Sorcha:
From you descriptions, and from your posts (good people find each other generally) it sounds like your husband is a good and level headed fellow, and it is often the rash cowboy types that attact trouble in a bad situation. And, he has all of our prayers riding with him every night.
McGrath, that is exactly what I was saying earlier, we all cut corners in our work, and when a cop does it, rights and life are at stake. There are some jobs, like doctors and cops, that because of the eliment of life and death, a higher standard must be applied. In the days when the medical profession was not highly regualted, you had many more reckless doctors. There was a rather highly promoted book, by a fellow named Ulliver, a crim law prof at COlumbia, called Tempered Zeal, about a case within the 9th precinct (where I live by coincidence). It showed how careful police work was enough and we did not need adversarial trials which get in the way of police work. He recomened an investigatory system - such as Russia had, and Leprechaun recomends - by assumption from his list of what is wrong. The proof in the book is that the case examined resulted in a confession. What he does not say in the book, is that the confession was unsigned an typed. After the book was published a (snot nosed - Leprechaun?) criminal defense lawyer, a friend of mine, had the conviction overturned, proving the man the 9th had framed was innocent, and subsiquent excellent police work, now under the hightened scruteny of having been shown wrong, found the fellow who actually committed the murder.
A last word about name calling. The use of such terms as snot nosed, undercuts you argument, Leprechaun, as it shows that your rehtoric is only window dressing on your lack of respect for those who disagree with you, and when you argue about the motives of defense attournies, while calling them snot noses, well your vission of a well regualted society controlled by bully boys is clear. It is like the cry of take the handcuffs off the cops, let the courts step back and give the cops the freedom to act on their gut prejudices.
All the best to all, and Genie and my prayers for Sorcha and Officer Mr, Sorcha
Larry
PS McGrath remember the Ewan McColl song, Go Down You Murderer Go Down? Doesn't that say it all?