Be that as it may, what you’d want to say if the street cops had no idea who the kid was is something like “We have yet to see any evidence that these connections influenced how the officer on the scene chose to handle the incident.”
Saying there’s no evidence of a “city official directing the officer on the scene” is really specific wording that leaves open the possibility that:
- The cops DID know who he was and treated him accordingly
- A city official directed the dispatcher, who directed the officer on the scene
- A city official informed the officer on scene that the suspect was their child, and that he was a good boy with a bright future, but didn’t specifically direct them to take any action.
And so on. To me, the specificity suggests that they want to issue a blanket denial but not get caught in a lie, so they said something that’s literally true without actually saying “his family had nothing to do with how he was treated.”
