Every time I hear someone on here say they don't trust the justice system I want to know what their experience is with it.

Like, have you been on a jury? Have you even been to a jury selection? Did you just like ... try to get out of jury duty? If you've only been as far as the initial interview as a juror as you only contact with the justice system, you can almost certainly fuck off.

Now if you've been a defendant or someone close to you has, or you've actually been further into jury selection, or you're a lawyer? Then you might have an interesting opinion.

The system sure can be racist, and structurally oppressive in that mounting a defense is so expensive it's a punishment in its own right. And it's aligned in such a way that a lot of those harms are externalities rather than explicit design of the system. (Not to say they don't happen: they're an outcome of the system, just not one explicitly intended)

@aredridel Dunno, every. single. time I have been present in a courtroom, the police involved have lied in a way that materially alters the outcome of the case, and in zero of these cases was the truth upheld by judge or magistrate. So my mistrust of that part of the justice system would seem kinda well founded.

@afeinman Yoof. Yep. That is a primary point of things that need to change: end qualified immunity, and treat police fully oppositionally, with an interest outside justice.

@aredridel Yes, and. The really frustrating bit was when the judicial part of the system said, "eh, yeah, they lied, but we're going to prosecute based on what they lied anyway, sue us if you don't like it". Can't fix that with _only_ removing qualified immunity.

@afeinman @aredridel As a lawyer acquaintance who spent years as a public defender puts it: “The most important thing you need to know about policing is that cops lie and judges pretend to believe them.”

@infotroph @afeinman @aredridel

What incentivizes judges to pretend to believe them?

@robryk @infotroph @afeinman @aredridel the judges see the same cops over and over.

Senior law related folks (politicians, senior cops, lawyers, judges) see each other socially, work with the same non-profits, etc.

So, the cop testifying has the social presumption of honesty.