I promise that I was mocking the part about the RPGs; perhaps I’m not as good a writer as I believe.
I salute you for your defense of those who protect the innocent unborn. You might be the one lawyer I do not dislike. And you are right, Mr. Finicum will remain innocent; that may protect his family from some of the lawyers I do dislike.
As for shooting people. I would speculate that the biggest factor in Mr. Finicum being shot was his not standing still as presumably ordered. Cops are jumpy on a good day and after a three-week standoff, a high-speed chase and subsequent crash, all bets are off.
I’m a big fan of non-lethal weapons, particularly bean-bag shotgun rounds and, failing that, properly medicated “dedicated shooters.”
The other mistake Mr. Finicum might have made was believing that our Gov’t was still interested in following the Constitution.
That kind of snow messes with you. Right, LucyT?
Thank you for your kind words.
Now the smart ass answer to people running down lawyers is to say something like: Plumbers are fine people. When your son is arrested for sexual assault, call a plumber. BUT, I am not really very happy with or proud of the legal profession either. I got all the enjoyment out of it that I could and, because I did as I believed rather than the "practical thing, I did it for very little money. I never charged an arrested pro-lifer or arrested but responsible gun owner a nickel. Fund-raisers among sympathizing folks wo were generally non-clients staved off a foreclosure or two. One of my regular clients was a police sergeant and veteran streetwise police officer who had regular antagonism with a Captain Queeg type police chief who wanted to force his retirement to make room for some hack of the chief. One day early in the Clinton years he brought me a questionnaire given to each member of his department. The questionnaire said that there were no right or wrong answers to the questions and that they were for informational purposes. One question was: Are you willing to shoot a civilian simply because you are ordered to do so. He told them: Hell no! That would violate the constitution. Why were they gathering such information? Parabolic microphones were being purchased by police departments for warrantless searches of discussions in houses that could be picked up somehow by the vibrations of the windows in winter.
There is a LOT of scary crap out there. Good lawyers fght the crap. Most lawyers do not because it is too much trouble and no one compensates them as they wish to be compensated. When I was a grammar school kid and my dad was on strike and we were trying to live on my mother's $1.25 an hour, I came down with a very sudden and very severe ear infection. A new doctor whom we had never met was close to my school geographically and my mom who could not drive took me to him and was thoroughly embarrassed to be without funds. The doctor told her that he was giving me a penicillin shot and penicillin pills and that I was to come back each and every day for the same treatment until cured. It took seven days. He told her at the first visit that she only had to pay $7 for the first visit, shot and pills and nothing thereafter, poverty, however temporary, should not cause a child to lose his hearing. I tried to practice law like that, whether for good causes or for decent but genuinely poor people. There were others who did so as well.
That is how I repaid that doctor: by paying it forward many times over. He died a year or two ago in his mid-eighties. I pray for him and his family because he was a very decent man and a very fine doctor.
I will pray for you too for the reason that you also seem to be one of the good guys.