My old pal, Jon Rapping, of Gideon’s Promise, alerted me to an interesting op-ed in the New York Law Journal about a very tricky issue, the treatment of misdemeanors during a pandemic.

In recent months, some New York district attorneys’ offices and the New York courts have issued statements proclaiming their commitment to equality and anti-racism. They’ve also expressed their interest in both protecting the safety of the community as the state seeks a careful balance between reopening the court system and protecting the community from risks associated with COVID-19.

If these entities are serious about addressing both of these critical issues, a good place to start would be reimagining the prosecution of low level offenses. With cases backlogged and judges processing a fraction of the cases they used to every day, courts and prosecutors should not sweat the small stuff—that is, misdemeanors, which are, by definition, “minor wrongdoings.”

Continue reading →

It can be a matter of law, whether there’s trespass, vandalism or worse, but that tends to deflect from the more fundamental question: Is going after politicians and public employees at home fair game?

It’s happened to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and NYPD Police Commissioner Dermot Shea.

It obviously has consequences for “innocent” bystanders, the neighbors, spouses and children. Assuming that no laws are broken, per se, and that the conduct is an exercise of constitutionally protected protest, the question remains whether it crosses a line, a norm, of going after a public official in his or her personal capacity, at home, involving the family, the children. Continue reading →

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 →