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IAmALawyerIAmNeverFarFromEvil 8 - 12 Feb 2012 - Main.SkylarPolansky
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| | Robinson’s declaration reminded me of this scene from the television show The Wire. For those of you who have not seen the show, the witness, Omar Little, is testifying to the fact that he saw the defendant, “muscle” for a local drug operation, shoot and kill an innocent person. The attorney—a man whom Robinson would describe as a criminal lawyer in both senses—represents this particular drug outfit in all of their legal matters.
Omar’s words “I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase” are another articulation of one of the themes in Lawyerland: the attempt to sort people into “good” and “evil” can be an exercise in reductionism. The belief in such dichotomies undermines society’s ability to analyze the social forces at work within it. Recognizing this, The Wire tries to challenge conventional categorizations of good and evil surrounding crime. Watching the show you will empathize with the drug-dealing murderer, hate the commissioner of the police department and feel an overwhelming ambivalence towards most of the main characters. Each hero is, at times, an antihero. Each character is good, evil, both and neither. | | | Sidenote: I enjoyed Moglen's statement yesterday (2/9/12) that we are kind to the rich and just to the poor. I found this point beautifully poignant. It is concise (11 words) and highlights the way we manipulate our legal system disparately depending on the socioeconomic status of who we are helping, and then try to mask this disparity with language. Taken out of context being “kind” to a person, or “just” to a person are normally both good ways of treating people so we think it's good to treat a person either way. However when these words are inserted into the above sentence the negative aspect of treating somebody just “justly” becomes apparent. I love word-play - perhaps that's why I enjoyed this point. | |
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> | -- SkylarPolansky - 10 Feb 2012 | | | I appreciate the edits above. There is undoubtedly much to be gained -- both in legal practice and in society more broadly -- from effective use of categories. If we are to be successful legal practitioners, it will behoove us to be able to identify and anticipate the frameworks employed by the judges before whom we argue, and to tailor our work accordingly. Indeed, as Eben has mentioned, a course in human psychology might prove more helpful in our legal careers than would some of the other courses which we are told to take. |
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