[Cacophonous]

What ends were the police serving by not being more dismissive of the White Van Theory?

For one thing, the hope is that is would make the shooters think the police were on the wrong trail, lulling them into overconfidence...

[dirtboy]

For one thing, the hope is that is would make the shooters think the police were on the wrong trail, lulling them into overconfidence...

They had Muhammad the very next day - and let him go. Methinks what you believe could be strategy is actually incompetence.

[jimtorr]

White Van?

the hope is that is would make the shooters think the police were on the wrong trail, lulling them into overconfidence....

A problem with that idea is that all of the police officers I've heard talking say that they were only looking for a white van. It does appear that law enforcement was fixated on the white van theory.

[browardchad]

For one thing, the hope is that is would make the shooters think the police were on the wrong trail, lulling them into overconfidence...

If so, that would have been a great strategy, since they then "overconfidently" killed four people and seriously injured another after October 7. This wasn't a TV series -- though I'm beginning to wonder if the FBI, so rampant with profilers, psychologists and analysts, has lost touch with reality.

[afz400]

Or maybe the ego-maniac Moose wanted to take complete credit for the arrest, and let the public think they were helping by looking out for a white van, when in reality they were just wasting their time. Moose needs to explain why he never told anyone about the Tarot card having references to Jamaica, and constantly steered the profile to be a white male. Why did he not release the Caprice tag numbers? (CNN did). It looks to me like some fed up police officer had to leak the info to the news. I'm from Virginia, and I still can't get over how Moose felt he had the right to run a Virginia police investigation. He was put in office by Reno and Clinton to pacify the NAACP. Next time stay out of Virginia's way, Moose!

[wewillnotfail]

or at the very least, not alerting the perps to the fact that the cops were onto them? Duh....I never understood this whole idea that the public should know everything the cops do as soon as they know it because that obviously means the bad guys know it too!

[wewillnotfail]

Just to be clear, the duh was not aimed at you but at the members of the "Tell me everything NOW" crowd.