Police perjury (or testilying in United States police slang) is the act of a police officer giving false testimony. It is typically used in a criminal trial to "make the case" against a defendant who the police believe to be guilty when minor irregularities during the suspect's arrest or search threaten to result in acquittal on a technicality.
Famous quotes containing the words police and/or perjury:
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I do not allow myself to be moved by anything except the law. If there has been a mistake in the law, or if I think there has been perjury or injustice, I will weigh the petition most carefully, but I do not permit myself to be moved by more harrowing details, and I try to treat each case as if I was reviewing it or hearing it for the first time from the bench.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)