Law in Contemporary Society

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ValeriaFloresSecondEssay 5 - 22 May 2021 - Main.EbenMoglen
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 How can I have a practice where I subjectively choose who to defend? Would I be okay with defending the men who killed Andrea Ruiz an Keishla Rodríguez? I do not know the answers to these questions, but I know that, in the alternative, I do not want to prosecute. Where I will go from here and the answers to these questions, I still need to resolve.
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Criminal defense counsel also find themselves angered by crimes, you can be sure, and by the illnesses in society that foster them. "A lot of people are saying he did the right thing"is why femicide happens in human society with endless, remorseless destructiveness. Public defense counsel take what they get, while private defense counsel decide how to earn their livings. That doesn't guarantee by any means that everyone is innocent, or even that the work always ends up making society better. Nor for prosecutors, as you can see. So the definition of the "why" in the practice has to lie elsewhere.

I think this is a much improved draft, both in making the personal writing more effective through brevity, and for using the recovered space to define the issues for yourself. Now you return in the fall knowing what you need to learn and what challenges you have in planning your practice.

 
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

ValeriaFloresSecondEssay 4 - 10 May 2021 - Main.ValeriaFlores
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Sundays

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For 20 years, I spent every Sunday at my grandmother’s house. My whole family did. If it was a Sunday, I would be there, along with my mom, grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins. My mom was always reluctant to go and so were my uncles and aunts, they had families of their own and better ways to spend their only free day of the week. And yet we were all there because, if you were not, my grandmother would be hurt, insult you to your face, then behind your back, until the next Sunday, one you could not dare miss. All we did was eat, and talk, and eat again. In retrospect, I see why that meant so much to her.

Those Sundays shaped me. Every Sunday I learned something new about myself and my family. Every Sunday was a small transition. As a kid, I spent those days playing with my cousins in my grandmother's room; what was said at the living room was grown up talk that we kids couldn't hear. Before leaving to New York, I dreaded those Sundays. I had turned into a grown-up who couldn't hide inside bedrooms anymore and I almost always disagreed with what was said in the living room. Nonetheless, the people in that house influenced me in ways I never noticed until I didn't see them every Sunday anymore.

As I think about the practice I want to have and the lawyer I want to be, I think it would be useful to look into the past before looking to the future. Specifically, there were three people who, every Sunday, influenced who I am and what I want to do in life, and in practice. I will examine their influence as I figure out my next steps.

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For 20 years, I spent every Sunday at my grandmother’s house. If it was a Sunday, I would be there, along with the rest of my family. Those Sundays shaped me. Every Sunday I learned something new about myself and my family. Every Sunday was a small transition. As a kid, I spent those days playing with my cousins in my grandmother's room; what was said at the living room was grown up talk that we kids couldn't hear. Before leaving for New York, I dreaded those Sundays. I had turned into a grown-up who couldn't hide inside bedrooms anymore and I almost always disagreed with what was said in the living room. Nonetheless, the people in that house influenced me in ways I never noticed until I didn't see them every Sunday anymore.
 

My aunt

My aunt is absolutely crazy. When it comes to life, generally, my whole family would agree she is not very smart, or sane. Her job is where she regains her smartness and sanity. No one seems to understand how, when talking about work, she transforms into a different person. Ironically, she's a lawyer. A prosecutor. It was because of her I decided I wanted to be a lawyer, and specifically not a prosecutor.

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When I transitioned from my grandmother's bedroom to having conversations in the living room, I talked to her the most, and we grew very close. All I did was ask about cases, facts, arguments, crime scenes, interrogations, everything. She answered everything I asked (not much confidentiality) and I loved everything she said. For a reason I can’t still figure out, I never quite liked her take on her cases as a prosecutor, and I always challenged her by playing the defense.

I recently called her and told her “I think I want to be a defense attorney.” She responded, “of course you are.”

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We grew very close. All I did was ask about cases, facts, arguments, crime scenes, interrogations, everything. She answered everything I asked (not much confidentiality) and I loved everything she said. For a reason I can’t still figure out, I never quite liked her take on her cases as a prosecutor, and I always challenged her by playing the defense.
 

My grandfather

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My grandfather had been the town’s deputy mayor many years ago but everyone still knew him. The house had a balcony facing the street on which we all sat, and 8 out of 10 passers-by stopped to say hi to him. His memory is not the same as it was years ago but he always engaged in conversation with them. When he was done, I would ask him “who was that?” and he would smile at me, “I have no idea.”
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Most of the time, my grandfather and I talked about me. School was very important to him; he had always wanted to be a math teacher and took pride in the fact that I did well in school. A lot of my confidence, from a little girl, comes from him. He always thought I could do anything, that I was the smartest and most capable. Anything would make him proud, from winning a spelling bee in the second grade to the recent thing, Columbia. But besides the confidence he helped me build and that permeated other aspects of my life, he instilled in me something much bigger.
 
Changed:
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Most of the time, we talked about me. School was very important to him, he had always wanted to be a math teacher and took pride in the fact that I did well in school. A lot of my confidence, from a little girl, comes from him. He always thought I could do anything, that I was the smartest and most capable. Anything would make him proud, from winning a spelling bee in the second grade to the recent thing, Columbia. But besides the confidence he helped me build and that permeated other aspects of my life, he instilled in me something much bigger. When I told him I was moving to New York, his favorite city, he told me “The people who stop by to say hi to me and I never know who they are, they always just want to say thanks. Many of their parents now have houses and a decent life because of the work we did when I was deputy mayor. I don’t know them, but I know my work affected their lives, and so I always say hi back. Whatever you do up there, be helpful, and be useful. There is nothing more gratifying.”
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>
He had been the town’s deputy mayor and people still walked up to him to say hi. He never knew who they were, but he always engaged in conversation either way. When I told him I was moving to New York, his favorite city, he told me “The people who stop by to say hi to me and I never know who they are, they always just want to say thanks. Many of their parents now have houses and a decent life because of the work we did when I was deputy mayor. I don’t know them, but I know my work affected their lives, and so I always say hi back. Whatever you do up there, be helpful, and be useful. There is nothing more gratifying.”
 

My grandmother

Changed:
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<
Family is everything to my grandmother, and she shows that through food. Those Sundays meant everything to her, she would cook for everyone while they were there and then cook some more for everyone to take home. If you were a picky eater, she would cook something special only for you. She wouldn’t come out and socialize with everyone, she would be in the kitchen all day. She didn’t only cook, she would serve each and every one of us, we could never serve ourselves. Occasionally, she came out of the kitchen to make sure nobody was eating while standing up, there is nothing she disliked more than that. If you had already eaten before going to her house, you were in big trouble. She taught me the value of family (whether you value them through cooking or else), and it wasn’t until I left that I realized I wouldn’t have those Sundays anymore, which made me value them more.
>
>
If you were a picky eater, my grandmother would cook something special only for you. Occasionally, she came out of the kitchen to make sure nobody was eating while standing up, there is nothing she disliked more than that. If you had already eaten before going to her house, you were in big trouble. She taught me the value of family (whether you value them through cooking or else), and it wasn’t until I left that I realized I wouldn’t have those Sundays anymore, which made me value them more.

My Practice

 Here’s what I know now: I want to be a defense attorney, I want to help, and I want to join my grandmother again some Sundays. Now, I need to figure out how.
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The best route to improvement, in my view, is compression. Your writing about your family is the heart of your essay, but you are repetitive. Look at the two sentences that start the next to last paragraph.
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Having a practice of my own, one in which I control my time and my work, will afford me the liberty to visit my family whenever I please. The difficult thing to do is figure out what I want my practice to be, and how to get there. I know I want to be a defense attorney, but I do wonder if I could be of more help as a prosecutor. I also wonder if, as a defense attorney, I would be in the “wrong side” of things.

Andrea Ruiz and Keishla Rodríguez were assassinated last week in Puerto Rico. Andrea Ruiz was killed by her ex-boyfriend, and Keishla Rodríguez was killed by her boyfriend. Their murders, which are now two ongoing publicized cases, shed light on Puerto Rico’s prevalent gender violence and have given rise to numbers of protests. Andrea Ruiz was murdered because her ex-boyfriend was obsessed with and stalking her. She reached out to the police several times about the situation and even filed a request for a protection order, which was denied. Keishla Rodríguez was murdered because she told her boyfriend she was pregnant with his child. There are people defending him and saying he did the right thing. After all, he is a famous boxer in Puerto Rico with a long and successful career ahead of him, a wife and a family of his own. He needed to get “rid of the problem an extramarital affair caused him.” I have never felt a stronger urge to be a prosecutor.

 
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Once you have tightened your family memoir to its essentials, you will have 400 words to address the next question, the real one, with which the current draft ends. The figuring out is not that hard, but it begins with your exercise of imagination.
>
>
How can I have a practice where I subjectively choose who to defend? Would I be okay with defending the men who killed Andrea Ruiz an Keishla Rodríguez? I do not know the answers to these questions, but I know that, in the alternative, I do not want to prosecute. Where I will go from here and the answers to these questions, I still need to resolve.
 
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.

ValeriaFloresSecondEssay 3 - 30 Apr 2021 - Main.EbenMoglen
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
 

From Sundays to a Practice

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 Here’s what I know now: I want to be a defense attorney, I want to help, and I want to join my grandmother again some Sundays. Now, I need to figure out how.
Added:
>
>
The best route to improvement, in my view, is compression. Your writing about your family is the heart of your essay, but you are repetitive. Look at the two sentences that start the next to last paragraph.

Once you have tightened your family memoir to its essentials, you will have 400 words to address the next question, the real one, with which the current draft ends. The figuring out is not that hard, but it begins with your exercise of imagination.

 
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

ValeriaFloresSecondEssay 2 - 16 Apr 2021 - Main.ValeriaFlores
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META TOPICPARENT name="SecondEssay"
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 It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
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 It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
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Paper Title

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From Sundays to a Practice

 -- By ValeriaFlores - 07 Apr 2021
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Section I

Subsection A

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Sundays

 
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For 20 years, I spent every Sunday at my grandmother’s house. My whole family did. If it was a Sunday, I would be there, along with my mom, grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins. My mom was always reluctant to go and so were my uncles and aunts, they had families of their own and better ways to spend their only free day of the week. And yet we were all there because, if you were not, my grandmother would be hurt, insult you to your face, then behind your back, until the next Sunday, one you could not dare miss. All we did was eat, and talk, and eat again. In retrospect, I see why that meant so much to her.
 
Changed:
<
<

Subsub 1

>
>
Those Sundays shaped me. Every Sunday I learned something new about myself and my family. Every Sunday was a small transition. As a kid, I spent those days playing with my cousins in my grandmother's room; what was said at the living room was grown up talk that we kids couldn't hear. Before leaving to New York, I dreaded those Sundays. I had turned into a grown-up who couldn't hide inside bedrooms anymore and I almost always disagreed with what was said in the living room. Nonetheless, the people in that house influenced me in ways I never noticed until I didn't see them every Sunday anymore.
 
Changed:
<
<

Subsection B

>
>
As I think about the practice I want to have and the lawyer I want to be, I think it would be useful to look into the past before looking to the future. Specifically, there were three people who, every Sunday, influenced who I am and what I want to do in life, and in practice. I will examine their influence as I figure out my next steps.
 
Added:
>
>

My aunt

 
Changed:
<
<

Subsub 1

>
>
My aunt is absolutely crazy. When it comes to life, generally, my whole family would agree she is not very smart, or sane. Her job is where she regains her smartness and sanity. No one seems to understand how, when talking about work, she transforms into a different person. Ironically, she's a lawyer. A prosecutor. It was because of her I decided I wanted to be a lawyer, and specifically not a prosecutor.
 
Added:
>
>
When I transitioned from my grandmother's bedroom to having conversations in the living room, I talked to her the most, and we grew very close. All I did was ask about cases, facts, arguments, crime scenes, interrogations, everything. She answered everything I asked (not much confidentiality) and I loved everything she said. For a reason I can’t still figure out, I never quite liked her take on her cases as a prosecutor, and I always challenged her by playing the defense.
 
Changed:
<
<

Subsub 2

>
>
I recently called her and told her “I think I want to be a defense attorney.” She responded, “of course you are.”
 
Added:
>
>

My grandfather

 
Added:
>
>
My grandfather had been the town’s deputy mayor many years ago but everyone still knew him. The house had a balcony facing the street on which we all sat, and 8 out of 10 passers-by stopped to say hi to him. His memory is not the same as it was years ago but he always engaged in conversation with them. When he was done, I would ask him “who was that?” and he would smile at me, “I have no idea.”
 
Changed:
<
<

Section II

>
>
Most of the time, we talked about me. School was very important to him, he had always wanted to be a math teacher and took pride in the fact that I did well in school. A lot of my confidence, from a little girl, comes from him. He always thought I could do anything, that I was the smartest and most capable. Anything would make him proud, from winning a spelling bee in the second grade to the recent thing, Columbia. But besides the confidence he helped me build and that permeated other aspects of my life, he instilled in me something much bigger. When I told him I was moving to New York, his favorite city, he told me “The people who stop by to say hi to me and I never know who they are, they always just want to say thanks. Many of their parents now have houses and a decent life because of the work we did when I was deputy mayor. I don’t know them, but I know my work affected their lives, and so I always say hi back. Whatever you do up there, be helpful, and be useful. There is nothing more gratifying.”
 
Changed:
<
<

Subsection A

>
>

My grandmother

 
Changed:
<
<

Subsection B

>
>
Family is everything to my grandmother, and she shows that through food. Those Sundays meant everything to her, she would cook for everyone while they were there and then cook some more for everyone to take home. If you were a picky eater, she would cook something special only for you. She wouldn’t come out and socialize with everyone, she would be in the kitchen all day. She didn’t only cook, she would serve each and every one of us, we could never serve ourselves. Occasionally, she came out of the kitchen to make sure nobody was eating while standing up, there is nothing she disliked more than that. If you had already eaten before going to her house, you were in big trouble. She taught me the value of family (whether you value them through cooking or else), and it wasn’t until I left that I realized I wouldn’t have those Sundays anymore, which made me value them more.
 
Added:
>
>
Here’s what I know now: I want to be a defense attorney, I want to help, and I want to join my grandmother again some Sundays. Now, I need to figure out how.
 
You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable.

ValeriaFloresSecondEssay 1 - 07 Apr 2021 - Main.ValeriaFlores
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Added:
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>
META TOPICPARENT name="SecondEssay"

It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.

Paper Title

-- By ValeriaFlores - 07 Apr 2021

Section I

Subsection A

Subsub 1

Subsection B

Subsub 1

Subsub 2

Section II

Subsection A

Subsection B


You are entitled to restrict access to your paper if you want to. But we all derive immense benefit from reading one another's work, and I hope you won't feel the need unless the subject matter is personal and its disclosure would be harmful or undesirable. To restrict access to your paper simply delete the "#" character on the next two lines:

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Revision 5r5 - 22 May 2021 - 14:00:24 - EbenMoglen
Revision 4r4 - 10 May 2021 - 15:20:32 - ValeriaFlores
Revision 3r3 - 30 Apr 2021 - 13:09:56 - EbenMoglen
Revision 2r2 - 16 Apr 2021 - 16:13:54 - ValeriaFlores
Revision 1r1 - 07 Apr 2021 - 17:59:46 - ValeriaFlores
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