[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=Blogstar]My bad, when you say you want to see something or hear something I assume it means you want to apply some amount of wisdom to it and maybe assimilate something new. When you consistently don’t, I think you lied. Definitely my bad.[/quote]
in trial advocacy class at law school, we learn never to call a police officer a liar (or any other witness either) unless it is absolutely, unequivovally the case that the jury knows for certain they are intentionally not tellign the truth, with t he sole purpose to deceive.
and even then, it is alsways better to find a way not to call someone a liar, and let the jury draw its own conclusion, even when the evidnece seems to support no other inference but the telling of a lie.
we need permission from the jury to do so, because the word itself is so inflammatory and distasteful. it is ok to claim that what they are saying is not the truth, and perhaps even that the officer knew at the time she said it that she was not telling the truth, or was misguided, or misled, but the four letter word liar, this word must be kept under lock and key, and sonly very very rarely deployed, for it is the nuclear weapon of trial…and people dont like the offhand deployment of our nuclear arsenal.
we like to assume our fellow citizens are acting in good faith, and have not come to intentionally lie. its difficult to get anywhere when we call one another liars, because it is fighting words.
it never impresses the ultimate factfinder because it is up to the factfinder to determine the credibility of witnesses,a dn it is always betetr to give the reasons leading up to the conclusion that one is a liar, rather than the bold conclusory statement that one is a liar.
that way, the factfinder has the facts at hand to draw the conclusion himself…and that, that is far more powerful in terms of persuasive argument.[/quote]
Yes, I blew it in that exact way.
What was that saying about not mistaking something else for Malice?
I do think letting things like Men are abandoners and other such claims fly is dangerous. That’t what dialectic is for( without the accusations of lying). Thinking of the Salem Witch trials, though I am not sure it fits. Seems like it does.