And so in a moment when “abolish the police” is becoming a liberal mantra, you would expect “rein in the prosecutors” to be the sister cause. But life’s more complicated than that. Currently, the most famous criminal defendants in America may be police — namely Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, under whose knee George Floyd met his fate in May.
Neal Katyal, a prominent center-left constitutional scholar, is becoming a pro-bono prosecutor. That’s not unprecedented, but, “Hey, let’s help prosecutors lock people up,” wasn’t considered liberal a few months ago.
In February, Black Lives Matter protesters, along with other criminal justice reformers, led a protest against the use of private-sector attorneys to supplement the prosecutor's office.
These days, liberals who run for district attorney tout themselves as “progressive prosecutors,” suggesting they will lock up fewer people and for shorter sentences. But the history of the culture war over the past few years suggests that this will change soon enough.
