scorching hot take incoming: the most effective thing anyone in the U.S. can do for CJ reform right now┬аis to advocate at the local level for forcing a Grand Jury to convene every single time someone is charged with a felony.
hereтАЩs the deal. iтАЩve been working for a public defenderтАЩs office for literally less than three weeks, and i grew up around cops (my dadтАЩs one of those lovely fucking abusive fuck shits). i know, intimately, what bad police look like, and what bullshit charges look like, and how often stupid bullshit┬аis shoved through the courts. iтАЩve read some of the flimsiest probable cause affidavits on the goddamn planet, and some of the worst warrants.┬а
but who else has? a lot of people, other than knowing itтАЩs bullshit because theyтАЩre the target, havenтАЩt seen the scope of the bullshit. others can be told, over and over, and it wonтАЩt stick because they havenтАЩt interviewed a 60 year old schizophrenic woman from a jail cell whoтАЩs only sitting there because she supposedly stole some OTC medication.┬а
...and then filed the paperwork for two dozen more people, only one of which has a charge thatтАЩs violent.
you might say,┬атАЬwhatтАЩs a grand jury got anything to do with it?тАЭ
simple. a grand jury evaluates probable cause. that means the GJ looks at all of the police reports/complaints, the evidence the state has, and maybe most importantly, they look at the charges that were filed.
i sincerely believe that most people, when they look down at some stupid fuck off charge, will be able to spot a stupid fuck off charge. and when theyтАЩll get called maybe a dozen times a year to be the GJ for┬аall felonies, theyтАЩll start seeing nothing but┬аstupid fuck off charges.┬а
theyтАЩll start reading police reports. theyтАЩll start seeing the same abusive cops, the worst of the worst, over and over again. the bad cops and bad prosecutors will get a reputation among the community.┬аincompetent pigs that are dumber than a box of rocks will be known by name. youтАЩll humanize the┬атАЬcriminals.тАЭ┬а
i promise you. if you read some of this shit, youтАЩll never have respect for it again. only your literal fascists wouldnтАЩt be able to call bullshit.
letтАЩs also not forget that you will cause a court backup by doing this years long. meaning, realistically, the DA will have to start dropping the charges that never actually mattered in the first place. youтАЩll force certain things to, in practice, not be illegal simply because the state canтАЩt pick up the cases. if they let these shit ass cases sit, the public defenderтАЩs office could just start mass-filing constitutional challenges for the fast & speedy clause.┬а
drop. the. nuke. theyтАЩve had 40 years to reverse course. donтАЩt ask┬аthem to reform or dismantle. force them to.
