In the Spring of 2020, I picked up and walked off from my normally lucrative day job as a criminal defense attorney here in Los Angeles and by happenstance fell into the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted here in my City. On the second day of what had been looting and rioting in the previous days had calmed and what remained were fires, smoldering buildings, Police Officers rushing from place to place and a general chaos that had overtaken the streets. I went out with my camera and a baseball bat and I wasn't looking for a pick up game. The neighborhood where I grew up in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles was burning. I did not know what I was walking into. I was pissed. I grabbed my camera and began to document after I fed West LAPD.

The next day I happened to be in the San Fernando Valley and a rumor of a riot breaking out at the Van Nuys Courthouse hit social media. With my camera tucked away in my trunk I hightailed it over there. I found myself in the first of 7 full scale protests in Los Angeles which I participated in and documented. Having the unique perspective of having worked with and for law enforcement I was able to easily find out who the commanders were, made friends, urged them not to shoot me, and plowed in. In that first 3-4 days I was one of only a few cameras on the ground, the major media too afraid of the violence and Covid to actually report on it.

I documented and recorded the events from the side of law enforcement and from the side of the protestors. I was left impressed by both the dignity, courtesy and idealism of the protestors as well as by the patience and professionalism of virtually all of the law enforcement agencies I interfaced with here in Los Angeles who did a remarkable job, and showed great restraint even in the days after the Mayor of this City undercut them. From Los Angeles I took the project on the road to Seattle and Portland and it remains a work in progress. I saw not one crime committed in my presence in this City by protestors or one act of brutality by Police.

At the heart of the nationwide protests was a deep desire for change in the way our criminal justice system works and fails. It was a plea for law enforcement to change. I found myself wondering if these protestors understood that for the change they sought law enforcement was just one cog in the wheel and until our courts and the Prosecuting Agencies who file cases change, you will change nothing.

On December 7, 2020 a new District Attorney in Los Angeles, George Gascon, announced a number of directives to his office which if successful could be a game changer in the way the criminal courts do business. They could also abysmally fail. The legislature has enacted changes to our Penal Code that will similarly alter the landscape of our courts this coming year. All of it is new to us in the system. I personally have not studied it all yet but plan to, and will be writing on it in the next few days. I am hoping and asking my friends and colleagues on both sides of the Bar to engage in frank and educational discussion out here in places like this about what the courts are really like, what its like to have a client in the system, what its like to be a cop or a DA, and how we can find, if there is any, common ground. Air your differences politely and respectively or you are gone.

As Lawyers, Prosecutors, Judges, and Attorneys we should be leading right now. Use your own voice. Chat here. Share this. Create your own voice. This subject cant be left to news media to explain and educate. Contribute your voice.

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