Miscellaneous

I have a cousin who is the police chief of a suburb of Des Moines. His brother (also my cousin, of course) got married last Saturday, so I had a chance to see the whole family. My police chief cousin likes to refer to criminal defense as the dark side, which is fine. I can take a little ribbing about representing the underbelly of society (not all of them are, but a good portion of them, in my experience). One of the funny things about my conversation with him over the weekend is that he told me I shouldn’t be too hard on the police officers I have to question.

I’ve met a lot of very nice police officers. My cousin is one. I represented one in a civil matter last year and she was very nice. The officers I’ve deposed have all been somewhat sheepish during the deposition. Wondering what I might be trying to get them to say, I suppose. But police often have a reputation of being bullies and preying on the defenseless. I get sucked into that frame of mind, sometimes.

I get to play the other side, too, prosecuting traffic violations for North liberty. I see a whole different side of police officers in that capacity. Sometimes bravado, sometimes astonishment at the idea that someone would plead not guilty to the citation they wrote. I get sucked into that, sometimes, too.

It makes me tired.