People v. State

Love him or hate him, or love him and hate him, there’s no denying that Scott H. Greenfield at Simple Justice has contributed more substance to the criminal defense practical blawgosphere than any other individual. (I would not have hesitated to use the present tense “contributes,” except that an argument could be made that in the substance department Jeff Gamso in the first year of his blawg’s existence has been giving Scott a run for his money. But Simple Justice has been around since February 13, 2007 — although, interestingly, beginning with a post seemingly addressed to potential clients.) Scott and I have had our issues. See, e.g., here, here?, here, here and here. But even if you’re one of those who believe it’s advisable in reading Scott’s blawg to separate the wheat from the chaff, there’s still so much wheat there that Scott deserves a healthy measure of gratitude from those of us who regularly load up on the carbohydrates he dishes out on a daily basis.

In a post today titled Simple Justice: Through the Eyes of Scott Greenfield, Scott writes:

You may have noticed that I included my name in the title of this post.  It’s the first time I’ve ever done that.  The reason is because my name appears in plenty of posts, usually the ones critical of me or at least being overtly snarky.  I know, the snarky ones are meant as an homage, but sometimes they take my jokes too seriously and strike me as being unable to distinguish between the person and the persona.  It annoys me at times.

A couple of weeks ago, an email came in about how the write had googled my name and found some insane, vile posts about me on the second page.  My psycho stalker is still working hard through the night trying to get his inane nonsense on the first page of google.  You haven’t made it as a blawger until you have a psycho stalker.  Psychos, by definition, don’t go away.  I assume that people who aren’t totally nuts realize that these attacks are the work of a psycho.  I could be wrong, but I have no plans on spending my time worrying about it.

By putting my name in the title of this post, it’s likely to appear on the first page of google.  It will push the insane posts down the list by one.  It would be really great if everyone did a nice post about me and used my name in the title, so that the insane posts could be pushed back to page 28.  I don’t expect anyone will think it worth their effort to do so, unfortunately.  Simple Justice may matter enough to read, but there’s little concern out there for the writer.  I’m more the hired (yet unpaid) help, as far as others are concerned.

I left a comment on Scott’s post promising to heed his call and to post this post. Scott didn’t publish the comment for some reason. Unfortunately, the comment, and I suppose this post, could be interpreted as being laced with the slightest hint of snark. But what’s a little snark among friends? Does Scott, perchance, “take my jokes too seriously”? In any event, this post, in my own way (a way no doubt influenced by the blawging style of Scott himself, who is undeniably the preeminent thought leader of the practical blawgosphere), is seriously meant as nothing other than a nice post about Scott. Scott, on more than one occasion, in email exchanges and in comments on his blog and mine, has been towards me gracious, supportive and encouraging. That’s the other important side of his curmudgeonly persona. Far be it from me to bite the hand that has been so generous to me and many others.

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