Chapter six
The biggest part of this chapter is the trial of Butchie Frazier, a man who shot and blinded police officer Gene Cassidy.
(And McLarney going off the rails after.)
Suited for the job
"It was a grim, pathetic parade, a chain of human misery for which Bothe was psychologically as well as temperamentally suited," page 294.
(Note: Finally a powerful, intelligent woman!)
Bothe is a judge, which means she makes decisions about life and death. She sits and listens to people talk about brutal crimes. I don't think this is a job most people would be able to do.
Something I've gathered from this book is that some people are better suited for certain jobs than others. It makes me wonder if this is a disposition based on their inherent nature or values.
In chapter five, Simon says homicide detectives must be clinical about the way they handle their cases.
But it isn't just homicide detectives or judges.
"'A-D-A-S-T-W,' she says with a certain pride. 'Arrived dead and stayed that way.' Beautiful. Is it any wonder that the easiest extramarital affair for a cop is with an emergency room nurse? What other relationship could be so psychologically symbiotic, so happily diseased in perspective?" Page 283 (chapter five.)
Do they learn to emotionally distance themselves? Or are they people who are already able to have that disconnect, which isn't to say that they don't care. Instead of crying or becoming irrational, they figure the case out.
"Normal people. Citizens. Human beings. Even among the believers, there is a certain pathology to being a cop," page 311.
Does being emotionally suited to a job play a certain role?
I have friends who are nurses, and for the most part they are nurturing people. Do they become that way because they are nurses, or do they become nurses because they are that way.
I wonder about what sort of emotional state it takes to be a journalist.
Tricks of the trade
A good defense attorney sits close to his client, touches him on the shoulder to get his attention, puts an arm around him to show the jurors that he likes this man, that he believes in him. Some lawyers go so far as to give defendants mints or hard candies, telling clients to pull them out at a quiet moment and offer one to the lawyer, perhaps even to the prosecutor, seated a few seats away. See, ladies and gentlemen, he's human."
Like the example of the fax-machine-lie-detector, within the justice system, there are ways of knowing how to persuade people. It doesn't seem all that bad when it results in someone confessing to murder (if they have actually committed that murder,) but when it means a criminal doesn't serve time it's a lot more greasy.
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