A ubiquitous phrase to describe the protests in Portland is that they were “mostly peaceful.” Except when they weren’t. While there was much to question and condemn about the handling of the response, it’s hard to ignore that the less-than-peaceful folks were less than peaceful. Were they supposed to let the courthouse be bombed and breached, burned down or seized?

For the moment, the rioters have been held back from their preferred course of conduct by other protesters who want to make sure that it appears the riots are over now that the feds have backed off in favor of Portland police and this was all a product of the introduction of federal agents into the mix. Hopefully, this will hold, even if the violence began on July 4th, before there were the feds were sent to defend the courthouse. Continue reading →

Soon after 9/11, soldiers appeared in Penn Station to search for, and theoretically protect us from, the terrorist. They were dressed in camouflage uniforms, carrying military rifles. I was never comfortable with people standing around a place jammed with people “carrying” military rifles. There was just too much that could go wrong.

But what struck me as goofy was that they were dressed in camo. Camouflage was not the way to blend in at Penn Station. A nice grey suit would have worked, but given the lack of trees and forest, camo was just plan silly. One day I asked one of the soldiers, and she told me that it wasn’t so much that camo was chosen because it was a great look, but because the options were limited. It wasn’t like they had a closet full of color choices for their military work clothes, so they wore what they had, which was designed for use in the desert or woods. Continue reading →

The New York Times, a former newspaper*, ran an article last week with the apparent goal of making average Americans feel bad for ultra-wealthy New Yorkers slumming out the pandemic in second homes. I am not making this up.

Some passages in the article are so mind-numbingly tone deaf one wonders how this ever made print. Emphasis in all this is mine.

“I’m working more than normal, and there is no downtime,” Ms. Smith said. “I used to leave the office and go to Starbucks for a vanilla latte, or just take a walk around the block. Now, if I want coffee I have to walk by my son into the kitchen, so there is no break between work and being a mom.” Continue reading →

I’m one of those fancy guys who bought real maple syrup to put on my pancakes. It wasn’t because I didn’t care for the marketing of the fake stuff, but I liked the real stuff better. It was usually named something like “Real Maple Syrup” so I would know what I was buying. What it was not named was “Aunt Jemima,” and if Aunt Jemima syrup disappeared from supermarket shelves, it wouldn’t bother me a bit.

But did the brand name hurt you? Did it make you cry? Did you feel traumatized, attacked, even belittled? Maybe, and if so, you didn’t have to buy it and you were free to let Quaker Oats know that the 131-year-old brand offended you. If enough people refused to buy Aunt Jemima syrup, then the magic of the marketplace would have its way. Continue reading →

There are a litany of things people “believe” when it comes to criminal law that, though completely false, never seem to go away. No Miranda Warning? “That means the arrest isn’t valid,” say the twitter lawyers. Of course, it’s nonsense, but they believe it, spread it and perpetuate it among people who want it to be true. An arrest in Kips Bay went viral, with the unduly passionate losing their minds over the “kidnapping.”

That this is how the warrant squad operates, has always operated, doesn’t offer much comfort. If they’ve been doing it wrong all along, that’s no justification to continue to do it wrong. Continue reading →

June 24 wasn’t a good night in Madison. The protesters tore down a statue of abolitionist  Hans Christian Heg as well as the “Forward” figure, “an allegorical work meant to embody the state’s motto.” No confederate generals. No slave owners. Maybe they all look alike to the unduly passionate. Maybe they just didn’t care, as they were on a roll tearing down statues and, well, these were statues so why not?

It also wasn’t a good night for a gay Democratic senator who took a picture with his cellphone, which seems to be remarkably ordinary thing to do given that people are taking pictures and video of pretty much everything to do with protests, riots and, is there a long German word for statue tipping? Tim Carpenter was no statue, but got tipped anyway, and worse. Continue reading →

Ed. Note: Greg Prickett is former police officer and supervisor who went to law school, hung out a shingle, and now practices criminal defense and family law in Fort Worth, Texas. While he was a police officer, he was a police firearms instructor, and routinely taught armed tactics to other officers. He is a member of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association (TCDLA).

Dear Mr. Scheiner:

On July 27, 2020, you forwarded to all members of the TCDLA that the Executive Committee had decided to participate in the public lynching of the State Bar of Texas President, Larry McDougal.

First, I’m going to point out some things that should have been considered before you took action on behalf of the entire TCDLA, especially without consulting the membership. Continue reading →

College students drink alcohol, sometimes to excess. Who knew? Well, everybody, including the nice folks who run Northeastern University, which is why the Supreme Court of Massachusetts held that colleges have a responsibility to protect their students from the consequences of their actions.

Dangerous drinking-related activities are a foreseeable hazard on college and university campuses.

Well, that clears things up, right? Except the scenario presented in the case is replete with the interconnecting tropes and craziness that is similarly a foreseeable hazard on college campuses. Continue reading →

The phenomenon is not new. Back in the ’60s, when feminists were fighting for women to be accepted in education and the workplace, the argument was that women deserved the choice to be a doctor, lawyer or president if their interest, talent and good fortune would take them there. Or as a t-shirt later explained, “A woman’s place is in the house. And the Senate.”

But over time, the momentum shifted so that a woman who chose not to get her Ph.D., to stay home and raise the children, cook the meals, care for the house, was no longer considered the norm. Then it became a badge of dishonor, a traitor to women and, well, a failure. To be a “homemaker,” as they were called, was no longer an acceptable choice, but a capitulation to the patriarchy, a sycophant of the Orange Juice Queen, Anita Bryant, and surely a Nixon voter. After all, who else wouldn’t get a degree, a career, a future? Continue reading →

The repeal of New York’s dreaded Executive Law § 50-a, which protected cops, among others, from disclosure of their personnel records, was an emblematic reaction in these curious times. The law was bad, awful even, in that dirty and violent cops were able to conceal their conduct from the public and criminal defense lawyers who got to cross them about their actions.

Yet, the repeal was simplistic, a bludgeon rather than a scalpel, The NYCLU sought information from the Civilian Complaint Review Board about all police officers who were the subject of complaints, with the intention of making it publicly available. The police union took issue with this and sought a temporary restraining order. Continue reading →