American heroes.

[madmusic]

Defender Works for Fairness, Not Wealth
Ramiro Cisneros isn't showered with respect but says he is protecting the Constitution.
By John Balzar, Times Staff Writer
September 5, 2006

Dump truck. Public pretender.

Ramiro Cisneros knows the disparaging names he's called. Everywhere he turns, people look at him with a question mark in their eye. Even his parents at first wondered why he became a public defender in the criminal courts instead of a prosecutor.

His clients talk among themselves about being "dumped" onto the public defender's caseload. Sometimes in the courthouse, witnesses mistakenly believe that a public defender is not a lawyer but someone of lesser standing. Strangers he meets in social situations sometimes dare to ask him directly: How can he take the side of murderers, gangbangers and other scum?

He has answers, all public defenders do.

He has lofty answers that go right to the Bill of Rights. And he has personal reasons too.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-norwalk5sep05,1,5633876.story?coll=la-headlines-california

[John Gauger]

1. That's what my brother wants to do

Along with working for the ACLU. He beleives all people have a right to competent legal representation. He got that from the Constitution.

[madmusic]

3. I have immense respect for them.

That so many don't makes me respect them all the more. Many are VERY good at their job and could be making big bucks. All in all, they try to be fair and do the best they can. Though budgets for police and prosecution have skyrocketed, their hasn't. And they still keep at, the last wall of justice between a totalitarian state and liberty and justice for all.

Congrats to your brother. It's often a thankless job, but it is vital.

[madmusic]

2. There's a Part 1, and more to follow during the week:

The System: Deals, Deadlines, Few Trials
Defendants' futures hang in the balance of decisions made daily in the courtrooms and hallways of Superior Court in Norwalk.
By John Balzar, Times Staff Writer
September 4, 2006

At 8 o'clock in the morning the single-file line grows to 52 people waiting to shuffle past the sheriff's security checkpoint and into the monolithic stone courthouse. More arrive by the minute. Except for an infant too young to know the paralytic effect of dread on one's spirits and the occasional beep-beep of the metal detector, the aging lobby is hushed. Conversations pass in murmurs or, often, through tense glances or the squeeze of hands.

It is a Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Norwalk.

There is nothing particularly special about this Monday. Not for the larger megalopolis anyway. It is special only for those who have an appointment with The System. For them, today could mean the difference between going home or going to prison, between hope or no hope at all.

Ramiro Cisneros arrived at the courthouse half an hour ago. In a windowless, institutional office with just two framed photographs to suggest permanency, he thumbs once more through the day's manila files.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-norwalk4sep04,0,4232267.story?page=1&coll=la-home-local