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.