re: #271 RogueOne

I don’t like the death penalty, but that’s a moot point.

I think a lot of good would be done by making prosecutors a locked-out position; anyone taking the role of prosecutor would be barred from running for elected office. Likewise for judges.

I think a large amount of the problem is that police departments are often coerced or given heavy incentives to arrange cases in the way the DA wants. So the DA wants some particular bust, tons of police time gets thrown on it even if its just a drug trafficking case and not, say, a homicide of a homeless person. As a result, the most politically valuable cases, not the ones that most threaten the public good, are the ones being prosecuted in a lot of areas.

Moreover, Internal Affairs is often either a joke or the bully boys of the District Attorney, and since most cops have at least skirted the line, most of them fear and hate an IA investigation. So you have a position where the cops have their job politicized, which does them no good and the public no good, but does do the prosecutors some good.

That’s why it’s very hard for me to vote for anyone who was a former prosecutor, for any office.