Every once in a while, something happens in the blawgosphere that wreaks havoc with the smooth process that allows its participants and onlookers to feel the unfettered sense of belonging.  It happened this week. It’s going to happen again. Now.

After my post, A Book Unreviewed: Norm Pattis, a few people expressed some sadness that our little group of criminal defense blawgers couldn’t just get along, couldn’t just write about the evils of police abuse, prosecutorial misconduct and judicial error.  We are all against these bad things, so why battle amongst ourselves when we can focus our anger toward the things that deserve it, demand it.

Why indeed?

This isn’t another post about Norm. He reduced himself to an irrelevancy when he slinked away after his fabricated world crumbled around him. If there was any question, it’s now resolved.  It’s about everyone else.

One of the things this corner of the blawgosphere does, and does well, is highlight the wrongs that happen in the criminal justice system, the people who do them and the things they do.  Before one has the right to challenge others, one must choose to maintain personal integrity.  We cannot lie about what happened or we are forfeit any claim to challenge others. This can be brutally painful at times, compelling us to write things we would prefer not to write, but if we shirk this responsibility, we are unworthy of challenging others.

Can we call someone else a liar while being a liar?  Can we challenge the falsehoods perpetuated by others while we perpetuate our own?  Can we expect others to believe us when we know what we say to be unworthy of belief?  I don’t think so.

Sure, there will always be people who calls us names, tell us we’re wrong, stupid, deceitful.  But it’s a big internet and it’s impossible to satisfy every perspective, every agenda, every level of intelligence or sociopathy.  Mistakes are made.  Judgment calls are blown.  It’s not about perfection or about winning every vote.  It is about integrity.

Without integrity, we are nothing.  We are them.  We are as bad as all the malevolent people.  We are as bad as the people who do malevolent things.  We have no legitimacy in challenging or questioning, in highlighting or noting, in speaking out against wrong.  Because without integrity, we too are wrong.

This is a choice that I, and other blawgers, are compelled to make every day.  How easy it would be to twist a few details, distort a fact or two here and there, recast a quote to make it better fit our views, and then go to town.  Just leave out the link, omit the name and build in plausible deniability that we are dissembling.

Being a blawger, and writing stuff that appears publicly, exposes us to challenge as much as it does the target of our writing.  And it should.  We’ve talked about blawging as peer reviewed, where our fellow criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges, cops, and anyone else with sufficient interest can read what we write and opine, whether here or elsewhere.  We lay it on the table, and you do with it as you will.

When an ugly issue arises within the community, when peer review turns unpleasant, however, smiles turn upside down.  Why can’t we just ignore it, get along, band together to fight the common enemy?

Because we are no more entitled to enjoy situational integrity than they are.

Because we cannot attack others for unclean hands if ours are dirty as well.

I realize that this upsets other blawgers and some readers.  It would be so much easier to pretend it doesn’t happen and let things go back to the way they were before.  If no one says anything, then we can smile again and think only of the things we want to think, the things that make us happy.  My “vitriol” was not appreciated by many as it caused a disruption in the force.  Why, oh why, can’t I just save my vitriol for our common enemies and preserve the harmony of the blawgosphere?

I deal with reality, for better or worse, right or wrong.  It’s never been my way to smooth over the unpleasant rough spots in order to get along and make others like me.  And I am not sorry for making others uncomfortable by speaking of unpleasant matters. 

In furtherance of my belief that the integrity of the blawgosphere, of Simple Justice, of me, matters, a decision has been made.  For those who find situational integrity acceptable, and are happy to overlook deception in this corner of the blawgosphere, who don’t care to scrutinize ourselves with the same care we do our common enemies, you are no longer welcome here.  I can’t stop you from reading, if that’s your choice, but I will no longer engage with you.  If lying doesn’t matter to you, then we aren’t going to get along.

Some of you won’t care, which is your choice.  Some of you will tell me that I’m wrong, unduly harsh, maybe even selfish.  Some will tell me I’m pompous and arrogant to think anyone gives a damn what I think, either of them or what they do.  Some will blame me, following their heart instead of theri mind. This may all be true, but what I do is my call.  And this is my call. If it makes me unpopular with a certain crowd, so be it. 

Sometimes the force needs some disrupting.  When integrity is at stake, disruption seems a small price to pay to clean things up.  We are not a bunch of liars.  We are not enablers of liars.  We do not acquiesce in lying.  And because of this, our ability to bear up to scrutiny, we can say what needs to be said and do so with honor.  And if you can’t do this, or won’t do this, then you don’t belong here.

And now, to lighten up the mood a bit without sacrificing the point . . .