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“So a big chunk of my life is gone I can never get back,” Javal Davis said. “And the privacy that I had, never going to get it back. That was stripped from me. Marriage? Destroyed. I was ostracized on national television, you know? For what? To cover up someone’s lies, to cover up our tactics, procedures, that no one wants to own up to? My son still thinks that I was at work — he’s still too young — I’ll explain to him later on down the line, you know. My daughter, she knows. I explained it to her, and she understood. She won’t be joining the military. I don’t want to be a cop anymore. I’m done. I’m in sales. The career path that I have now, you know — comfortable. I deal with people on a regular basis. I’m not handling anyone’s problems. I’m not dealing with anything violent. So I’m business to business, all personal, ‘How you doing? I’m Javal Davis. Nice to meet you.’ Everyone’s happy. I like that. Sales. I’m a salesman.”

from Standard Operating Procedure, by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris (Penguin Press; $25.95)

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