Gold Star commenter Phil M contributed a doozy of a comment to Cienna's Morning News post that everyone should read.

The Seattle Times article about Seattle Police Department officer Clayton S. Powell #5776 also reveals that SPD initially misinformed the public about the August, 2012, incident in which Powell apparently used excessive force. At that time, Seattle Times reported:

A veteran Seattle police officer is under investigation after fellow officers reported he used excessive force and engaged in unprofessional conduct while responding to a disturbance Thursday night in South Seattle.

That report was backed with a quote from SPD spokesman Sean Whitcomb:

Whitcomb said Powell's actions were immediately reported by officers at the scene.

"We want people to understand that the officers on scene saw things that were unprofessional and saw what they thought was excessive use of force and they notified their boss, who notified the chain of command and immediate action was taken," Whitcomb said.

Dominic Holden followed that with two Slog posts, the first of which praised "stand-up officers who won't let this shit stand anymore."

To be fair, if I may interject for a moment, here, the second of Dominic's posts that Phil M linked to includes new information that was not available at the time of the first post. In that second post, Dominic reconsiders his earlier praise, and accuses the SPD of "reactive PR damage control," which could hardly be considered boosterism. Phil M continues:

Today, though, the Times reports:

Police initially said that other officers who responded to the shooting call reported that Powell had used excessive force and engaged in unprofessional conduct at the scene.

But police later revised their account, saying no other officer reported the conduct. Rather, a sergeant who routinely screened the arrest learned of it when he asked Powell's partner what had happened.

The partner told the sergeant to ask Powell, and when he did, Powell explained what had happened, police said.

So much for Seattle cops finally taking a stand for what's right when their colleagues abuse their positions of power.

This is an important point, and thank you, Phil, for making it.