spree and to "ensure it leads nowhere".

But none of the police officers today can recall the one minute call of ten years ago with certainty. I'm sorry, I really don't recall.
A call by the commissioner in person, a once in a decade or once in a life event, and memory loss ensues?

The man who received the call initially decides to say what his colleagues did: I am not sure. On the stand, he explains that he was conflicted about earlier statements, that he talked it through with younger colleagues and made the decision to remember.

If you have lived for a couple of decades, you have made the decision to remember and the decision to not remember. Maybe at work, maybe in your personal life.

Generally, we tiptoe around this subject, preferring to keep "remembering" and "decision" very much apart. "Remembering"  is benign, not a willfull conscious act, so Freud and the legal system tell us.  It is easy to pretend that the vagaries of memory manifested itself.

Standing tall requires courage and integrity, and acknowledging the temptation of the easy way out is courageous.
 
Where good cop is not an act for once.