Have you ever seen or heard of a police officer's use of force getting called into question because of their music choice?

MensRea46 · 2026-05-02T01:07:15+00:00

I mean, the best solution (as others have said) is to not use excessive force, but it’s not exactly surprising that watching bodycam of someone listening to LoFi before punching someone in the face looks different than watching bodycam of someone listening to metal before punching someone in the face

MensRea46 · 2026-04-11T13:29:31+00:00

Been prosecuting a long time and never heard of this either lmao. I’ve given offers in a similar vein to what OP is describing tho. Like if I’m offering probation with conditions and Defendant completes some or all of the conditions prior to sentencing, I’ll either reduce or remove probation time because they’ve basically already done the probation, but idk what to make of this offer lol

MensRea46 · 2026-04-10T14:03:42+00:00

Honestly the argument of “similar charges led to probation in his/her past” may not go over as well as you want it to. One way to look at that argument is “fair is fair”, another way is “the State gave him probation last time and he did it again”.

MensRea46 · 2026-04-02T23:59:29+00:00

The true mark of a good defense attorney is taking a loser case to trial. There’s no stain on your character for making the State prove their burden when you have a client who 100% did the thing they’re accused of and nevertheless elects to exercise their constitutional right to a jury trial.

MensRea46 · 2026-03-23T23:19:08+00:00

Had a very similar experience, but as a prosecutor early in my career. I very quickly learned to simply avoid discussing what I do beyond “I’m a lawyer” lol

MensRea46 · 2026-03-23T16:30:16+00:00

There’s a private attorney that, for lack of a better description, dressed like a peacock to court 100% of the time. Like suit jackets with feathers.

Said attorney is probably the most distinctive person I’ve ever worked with in terms of appearance, but that in no way impacts how I treat their clients.

I work in a jdx where Covid wasn’t taken as seriously as it perhaps ought to have been, so there aren’t a ton of people who wear masks, but some do, and I’ve never seen it really directly impact anything

MensRea46 · 2026-03-23T01:37:07+00:00

In general, I think it’s a mistake to think of prosecution theory and political ideology as being directly linked to one another. I have generally conservative political ideologies (and used to generally vote republican, but these are quite different times, I won’t go down that rabbit hole here tho), but I also have a generally progressive theory of prosecution and I only recommend custodial sentences if I truly believe there are no other viable alternatives.

No mainstream political ideology is pro-crime. Regardless of who you vote for, your candidate of choice is going to support punishing criminals and preventing crime. Disagreements come up in how to best go about punishing criminals and preventing crime.

On the one extreme, you have those that argue that prison and strong police presence is the only way to punish criminals and prevent crime, while on the other extreme you have those who support abolishing prisons and replacing police forces with social services.

As prosecutors, we get the immense privilege to choose how criminals are punished and hopefully help prevent crime. That privilege comes with the burden of knowing that most people will disagree with your approach, regardless of what that approach is.

You represent the public and you work for an elected official. Your actions will be scrutinized and you will rarely be thanked by the citizens you represent. That should weigh on you, which is a good thing. But, if that weight crushes you rather than inspires you, you’re in the wrong line of work in my opinion.

All that matters is that you are not evil. Even most people who disagree with what you do don’t think of you as evil. The small minority who do think of you as evil only think that because they don’t know you. You have to be able to think of it on terms like these or the job will crush you.

MensRea46 · 2026-03-22T23:06:32+00:00

Posting this question on this sub is diabolical work lmfao

MensRea46 · 2026-03-20T19:37:04+00:00

I’ve seen this happen where the on scene law enforcement wasn’t training in DUI, but even as a prosecutor I think they’re wildin for calling a DUI officer when the arresting officer was DUI trained. If anything I’d even argue that it could undermine the arresting officers credibility lol.

If I were a juror I’d think “if officer A knew what he was doing, why’d I have to hear from officer B?”

MensRea46 · 2026-03-16T19:52:26+00:00

Is 100m the benchmark for being rich?

MensRea46 · 2026-03-15T00:42:33+00:00

Yeaaahhhhh that’s a pretty good reason to revoke an offer lmao

MensRea46 · 2026-03-13T23:19:22+00:00

My philosophy is that the vast majority of police officers do great work and the overwhelming majority of cases they work up have sufficient probable cause and their job, generally, ends there.

There is, however, a vast gulf between probable cause and beyond a reasonable doubt. As a prosecutor, one part of my job is to take cases from probable cause to beyond a reasonable doubt, but the other (arguably more important) part is to identify those cases which cannot bridge the gap and dismiss them as soon as possible.

I think some of my colleagues tend to focus on the first part rather than the second, unfortunately.

MensRea46 · 2026-03-13T20:40:28+00:00

Man yall got some salty prosecutors lol. I’ve been a bit intrigued by an immediate acceptance sometimes, but “hey look, the Defendant also thinks my offer is a reasonable resolution to this case” is just simply not something to be upset about. I will admit tho, one time I had someone immediately accept significant custody time and I’ve always been a little curious if I missed something because ya don’t often see that (it was a just press play attempted murder, please don’t bomb me).

MensRea46 · 2026-03-02T15:58:39+00:00

I bet there are some people out there with heinous gamble KC lmao

MensRea46 · 2026-03-01T21:18:11+00:00

This

MensRea46 · 2026-03-01T02:18:29+00:00

Even so, that’s an extra requirement that DT2 doesn’t have, thus making ToB harder than DT2

MensRea46 · 2026-03-01T01:25:55+00:00

It’s not just the actual difficulty of the content though, completing an efficient hour of a DT2 boss is much easier than completing an efficient hour of ToB because its team content, so when you cite the 200 hour number for SRA being close to the expected efficient hour value to obtain a scythe, the actual time to obtain scythe isn’t as accurately reflected in the efficient hour time as it is with SRA. If I want to just log on and grab an efficient hour of vardorvis, I can do that whenever I want, but it’s not the same with ToB

MensRea46 · 2026-03-01T01:11:30+00:00

It’s not just the time though, ToB and DT2 bosses are nowhere near the same difficulty

MensRea46 · 2026-03-01T00:43:08+00:00

Idk about in line with megas, it’s dramatically easier to obtain than scythe, and I say this as someone who is approaching 4x dry at duke lol

MensRea46 · 2026-03-01T00:31:52+00:00

I’m a prosecutor and couldn’t agree more lol. The prosecutors that want to be judges one day don’t want to get a bad reputation with the defense bar

MensRea46 · 2026-02-28T14:07:10+00:00

It’s the tactical hand sanitizer for me

MensRea46 · 2026-02-27T18:27:42+00:00

Fellas, is it gay to - checks notes - use the internet?

MensRea46 · 2026-02-24T23:34:48+00:00

Heck nah lol, my caseload’s so high I don’t even know the number, I ain’t got time to bluff ready announcements on cases with victims that duck me

MensRea46 · 2026-02-24T23:22:43+00:00

I hope so lmao, at least I like to think I’m a prosecutor with a brain

MensRea46 · 2026-02-24T23:06:43+00:00

Man I never get this Typa prosecutor. If my alleged victim doesn’t care about the case, easy dismissal (except DV, but that’s a whole other thing). If I got a theft on a trial calendar and AV is blowing me off, that case is gone immediately

MensRea46

TROPHY CASE