T. Greg Doucette is running for state Senate in North Carolina. He is a criminal defense attorney who is also a Republican (record scratch). But the Twitter rant he went on last week crosses all partisan boundaries.
It began innocently enough.
xNeed to rant briefly. You've been forewarned.
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016 x1. I get asked -- often -- if I hate police
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016My guess is that very few Republicans get asked if “they hate police” often.
Doucette proceeds to explain a case he has where a 17-year-old black young man is being hit with the serious charge of reckless driving to endanger. His client is terrified.
x7. Client is a 17yo black male, "YBM" in defense lawyer parlance
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016The charge comes from an eyewitness who told police that the young man was driving donuts (360 degree circles) and almost hit the eyewitness’s wife. That’s pretty damning stuff. More damning is the police officer’s report.
x11. Cont'd: "Skid marks show clear 360° circles. Driver claimed he was trying to avoid hitting cat."
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016“Clear 360 degree circles.” T. Greg Doucette’s client has a mother. She took photos of the spot where the alleged reckless driving took place.
x16. The money shot: pic.twitter.com/9q1gSQa3mw
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016 x18. What. The actual. F*ck.
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016 x19. Do I hate police? No. I hate raging incompetent cowboys w/ badges financed by my tax money who clearly haven't had an eye exam recently
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016Republican or Democratic, Libertarian or Socialist, Independent or co-dependent—we can all agree that Doucette’s exclamation of “What. The actual. F*ck.” is 100 percent appropriate. The kid is going to get off. The prosecutors have dropped the charges. But the story is bigger than that and Doucette makes an important distinction for those out there that want to retreat into the no harm no foul justification for not being outraged.
x23. While the officer who (wrongfully) charged him — and pretty clearly lied on official court documents — will face -0- repercussions.
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016 x24. This is what police brutality looks like. It's not just people having their rights violated and the sh*t kicked out of them.
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016And that’s the point. This is a system that takes away people’s humanity early on. A 17-year-old kid trying not to hit a cat swerves his car and his family is out money, he’s been stressed out, and would have been convicted if his mother hadn’t taken photos of the crime scene. Doucette continues on his rant and gets into the actual systematic failures in this equation—everything from court costs and the numbers game of cases dismissed versus guilty plea deals.
x30. A day's worth of traffic cases can finance an ADA's salary for a year. Likewise for a clerk or a judge.
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016The court is charged with paying for itself and so legislatures move the money that would go to courts elsewhere, leaving the courts underfunded and continuing to gouge the poor for minor offenses. Those poor people usually end up being young and black like this client.
x37. It doesn't matter if you put an R or a D or a U beside your name — this is wrong.
— T. Greg Doucette (@greg_doucette) February 23, 2016It doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is—it isn’t right.