Originally Posted by Dead Man
you should befriend a prosecutor or go sit in on some arraignments or something.. get some perspective.
its a cops job to find crimes and investigate them.
its a prosecutors job to prosecute criminal allegations as a result of those investigations.
this IS their jobs, and they tend to do them, and push hard for those prosecutions, because every arrest, every successful prosecution furthers their careers - and both of these elements are almost always trying to further their careers... for pride, prestige, money. they tend to OVER DO their jobs - that is, if they can possibly squeek something thats borderline in, they do. sometimes even pushing for prosecution on things that arent actually even crimes...
this is the atmosphere of the investigation and prosecution side of The Law. and it doesnt matter if we're talking left coast, right coast, south, north, middle - its the same everywhere you go. sure, there are SOME exceptions to this in isolated communities where extra-law allegiances and obligations can come into play, but those are exceptions. the standard is to prosecute, if theres any notion it will be successful. this is encouraged further by the fact that over 90% of criminal charges are pled out before trial - citizens facing prison, guilty or not, will almost always plea out to avoid the risk of lengthy prison sentences. so prosecutors will OFTEN prosecute cases where no crime was even committed, so long as the investigators handing them the case at least have "probable cause" ... which is a ****ty way to operate, since probable cause is an exceptionally low evidentiary threshold, and grand juries tend to side with the prosecutors asking them for indictments, due to the weird highly biased way grand juries are managed by said prosecutors.
whats my point? my point is that almost always, if a crime exists, prosecutors prosecute. period. sure theres probably SOME level of personal bias that can come into play, but do you honestly think every- most- or even a lot- of prosecutors are SO biased against MAMILs that they wont prosecute otherwise good cases??
when a cyclist is killed in a traffic crash and no charges are forthcoming, you absolutely can rest easy in trusting that its because no crime was committed. exceptions to this will be very exceptional.
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