Deliberate silence has its role in certain aspects of interrogation. I successfully used a long silent ride back to the police station in the dark in a car full of homicide detectives I’d discreetly told not to utter a single word, to keep perfectly silent in the presence of the young man in handcuffs sitting next to me, to let him stew while he used his knees to wipe his tears. I used this silent treatment to scare an easy confession out of this non-shooter accomplice we had just seized from his girlfriend’s apartment in the serious wounding of a patrol cop in the head by a .22 rifle in a
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