Government commissioned housing here is basically a breeding ground for juvenile offenders and it doesn't improve any once they age. The welfare system is horribly broken and education is probably rather poor which doesn't help anything. I honestly wonder how we haven't imploded sometimes. The War on Drugs is one of the most misguided things to happen in our generation (sad that it is only one of, we need to pick up our game) and will no doubt be shown as an example of what not to do. The prostitution thing is hilarious too: the argument can easily be made that relationships involve sex and the transfer of funds and goods, what is it that really separates the two? Urgh this is too much thinking before breakfast.
Failed social policy is a huge problem, and one of the biggest parts of that is that we make too many criminals. The majority of criminals in today's world are created by these failed social policies that do far, far more harm than good. Laws against recreational drug use, prostitution, and all sorts of other fully consensual conduct. Somewhat unrelated, but I think history will show that the war on drugs is one of the biggest domestic atrocities committed by the Western world in the 20th and 21st centuries (hopefully it will be gone by the 22nd) and has killed or ruined millions of lives. And yeah, it's easy to not be aware of this sort of thing, or only be aware at an intellectual level. But it happens with shocking regularity, even to completely innocent or at least undeserving people. I have no personal experience myself, but I've read and heard so much that I am outraged at it all. It's hard not to be once you're aware of all that happens.
I prefer those alternative methods to reducing crime like making people less likely to need to commit crimes, and that thing Denver did where they were tough on vandalism by always fixing it and it dropped the rate of crime across the board. We don't need police smacking down people. Or doors. As far as I'm aware they didn't have a warrant or anything. It's kind of fascinating, because I've not really been exposed to this, but also rather enraging. Also this link is absolutely terrifying.
A big problem is that District Attorneys are elected, and they don't get elected by people sane and reasonable people, but "tough on crime" ideologues. And that is terrible. Did the police have a warrant or whatever judicial order is the Australian equivalent? Was the dead body supposedly freshly made? And you may be right in your suspicions; using the police as a form of harassment is a disturbingly common tactic, especially as police become more and more prone to react with such unnecessarily violent force. It even has a name here, called SWATing.
I feel as though if everyone had the same good and rational intent as you do, there wouldn't be a whole lot of problems with the process at all. Obviously there is room for human error but I think we'd see a sharp reduction in smurf ups and an improvement in the way the court system is viewed by the general populace. In somewhat related news, I have some interesting police misconduct for you: the front door to my father's house was smashed down and the house searched under the pretence of "finding a dead body." There are some extenuating circumstances which make me think there's been a ruse to make him look guilty after a bushfire there on the weekend by a bitch of a woman next door, but I don't think they really had any grounds to suspect a body and therefore wtf are you doing breaking into houses.
As I recounted more extensively in this thread, I view it mostly as protecting the process. To keep innocent people from being caught up (and even protecting guilty people from absurd punishments), each defendant must receive thorough representation, regardless of their factual guilt. I think it's more likely than not that the attempted murder client was factually guilty, but that did not change my attitude towards defending him. And yes, the prosecutors hold far more power and can do far more harm (as well as good, for those that really try).
That's pretty exciting. We've visited District Courts as part of my degree a couple times and generally we'd expect to find nothing of real note but we stumbled into a sexual assault case, a big drug dealing sting and this hilarious one where a woman tried to defend her way out of a red light ticket. Nothing quite like a murder case but better than the in-and-out drink driving offences. Is it weird dealing with people who may or may not have actually guilty? Or do you just approach from the outlook that you have to do the best for you client regardless? It's always fascinated me. I'm not in with the whole "you're a scumbag and help bad guys get off" because realistically if they did it and the evidence is there then the prosecution will probably win, but yeah it's just interesting to think about how people approach that kind of a gig. Same for the other side though, I guess; those jackasses have put countless innocents behind bars, arguably much worse than any "wrong" you could do.
Regarding my job? I really enjoy it. The only thing that sort of surprised me was the number of big murder/attempted murder cases around here. I expected to be working on a lot of drug cases, but so far I've dealt with two big (attempted) murder trials that involved big constitutional issues.
That's a fair point! I'll have to remember that I can never outperform PG. I don't remember any of my questions now but how are you finding it all? I imagine the workload is quite significant but was it everything you expected?
Considering PG likes to ask me questions through posting on Pauper's FB Wall and making him tag me, I think you are misjudging the quality of the questions I get asked.
