Virginia police uniforms are not automatically worn by your friends

Virginia police uniforms are worn by people who have their own agenda, which does not automatically align with the interests of criminal suspects and defendants. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know how overly simplistic my elementary school principal was being when introducing a police speaker (aka propagandist) while underlining that “police officers are your friends.” During this Halloween weekend, I am reminded that it is not even the most morbid merrymaker’s costume that needs to cause caution, but a police officer’s uniform.

Why do I need to to fear about Virginia police uniforms if I have not violated the criminal law?

Let me count the ways in which too many people wearing Virginia police uniforms do not well serve the public that they are supposed to serve. For starters, we have the reality of police stops motivated by the non-offense of driving while black driving while Latino, and driving while a member of any number of ethnicities, all  under the masquerade of a minor moving violation. Next come dragnet arrests of everyone near a small amount of drugs or other contraband when common sense and facts establish that too many innocent people get caught and convicted in that process. Next come the police officers who over-express to prosecutors their opposition to a criminal case settlement approach, when Virginia assistant commonwealth’s attorneys are tasked with making those decisions themselves.

If you want to avoid a real fright, then timely obtain a qualified Virginia criminal defense lawyer

Criminal courthouses are filled with possibilities and landmines for the accused. You are not going to know how to navigate such terrain and Virginia police uniforms without a qualified Virginia criminal lawyer on your side. For that matter, do not let yourself be deluded into relying for your liberty or other favorable court outcome on the Fairfax elected commonwealth’s attorney nor other Northern Virginia self-styled progressive and reformist chief prosecutors. They have their own agendas that do not fully align with yours as a Virginia DUI or criminal defendant, and their line prosecutors do not automatically embrace how far their ultimate boss’s purported progressiveness goes.

Fairfax jurors and many other jurors presume the veracity, goodwill and reliability of police

Fairfax County, Virginia, is one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, with the headquarters and hubs of many major military defense and other major corporations. Privileged people and entities tend to look to police and prosecutors to protect their prosperity and status. How, then, can a Fairfax criminal lawyer disintegrate such reliance on police and prosecutors? Jurors can be shown and reminded that police power and other power can be misused and abused, police can get overwhelmed with work to the point that they rely on often quickly-typed police reports as their gospel of the incident, and bad policing is not merely the mis-step of a few bad apples. Police are humans, and humans repeatedly are subject to downfalls. Furthermore, many jurors know someone who got mistreated by a police officer one way or the other, whether by disrespectful behavior or language, wrongful accusation unaccompanied by sufficient investigation, or otherwise. That can be the start for them not to treat those in Virginia police uniforms as any more reliable and credible on the witness stand than anyone else.

How do I protect myself from police accusations?

Plenty of generally good cops in Virginia police uniforms exist, but still their agendas do not align with those of Virginia criminal defendants. The only person in the criminal courthouse whose agenda aligns with yours is your qualified criminal lawyer. Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz busts his butt for your best possible result against Virginia DUI, felony and misdemeanor prosecutions. Find out how by scheduling your free initial in-person confidential consultation with Jon Katz, at 703-383-1100.