Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Public Defense Blogs -> A Public Defender's Life in Alaska

Public Defense

: A Public Defender's Life in Alaska

So, I have been catching some flak lately from anonymous commenters that I am not ?balanced? enough. That my view of the criminal defense system is ?rancid?. Apparently I should acknowledge that cops are good people and victims are sympathetic. What a joke. Imagine this scenario. YOU are charged with a crime. You are guilty or not, I don?t care. You go to a criminal defense lawyer. He looks at the charges and the discovery and says ?wow, thank God the cops caught you?! Man, those cops are such good people. The DA?s are going to do their job really well too. And boy do I ever feel sorry for your victim. My heart really goes out to him. My job is to make sure that there is balance in the system because, after all the Bill of Rights really reflects a concern that criminals like you have too many technical rights. Sure I see that the cops tortured that ?confession? out of you, but hey, you are guilty right"? Apparently there are some people who read this blog that would hire that lawyer to fight for them. Well, I?m sorry but that is not my style. I am a defense lawyer. As a general rule I hate cops (although I have been friends with some). What can I say? If my views on this profession offend you, I am sure that there are blogs written by or about cops or DA?s. Go read one of them and stop leaving naive comments on mine. My job as a defense lawyer is not to be sympathetic to ?victims? or to like cops or counsel for the State (although I have been friends with DA?s before too). And the fact that anyone would argue with the position that a large portion of the Bill of Rights was designed to protect those accused of a crime is simply moronic. As I have said before, if you don?t like my views or you expect me to be half-hearted about my profession, you can simply fu&k off. Seriously. Fu&k off. I am a defense lawyer and I make no apologies for it. Especially when the cops are doing things like shooting unarmed kids in their own driveways. See http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/08/baseballer.shot/

As for other things, we are waiting for Mt. Redoubt to blow. We are in no danger except for the ash fall. I guess the ash is microscopic and will ruin cars and electronics if they are not adequately protected. Bad news for me as I have to go to Homer on Sunday for a trial. I would prefer not to leave the family if it goes off but I don?t have much choice. I would like to be here to get some kick ass pics! We have stocked up on the essentials as the Alaska Volcano Observatory http://www.avo.alaska.edu/ says that an eruption is ?expected? within days or weeks. The most probable outcome is an eruption like the one pictured here (with thanks and acknowledgement to the photographer Warren, J).

Full post as published by A Public Defender's Life in Alaska on January 30, 2009 (boomark / email).