I get asked -- often -- if I hate police
I don't; I look at "police" generally like I look at teachers generally
When a teacher decides to rape a student, we don't demonize all teachers. Same w/ teachers who are woefully inept at teaching.
But, at the same time, no sane person denies there are teacher-rapists and teachers who suck at their job
I view police the same; I'm willing to take a leap of faith and assume you're competent, until you prove otherwise
Soooooo that brings me to court today
Client is a 17yo black male, "YBM" in defense lawyer parlance
My YBM client is charged with reckless driving to endanger, a very serious. He's terrified. Cried in my office explaining situation
Insisted he was just trying to avoid an animal that darted into the road, and swerved to the right
I pull the shuck, and read the officer's narrative of what happened:
Cont'd: "Skid marks show clear 360° circles. Driver claimed he was trying to avoid hitting cat."
Re-read that:
"clear 360° circles"
Thankfully (how fucking sad is it that "thankfully" is the appropriate word here?) his mom didn't trust the officer, and took pics
Which she kept, and sent to me
(Most of which were useless. Ppl take pictures of a lot of useless shit when they're terrified btw.)
The money shot: https://twitter.com/greg_doucette/status/702180492183937024
Now go back and re-re-read:
"clear 360° circles"
What. The actual. fuck.
Do I hate police? No. I hate raging incompetent cowboys w/ badges financed by my tax money who clearly haven't had an eye exam recently
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
The DA was kind enough to dismiss the case without putting up a fight.
My YBM client's family is out what they paid me. Client himself is traumatized. And basis for police mistrust gets a fresh exhibit.
While the officer who (wrongfully) charged him — and pretty clearly lied on official court documents — will face -0- repercussions.
This is what police brutality looks like. It's not just people having their rights violated and the shit kicked out of them.
It's an innocent 17yo black kid trying to be a good human being and not running over a cat getting thrown headlong into our court system
It's having to come up with money you don't have, to defend yourself against charges that shouldn't have been filed
And recognizing that — but for photographs that someone had the foresight to take immediately — you'd have been convicted
Based solely on the word of a law enforcement officer who swore an oath to serve and protect who then lied to the court with impunity
The State doesn't care of course. For every one case dismissed, hundreds more plead guilty. Court costs are $188+ apiece
A day's worth of traffic cases can finance an ADA's salary for a year. Likewise for a clerk or a judge.
Guess what that means for legislators? They can cut preexisting court funding and put it somewhere where it'll buy them more votes
So you've got a court system that ends up somehow being underfunded despite charging a shitload of money for minor offenses...
Police routing more and more people (predominantly young and black) into the court system, patting themselves on the back
(For protecting us from eeeeeevil 17yo YBMs trying not to hit cats while driving)
While the politicians fiddle as their constituents burn, because people naively assume things like this would never happen
Welcome to the clusterfuck that is our criminal justice system. I filed to run for the State Senate precisely b/c of this bullshit.
It doesn't matter if you put an R or a D or a U beside your name — this is wrong.
Sorry for taking up your TL. For reasons I don't understand, I'm still in disbelief that this shit still happens, when I know better
I'm now going to clog my arteries with Bojangles in the hope/prayer that I won't still be flamingly pissed after lunch.
"clear 360° circles" 😂