The Scarlet Letter & Other Tales Of Woe
A couple of days ago over at Probable Cause: The Legal Blog with the Really Low Standard of Review, I alluded to the fact that ideas for blogging come to me faster than I am able to keep up. Although I don’t get nearly enough time to write, I’m constantly sending myself email messages from my phone saying, “blog about this!” or “blog about that!” Then when the time comes, I feel almost overwhelmed with all I want to say and have difficulty deciding how to focus.
Today is such a day.
The War on Rights
Well, I’m sure you noticed that this place you’ve arrived at is known as “Fresno Criminal Defense.” So I’m also sure you’re not expecting me to write about the War in Iraq, or Afghanistan, nor will I — as I did yesterday — have anything to say about the Mexican-American War, although actually all those countries have some kind of tie-in with the War about which I will write: a War we are losing in every possible way.
A War, in fact, which we cannot win. Because to win, you see, we’d have to be something other than what we are…
A Modern Professional Police Force
Four years ago, Justice Scalia of the United States Supreme Court laughingly suggested that “the increasing professionalism of police forces” meant that the deterrent effect of the Exclusionary Rule the courts had previously applied to violations of constitutional rights, particularly the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures, was not really necessary anymore. (See Hudson v. Michigan (2006) 547 U.S. 586; ignore the fact that Scalia had to twist the source he relied upon to arrive at his conclusion.)
“[M]odern police forces are staffed with professionals,” Scalia said.
If Fresno police chief Jerry Dyer gets his way, well, if this ever was true — and I seriously doubt it ever was — it certainly will not be going forward.
Slashbucklers
Recently, the Fresno Bee reported that the “S.F. crime lab [was] overwhelmed.” (Terry Collins, “S.F. Crime lab overwhelmed” (March 31, 2010) Fresno Bee, p. A9.) The link, by the way, provides the same story as the print version, but dated a day earlier and with a different title.
A couple of days ago, the Visalia Times-Delta, which is apparently a newspaper intended as a local daily equivalent to the National Enquirer, or some other piece-of-crap rag, trumpeted the complaint that a new “[l]aw frees some violent inmates.” Of course, you can’t completely blame the Times-Delta for the sensationalism on this story: it’s a slight modification of the headline accompanying the online version of the yellow journalism of the AP story. Like the Bee story, by the way, the online AP story is dated one day earlier than the print version.
Both stories demonstrate the effects of budgetary meltdown; both hint, at least inchoately, at the cause: too many crimes (thus too many criminals) and all our money is being spent on prisons instead of providing education so people will be less likely to commit these crimes. This is a non-sustainable path to anyone’s idea of a better society. We simply cannot keep building and staffing prisons, no matter how badly we want to create new jobs.
The big problem is that the Slashbucklers, who aim to deal with the problem by increasing spending on law enforcement, crime labs and prisons (but not lawyers for the indigent or more judges) instead of schools and other “social” programs, are only going to make it worse. Inevitably — and this is why I’m calling them Slashbucklers — they will bring all our systems crashing down.
Complexity, Simplicity, and the Quest for Perfection
Okay. I don’t know how this is going to turn out, but some days ago, I promised that I would elucidate my comment about complexity, simplicity, and the quest for perfection. At the time, I alluded to its being connected with how I became a criminal defense lawyer, which is what the post from the other day ended up being about.
These three concepts are at the core of the problem with our modern system of jurisprudence. They aren’t alone in constituting that core — but, then, that actually just reinforces the point of one of them: Complexity.
Still, if we could get a grip on the proper balance of these three concepts, we’d go a long way towards improving our system. We might even begin, again, to understand the meaning of Freedom. Maybe even Justice.
A Criminal Society
I was involved in a case this morning that made my blood boil — so much so that I kept wondering if I would make it out of the courtroom without saying something that would get me locked up. I (aided by other attorneys discussing the case) fumed about it for hours afterward. Returning to my office, I wanted nothing more than to go out looking for another line of work and to join those who think this system cannot be fixed: it must be violently torn down.
I’ve finally calmed down enough, I hope, to write a sensible post about it.
The Worship of Law Enforcement
For those looking for a post bashing the police, you will be disappointed. For those looking for a post praising the police, you will likely be disappointed, also (but only because you’re never happy when my praise is not unqualified). This post is not exactly about the police, although it necessarily discusses them quite a bit.
This post is something I began thinking about writing on the day two law enforcement officers were killed in Minkler and another was wounded by a deranged individual who planned their deaths, as well as his own. This post is about my worship of law enforcement.
Investing in Public Safety
Of late, Police Chief Jerry Dyer seems to write almost as often for the Fresno Bee as any of their regular writers. Today, he reminds us,
Public safety is an investment, not a cost. (Jerry Dyer, “Invest in our public safety” (December 8, 2009) The Fresno Bee, p.B5, below the fold.)
If nothing else, the article shows that Jerry Dyer has mastered The Art of Orwellian Logic.
Time for Judgment
Quite often on this blog and my more popular blog (Probable Cause: The Legal Blog with the Really Low Standard of Review), I write things about judges that are perhaps less than flattering. After all, I’m usually writing about the failure to follow the law, the result-oriented judging that I too often see, and that this seems to be related to the fact that most judges are former prosecutors unable to shake off the old job and take on the new.
This entry is different.
Criminalizing Emotional Turmoil
Today’s Fresno Bee asks:
How should a school react when a high school student sends a text message like this: “im gonna come to school with one of phillips guns and kill half the school ill load everyone with bullets and then shoot myself in the head right in front of u.” (“Flawed law forces court to OK text threats” (November 3, 2009) The Fresno Bee A5.)
The headline gives the impression that the Bee laments the fact a California court failed to approve a prison sentence for a stupid heartbroken kid’s empty threats.