RHDefense: The Law Office of Rick Horowitz
Home of Probable Cause: The Legal Blog with the Really Low Standard of Review
I’m not even sure how to write this post. Maybe I should wait. Maybe I should let things “sink in” a bit.
But then I remember, “Silence is Enabling.”
What I’m about to show you is something that should be trumpeted on national — make that international – news. [Read more...]
Many years ago, when there was less knowledge in the world, but people were generally smarter, a doctrine developed — an ideal — which was to form the very basis for a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Before going further, let’s dispose of two issues that are of no import to what I’m writing today. First, the use of the term “men” is because I am using the anachronistic quotes — “a government of laws, not of men” and “all men are created equal” — as they were used by the Founders of the United States of America. Second, unless you hold the same heinous position they held, which is that certain “men” were not really “men” — kind of treating entire groups of human beings as a distinct and separate species — then they didn’t really think that “all men are created equal.”
What they meant, though, is the same thing Aristotle said in his Politics, “Law should govern.” No government which was part of the United States of America would be run by despots, oligarchs, or anyone else who could arbitrarily decide when someone should be punished for some perceived slight, or “wrong.”
Today we have evolved as a nation. We recognize that all men, as well as women, have the same “unalienable”1 rights. Today, we would say, “Everyone must be treated the same when it comes to how our laws are applied.”2
But that was how America started. It is not how she is ending. [Read more...]
This post is going to be hard to understand if you are a black-and-white thinker. In fact, it’s so difficult for many who visit this blog to understand that I’m going to start with the disclaimer that I often use when discussing police officers and honesty:
Not all police officers are bad. Not all police officers lie. Not all police officers plant weapons, drugs, or other evidence. Not all police officers ignore the rights of citizens. Not all police officers “bend,” or ignore, our laws. Not all police officers will give someone a tune-up for speaking their mind.
Police officers are human beings. Admittedly, there is a police culture that has shifted in a way that lying and planting drugs and ignoring rights and laws has become common. But because police officers have to be selected from the same species as the rest of humanity, there will always be officers who honestly try to do the best jobs they can possibly do, in the most ethical and law-abiding way.
The problem, of course, is that these days you just can’t tell, by looking at a particular law enforcement officer, whether a particular law enforcement officer is one of those who is being honest, or whether he is one who will lie (especially in court), or plant evidence, or ignore rights, or follow the law.
Therein lies the problem. [Read more...]
An article in yesterday’s New York Times caught my attention.
It wasn’t so much because of the topic: the pervasiveness of police officers who lie. I’ve written about that a number of times myself, most notably in my blog article, “Testilying.”
No, it was something else. I’ve always thought that I knew just how bad things are when it comes to the police, but last week I had an opportunity to observe a police encounter up close in a poor neighborhood where I’m pretty sure I may have been the only white person for at least anywhere within easy walking distance. (Even the officer was Hispanic.)
And things are way worse than I thought.
Once upon a time, Americans actually valued life. Hell, we even valued liberty. And the purfoot of happyness.
Legally, that’s still true; in practice, not so much.
In a recent post, Scott Greenfield notes that:
While the analogy is often used, and used poorly, to compare the police to the mob, it seems unavoidable this time.
I’m not sure what is meant by the analogy being used poorly, but perhaps it’s because the gang that wears badges is not as sophisticated as the mob. This is not to say that gangs cannot be sophisticated. In fact, in many ways, the gang members I run into have more sophistication in their pinkies than the average cop on the street.
Our legal system is corrupt. It is rotten to its core. And by “to its core,” I mean “judges,” who have become, at best, nothing more than rubber stamps on acts of the government; at worst, they go a step further and become the primary governmental tools for oppression.
They are not alone in constituting the corrupt core, of course. It is a witches’ brew comprised of many elements.
Police officers prey upon citizens. They conduct home invasion robberies under color of law with impunity. Probation officers don’t concern themselves with whether their techniques for dealing with those who are essentially their prisoners actually change lives; they simply keep increasing the pressure on those under their thumbs.
Prosecutors? Like judges, they have essentially abdicated their part in the American system of jurisprudence established by those who came before them. No longer do they seek justice; only convictions. The mantra of the underlings is “I was only following orders.” Who knew that Americans would set a standard for conformity to following orders that would shame even Germany? And if, somehow, strong evidence comes to light down the road that an innocent person has been convicted, these same prosecutors will fight like the hell that spawned them to preserve the conviction, rather than allow that something may have gone awry.
Then there are the criminal defense attorneys who, believing the lostness of the cause justifies their laziness, forget to fight for their clients.
It is…disheartening…to say the least. Our elected officials have also turned a blind eye to the problems, refusing to pass bills that would require accountability from those working in the legal profession.
Only informed voters are going to be able to fix things.
Unfortunately, once you become informed, you’re not allowed to vote.1
Last night, after a conversation with another attorney about politics, the direction the country is taking, and how the attitudes developing drive law enforcement and the distortions we see in the criminal “justice” system, I published a blog post.
Don’t look for it: I’ve de-published it.
The post was a wonderfully fulfilling piece of venting.
I woke several times in the night, however, thinking about it and considering that it might not be what I wanted for my blog.
What I want for my blog is to use it to explain and to show that what is happening in the world of criminal “justice” is not at all what you — and I’m hoping by “you” that I’m targeting ordinary people; not just attorneys; not just the choir — really want.
According to this story, teens celebrating their graduation from the eighth grade made the mistake of being in the same area of the world where someone had discarded an empty bottle of alcohol.
Seems the principal of the school found the bottle in the woods and, since the kids happened to also be in that area, he had a pretty good idea that they must’ve been drinking. Police were apparently called and, well, police being the police — and the kids repeatedly denying their guilt — the kids had to submit. In this case, they had to submit to being tested to see if they’d been drinking.
Now they get to add to their achievements: Not only did they graduate eighth grade, they also passed the alcohol breath tests.
The Law Office of Rick Horowitz provides criminal defense services
in Fresno, Tulare, Kings, Kern, Madera and Merced Counties.