Remarkable post from Scott Greenfield, a prominent blawger, reflecting on the mindset of prosecutors — and on what happens when their pedestal implodes and they lose their job and find themselves literally living with their parents again, as happened to the once high-flying and perhaps overly self-righteous David Greenspan:
Oh, how wonderful to be so powerful, to be able to make life and death decisions for others with the might of the State behind you. How glorious to laugh about it with your friends at the bar afterward, how you showed this miscreant who's boss. And to make defense lawyers, many years your senior, talk sweet to you, beg you, cajole you, try to curry your favor, all to weasel some small concession out of you. How wonderful it is to wield such power.
And then one day it's gone. All gone. The judges who once loved you no longer know your name. The lawyers who quaked when you looked at them askance ignore you. You're nothing. You're nobody. All the bridges burned, the friends you thought you had, and nobody will take your calls. ...
Some may feel the Schadenfreude, but that's petty. They are only children, fed a false belief of importance and given powers far beyond their abilities and understanding.
Whole thing here.
Comments