sparkindarkness | Ok this is… ludicrous. Liz Cheney, someone needs to tell you what a lawyer is. (Reply)

I am, as people may have guessed, a lawyer. My main specialty is criminal defence (my secondary specialty is family law because 2 specialties are a good idea and – extremely depressingly – there is overlap)

As a defence lawyer I have represented many many unpleasant people. It’s part of the job. I have defended paedophiles, I have defended rapists, I have defended people who have killed. I have defended thieves and vandals, domestic abusers, child abusers, drug EVERYTHING – drug dealers, drug users, drug carriers, drug dumpers. I have defended pimps, madams, fraudsters and confidence tricksters and more violent drunkards than I could shake a stick at. I have, ironically enough, defended 2 not-very-nice-men who made a sport out of beating gay men until they were nigh unrecognisable.

I am not a paedophile. I am not a rapist. I am not a murderer. I am not a thief, conman, domestic abuser, child abuser, vandal, pimp, fraudster, do not involve myself with narcotics in any fashion and am very rarely not commonly drunk and never violent with it. Nor do I beat up gay men.

Nor do I support any of these people (well, except for the legalisation of certain controlled substances and the legalisation of prostitution). However, our legal system, especially the adversarial legal system that Britain, the US (and most former British colonies) share, is built on the very firm need for legal representation. Without legal representation then the whole system collapses - there is no protection for the innocent and no mitigation for those who are guilty.

And, as all sensible people probably realise, if alleged criminals were only ever defended by people who approved of their alleged crimes… well, there would be very very few criminal lawyers out there. It is a part of the job that you WILL represent people who have done reprehensible things – and as much as people may find that unpleasant, I’ll remind them that THEY don’t have to spend long periods of time alone in small rooms with these people discussing often very graphic details of their crimes. It is beyond unpleasant – but it is necessary. Unless we represent even the most repellent of criminals, there is no justice and no justice system.

So, when Liz Cheney decides to criticise lawyers as the “Al Qaeda 7” because they have represented terrorists… well, I take issue with that. I find the idea of my being judged by the crimes of my clients… worrisome. Frankly I find this whole attempt by Cheney to be… rather comical because even her fellows are saying “um, you need to sit down and shut up, because this is ridiculous”

And of course, giving material like that to Maddow was… rather unwise.