Dead Silence

That's exactly what we've gotten from the Coon Rapids Police Department, the Anoka County Attorney's Office, and the Minnesota State Patrol concerning the road-rage incident apparently precipitated by "Officer Friendly" (as he's come to be known) of the Robbinsdale, MN police department. Professional? Sounds more and more like a "thin blue line" coverup to me.

I say "apparently precipitated" because it's been a solid month, and we haven't heard one sentence from these fine people regarding the investigation and possible charges against anyone in the case. I'm assuming that if Martin Treptow, the man with his wife and two young children in his car who shot the officer had been in any infintesimal way responsible for this incident ending up the way it did, that he would already have been charged with everything the county attorney could throw at him, as well as put him through the obligatory humilitating perp walk. Instead, Mr. Treptow is a free man today, and still in possession of his handgun carry permit. That is starting to mean more and more to me as this case drags on.

Andrew Rothman and Joel Rosenberg of the Twin Cities Carry Forum, a local activist site (Full disclosure: I know and have worked with both men on other cases) have done yeoman work in trying to get to the bottom of things, but they have been met with resistance and stonewalling at every turn. Every document that they've managed to pry out of the "authorities" so far has been obtained only after great gnashing of teeth and pouting by the agencies involved, even though the information is public, and subject to the Minnesota Data Practices Act. Joel has a great summary on his blog of what they've been able to obtain to date, and some of it is really eye-opening. Here's my take:

1. Mr. Treptow seems to do everything correctly, according to the 911 transcripts. He removes himself and his family from danger, stops a few blocks away, calls 911 and reports the incident, along with the fact that he has two small children in the car, and waits calmly for police to arrive.

What does he get for his efforts? Every cop within 50 square miles drops everything and tears off in "pursuit" of Mr. Treptow, even though he's sitting and waiting for them at a gas station. The dispatcher also somehow fails to communicate to the responding hordes that Treptow has his kids in the car, which means that lots of armed men with adrenaline pumping are racing to a situation without knowing that fact, putting said children in mortal danger.

2. Initially, Mr. Treptow is identified on the transcripts as the "caller". As soon as the fact becomes known that an off-duty cop is also involved, Treptow somehow magically starts becoming labeled as the "suspect", even though he initiated the 911 call, and the other party never called at all. How does the simple fact that another party in the incident happens to be a cop for a living mean that the civilian automatically becomes the bad guy in the situation? That's awfully presumptuous to me, and it's starting to look like it was flat out wrong in this incident. So much for investigating things fairly, and equal protection under the law. Just because someone is a police officer shouldn't get them a free pass. They're just as capable as anyone else of committing crimes and stupid behavior, and shouldn't be able to start out 6 miles ahead of another party in terms of benefit of the doubt in a dispute.

3. About that "off duty" status: The day the incident happened, Chief Wayne Shellum of the Robbinsdale Police Department took great pains to let everyone know that the officer involved was on duty and undercover when the incident took place. Why, then, is the officer continually identified as off-duty in the transcripts, and any supposed undercover work is never mentioned at all? I think that Joel's right, and that good Chief Shellum is going to have a lot of 'splainin' to do. There's nothing wrong with standing behind your officers, Chief. There's a lot wrong with defending your officer's actions before the gun in this case is even cool, and even more wrong with "fudging" (I'm being generous here) your officer's status in order to possibly color the investigation, as well as the media coverage.

Based on what I've been able to discover about the case thanks to the efforts of people like Andrew and Joel, I've decided that Martin Treptow is the innocent party in this case, and deserving of financial assistance to help offset his legal costs. Here's the information:

Donations can be mailed, in the couple's name [ed: "Martin and Rebecca Treptow" ], to Anoka Hennepin Credit Union, 3505 Northdale Blvd. N.W., Coon Rapids, MN 55448.

Am I wrong about this, Anoka County Attorney Robert Johnson? Well, how about giving me some results to convince me otherwise?

I'll be waiting right here, whenever you're ready.