The law is not the mechanism to change a society whose law and its enforcement inflict the oppression. That being said, as a public defender I work within the confines of that unjust system so I know that I am also a cog in the system and not a revolutionary who abolishes it 1/

I was deeply reminded of that yesterday legal observing because I wholeheartedly know and believe that protests do not need to be peaceful, in fact— change is probably more likely to be achieved through non peaceful protests 2/

But a major part of my job as a public defender is to get people out of jail so being constantly aware of the obstacle that is, I had to wrestle w/ my internal knee jerk desires to want to stop people from doing anything that would get them arrested 3/

When in actuality, their conduct is necessary and they are the ppl that will bring about the real change and are likely prepared to go to jail and face the system they want to dismantle in order to achieve it 4/

So I just wanted to share my awareness that even with all the work that I and other public defenders do to challenge a corrupt criminal system, we work within it and that has a real effect on what we’re able to do, how we see things, and we have to step aside to allow 5/

The true activists on the ground to do what they feel is necessary