I want to point out again, as I have on numerous occasions, that it is not the fact of whether he did or did not do this that seems important to me most of the time. Although I believe the news reports indicate he hasn’t really commented one way or another, I would expect that he would deny the truth of the accusation.

What I think matters most is that (being as I would assume he believes himself to be innocent of what he has been accused of), he doesn’t have more appreciation of the principle that people are innocent of crimes of which they’ve been accused unless proven otherwise in a court of law.

I, for one, keep bringing this up because in news conference after news conference, he seems hell-bent on poisoning the minds of potential jurors, because he makes accusations and provides the police department’s one side of the story.

In my personal opinion, most of the time, other than the fact that someone has been arrested for a crime, few details should be broadcast prior to a trial. Accused persons are supposed to be tried in a court of law, following procedures and rules regarding evidence which have been developed over hundreds of years of experience as to what allows for a fair trial.

Trying people in the press is a good way to up the number of innocent people being convicted. It serves no other real purpose. It is almost always purely police propaganda.

One year ago I was defending Fresno Police and Chief Dyer in particular. But, then my home was burglarized and I had to deal with the Fresno Police Department in ways that most people never do.

22 firearms were stolen from my home in three separate burglaries. And, there was a VERY serious attempted invasion by force while I was at home. If I had not been well prepared to confron armed criminals, the attempt would have been successful and I might not be able to write this.

Fresno Police refused to respond to the home invasion attempt and refused to collect important evidence (fingerprints, shoe prints, etc). Over a four month period, NONE of the calls I placed to Fresno police detectives were returned until I started complaining VERY vocally to friends of mine that work with them. When I finally recieved the one return phone call (after weeks of calling), the detective told me that FPD would be happy to raid and search any home if I could give them a name or address of anyone I suspect. But, they still would not come to my hoase to collect evidence.

When I realized (and confirmed) that the serial numbers of my stolen firearms had not been reported to BATF, and FPD would not return my phone calls about the serial numbers i had been able to obtain, I called the mayors office.

After calling the Mayors office, another detective called to tell me that he was not going to let anyone tell him what to do and if I continued complaining to the mayor, he would find a reason to put me and/or my son in jail.

When two (of the 4)Oakland police officers were killed by a rifle that might have been mine, i called Oakland PD. Oakland PD was WONDERFUL! They confirmed that Fresno PD had still not reported my firearms to BATF. They confirmed the serial numbers i gave them and those provided by the gun dealers I purchased them from. They forwarded this informato to FPD and got an Oakland area BATF agent involved.

Oakland PD and BATF provided information to Fresno PD confirming the information that I had provided. They also confirmed that the selling dealers had tried to give the information (serial numbers) to FPD but that the FPD detective had refused to accept it. After all of that the Fresno PD detective wrote a letter to the Mayors office claiming that the firearms dealers claimed that I had never purchased any firearms from them!

Several months after the burglaries, one burglary report was apparently “modified” to eliminate any mention of one of the stolen handguns. A month later that same firearm was recovered by one of the few honest FPD officers. that officer called me to ask, among other things, why i had not reported it stolen. He was very sympathetic and, without prodding conceded that a full 50% of FPD officers lack the integrity to serve in a job of public trust. He went even further by claiming that MANY FPD officers are continuously involved in criminal activities. He then asked me to understand that 50%, including himself, are honest and doing the best they can under the circumstances.

FPD refuses to return my phone calls about the my recovered handgun. Thankfully, Oakland PD and BATF have documented that I did indeed report that firearm stolen. Thankfully, one of the firearms dealers saw the “red flags” and documented their attempt to provide evidense of my firearms purchases top the FPD officer who claimed I was lieing about ever purchasing those firearms.

Fresno has no criminals as dangerous or dispicable as those who are wearing police uniforms. And our new Mayor doesn’t seem to care.

These “men” and “women” are the ultimate cowards and should be in prison. They falsly claim to put their lives at risk for us when their jobs are actually statistically safer that that of a typical salesman, truck driver, farm worker, etc.

They are no better than school yard bullies with the principal on their side. They are too lazy to “work”, too cowardly to do anything without overwhelming and innappropriate force.

It’s ironic that many who feel the need to defend police officers seem to miss the point that I’m not attacking all police officers. In fact, nearly every time I say something about the police, it has to do with systemic issues stated as generalities and what is wrong with the system; I’m not attacking particular police officers at all.

I happen to know some quite honorable police officers for whom I have a lot of respect. I don’t always agree with how they do their jobs, or with their particular view on the world, but that doesn’t change how I feel about them as human beings.

Nevertheless, police officers aren’t gods. They’re human beings. Human beings make mistakes. Human beings give in to the temptation to make themselves look good even when they’ve made mistakes. Human beings with power to do so can, will and do sometimes lie, twist the truth, or otherwise stack the deck against the wrong people. If “the good guys” are so honorable, why is getting discovery and evidence one of the number one issues in courtrooms today? (DAs have a big part in this, but it starts with the police, many of whom don’t always turn things over even to the DAs quickly enough.)

Furthermore, do you folks who feel I’m so damned unfair to the police actually not read paragraphs like this, taken from the post above?

I want to be clear about what I’m not saying here: I’m not saying that all police officers are crooks, liars, criminals. Cases like each of these I’ve linked above should serve to remind us that police officers are human beings. Human beings not infrequently look out for their own interests. Not all police officers are crooks, but police officers are ideally situated to abuse the power we, the People, have given them. It’s no surprise, then, that they frequently do abuse this power.

Do you just skip over it when I say things like this because you think any criticism of “the police” is a bad thing and any negative statement made about the police, however true it is, shows that I’m prejudiced?

The majority of police officers are decent people. However, even decent people are human beings. And all human beings are subject to abusing power when it is given to them. When you combine that with the cheerleaders who believe the police can never, ever, not even once do anything wrong, you’ve got a great potential societal danger.

That’s why the power of government — of which the police are the actual power! — was deliberately limited by our Founders.

Finally, I’m a criminal defense attorney. I get to see a lot of police officers. I get to see them in situations where, as I’ve said, there is a great temptation for even the best of them to tell what they consider to be “little white lies” to make sure “the guilty people they arrested” get convicted. But isn’t the purpose of a trial to determine if, in fact, the accused person is actually guilty? Isn’t the purpose of a trial to get at the truth? Do the cheerleaders who visit here forget that this system was set up the way it is on purpose because our Founders well understood the tendency to jump to conclusions and the need for an adversarial-type trial?

The hardcore among you who so love to tell me I’m biased, unfair, need an invitation to get a different view and so on: you only prove the wisdom of the Founders and my points.

I suppose for that, I should thank you.

Assuming that you mean attorneys whose personal and political aims result in them ignoring their clients rights and (therefore) providing ineffective assistance of counsel, I’d agree that they are frightening. I’m not sure if they’re “as frightening as police officers who abuse their power,” though. Bad attorneys only impact the clients who come to them and, to some extent, the system of justice; bad officers affect our entire society. The damage they do is more pervasive and more serious.

Jerry Dyer faces criticism from me specifically because he is not a very good officer; he is not “capable, courageous, and dedicated [as a] leader.” A leader would be an exemplar for the people he leads. Dyer is not that. And not just because of his past history — people can change and, if he had, he should be forgiven for his past — he is not an exemplar because he encourages his people towards a militaristic approach to their jobs. From what I can see, he does little to stop the abuse of power within his ranks and encourages favoritism and, if the stories are true, racism.

There are, indeed, very good police officers. I, too, am grateful for them.

But if you want to talk about something scarier than the bad police officers, which exist in too many (and increasing) numbers, it’s people who, like the citizens of Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, stand by, do nothing and make excuses for the fascistic portions of their government as they gain strength.

That there are good officers doing their jobs with honor does not mean we should ignore the realities I discussed in this article.

Sure, there are corrupt officers, just as there are corrupt attorneys and corrupt workers in every single profession. BUT there are also very good police officers, for whom I am very grateful. And as a Valley resident, I consider Jerry Dyer to be a very good officer, and a very capable, courageous, and dedicated leader, with a very difficult job in which he must constantly face criticsm from people such as yourself.

I am thankful for the bravery, courage, and dedication of police officers, even though I know there are police officers who abuse their power. There are teachers who molest their students, parents who abuse their children, company employees who commit fraud, and attorneys who accept bribes. And the list goes on. In every walk of life and every profession, there will be those who abuse and misuse their “power.”

And personally, I find dishonorable attorneys and/or attorneys with personal and/or political agendas that they place above Constitutional rights and laws to be just as frightening as police officers who abuse their power.