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I don't think it's that easy. Many people have a positive bias towards police. The police lawyer will come in and cite some frightening statistics about polic
by curryst 6y ago
I don't think it's that easy. Many people have a positive bias towards police. The police lawyer will come in and cite some frightening statistics about police injury and fatalities on the job, the officer will say that they used the minimum amount of force they were trained to. They only have to convince one juror to get a hung jury.
The free market is an interesting possible solution. Mandate government LE cases to be tried by a law firm. The law firm cannot be paid by the city, but is only compensated with a % fee of any fines levied as a result of a conviction, as well as any civil cases pre-empted by a conviction (i.e. if you have a civil case for wrongful death, and the defendant is convicted of murder, you effectively immediately win the civil suit as well due to the lower burden of proof for the same crime). Law firms that want to softball their prosecution go out of business, and we can still have lawyers that are well-versed in the prosecution of crimes. I am wary of unintended consequences, though.
Simply changing venues would be an option (i.e. require that cases against LEOs cannot be prosecuted in the county the LEO serves in), but I worry that the level of police solidarity would cause the police in the new county to pressure the DA. It might be worth a try though.