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.
Time to Fight Back?
Today’s newspaper brings the inane story of attorney Rick Berman being threatened with criminal charges for attempting to get into a courthouse without removing his watch.
The Very Definition of a Police State
Yesterday afternoon, I stood in the backyard at the home of friends, waiting. The day before, my friends were married in that backyard; yesterday the reception was held there. People were arriving; the reception was just getting underway.
The beginning noises of the reception were drowned out by the buzz of a small airborne black-and-white vehicle. I watched as the helicopter appeared to be repeatedly circling the yard in which I was standing. I could just read a few of the words on the tail. One stood out in capitals: “POLICE.”
W[h]ither Freedom?
Maintaining multiple blogs has turned out to be more difficult than I thought, primarily because of the way I write. Those who read Probable Cause: The Legal Blog with the Really Low Standard of Review may notice that I tend to support my comments with citations. I suppose if I simply write what’s on my mind, my own thoughts, ideas and opinions, without attempting to “support” my points in this way, I can get more blogging done. So far, though, I’ve found myself constitutionally unable to do that.
Bloggers elsewhere have been suffering a different fate.
Shooting Holes in the U.S. Constitution
Mary was angry as she waited in line at the grocery store in the rain. Ahead, she could see the cause of the delay: some stupid older dude with long gray hair, struggling to empty his pockets into the bowl before going through the metal detector.
Where did he find jeans with pockets in the first place?!
Who is the King?: Sowing the Seeds of Disrespect for the Law
Break a law that you did not know existed. It doesn’t matter how vaguely worded that law is. If a police officer wants to arrest you for it and if a Deputy District Attorney decides she wants to prosecute you for it, you will be prosecuted. You will, unfortunately, almost certainly lose: you’ll either realize that you’re going to lose and take an offer, or you’ll be convicted. Even if somehow, some way you win, you will lose, because you will have paid an attorney, or posted bail, or — in the event you were too poor to hire an attorney and the offense did not require you to post bail — you will have lost time, effort and sleep over the case.
Unless you’re a police officer.
Submitizens II
Nicole Black’s recent article in The Daily Record may help snap me out of the funk I’ve been in since the day I wrote Submitizens.
The funk started not so much because of the rules implemented by the court — the day California courts honor the United States Constitution will be a surprising day indeed! — but rather because of the reaction of other defense attorneys to my opinions regarding the newly-implemented rules.
Submitizens
Approaching the courthouse doors, I was puzzled to see a small line at the attorneys’ door. “That’s odd,” I thought. “There’s never a line here.” And the line wasn’t moving very fast; in fact, as I and a couple of others approached, it was clearly getting longer.
As the line moved forward and I got close enough, I felt anger rising as I realized why there was a line.
Not Enough Crime, Police Resort to Decoys
A story in yesterday’s Fresno Bee reveals the Fresno Police Department apparently has been becalmed by a serious decrease in crime.
In what looks like a move to avoid layoffs at the police department, the Fresno police have “assigned plainclothes minors to ask adults to buy them liquor at liquor stores and other sellers of alcohol over the holidays.” (News Briefs (November 29, 2008) Fresno Bee, p. B2, col. 3.)
The police department is currently so overstaffed that they were forced to work at four establishments selling alcohol and will continue entrapment proceedings around town “to see whether adults will break the law for youths.” (Id.)
Fresno Criminal Defense attorney Rick Horowitz hopes citizens will do their part to ensure our police department does not suffer significant layoffs heading into the holiday season.