Does law enforcement (state or fed)ever act, at times, overzealously and violate rights to get a warrant or a confession? Yes. How do we know this? Because we know that judges throw out, on the basis of a constitutional violation, evidence that was obtained in an attempt to get convictions.
I have successfully made several such challenges (against evidence obtained by warrants, or against confessions obtained illegally) in my career. But the process allows both parties to obtain the evidence and make arguments thereon.
What’s interesting about such challenges is that, usually, the American public (especially the conservative public) gets very upset when someone “gets off” when a constitutional violation is found and the evidence is suppressed. It is amusing that this same group is poised to accept, as gospel, Congress Rep. Nunez and the White Houses' memo alleging such over-reaching to get political coverage for our criminal-in-chief, President Donald Trump.
Are police agents, prosecutors, and other law enforcement ‘biased’ against those they pursue? Yes, more often than not. Can that bias cause injustice? Yes, at times. However, the facts still have to stand on their own; and bias, or prosecutorial over-reaching, or conflicts of interest, rarely, if ever, can be used to justify a dismissal. If at all (and if shown), it usually only leads to a replacement of the prosecutor.
What the ever-diminishing group of Trump supporters are incapable of grasping is that the vast majority hold bad opinions of Trump because he is deserving of our opprobrium and disdain. This is what most thinking human beings think of him. This same disdain is even held by those he has chosen as his loyal confidants. Why does it come as a shock to them that an FBI agent, who is entitled to his or her opinion, may think the same?
That is true of most prosecutions. Judges do not stop criminal proceedings just because the police, investigators, and prosecutors called the suspected pedophile a moron or a reprobate.
It should, likewise, be of little concern to the American Public, Paul Ryan, or Mitch McConnell that some FBI agents don’t like President Trump. They themselves, at times, have expressed disdain for him. The only reason they pretend to be upset with opinionated FBI agents is that it is politically expedient to do so.
The predominant concern we all should have is over the manipulation of the process, and that the facts stand on their own when they are presented to an impartial tribunal.
Loren M. Lambert © February 1, 2018
I have successfully made several such challenges (against evidence obtained by warrants, or against confessions obtained illegally) in my career. But the process allows both parties to obtain the evidence and make arguments thereon.
What’s interesting about such challenges is that, usually, the American public (especially the conservative public) gets very upset when someone “gets off” when a constitutional violation is found and the evidence is suppressed. It is amusing that this same group is poised to accept, as gospel, Congress Rep. Nunez and the White Houses' memo alleging such over-reaching to get political coverage for our criminal-in-chief, President Donald Trump.
Are police agents, prosecutors, and other law enforcement ‘biased’ against those they pursue? Yes, more often than not. Can that bias cause injustice? Yes, at times. However, the facts still have to stand on their own; and bias, or prosecutorial over-reaching, or conflicts of interest, rarely, if ever, can be used to justify a dismissal. If at all (and if shown), it usually only leads to a replacement of the prosecutor.
What the ever-diminishing group of Trump supporters are incapable of grasping is that the vast majority hold bad opinions of Trump because he is deserving of our opprobrium and disdain. This is what most thinking human beings think of him. This same disdain is even held by those he has chosen as his loyal confidants. Why does it come as a shock to them that an FBI agent, who is entitled to his or her opinion, may think the same?
That is true of most prosecutions. Judges do not stop criminal proceedings just because the police, investigators, and prosecutors called the suspected pedophile a moron or a reprobate.
It should, likewise, be of little concern to the American Public, Paul Ryan, or Mitch McConnell that some FBI agents don’t like President Trump. They themselves, at times, have expressed disdain for him. The only reason they pretend to be upset with opinionated FBI agents is that it is politically expedient to do so.
The predominant concern we all should have is over the manipulation of the process, and that the facts stand on their own when they are presented to an impartial tribunal.
Loren M. Lambert © February 1, 2018
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