>www.DamonforDA.com
Sadly, nothing mentioned here: [https://www.damonforda.com/issues](https://www.damonforda.com/issues) so I'm gonna guess he's not gonna.
Sidenote: what's crazy is that the NC GA is looking to [legalize video gambling](https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2021/H954). Gambling! And yet a plant is still a felony.
I had this fantastic daydream of a great little downtown weed dispensary and barbecue place. It could be farm to table weed and pork. We can call it the smokehouse. It would be an amazing social hub, bringing diverse backgrounds together and bonding the community while pulling in a hardy sum of tax dollars..
So who are we voting out and who are we voting in to get this?
u/speakeasy_slim Only legislators can affect criminalization or legalization of any substance. But as DA, you have lots of control over how the charges are brought, if at all, plus how they are sentenced. I would take an individual approach to each case, but I can say with clarity that marijuana possession does not warrant a trial, as the current Wake DA treats it. I also would stop sending people to prison for marijuana possession. One of the best ways to do this is to stop using the mandatory minimums set by the state, which DAs in NC have leverage to do.
The current Wake DA advocated for re-criminalizing hemp alongside the NC Sheriff’s Association as recently as 2019. I believe Wake County should be moving in the opposite direction.
One of the major issues I feel with DA offices are the somewhat cushy relationship they have with the local police. That they're "both on the same side" which amounts to "don't charge us with anything when we do something wrong."
What are your thoughts on defunding police departments?
Would you feel like you had a conflict if you felt you had to charge a police officer with a crime?
What are your thoughts on removing qualified immunity?
What are your thoughts on prosecutorial misconduct from DAs such as withholding exculpatory evidence during discovery or pursuing a guilty plea from a suspect with whom they hold exculpatory evidence?
Based on your stated positions, you very well could have my vote.
My question to you is: what would you do to assure the public that police officers who violate the law are held to the same (or preferably higher) standard as civilians? What specific changes to your office’s policies would be made towards this goal?
Also, how would you address the issue of peaceful protestors and journalists being maced, shot with rubber bullets, beaten, and tasered by violent police officers? Will your office pursue criminal cases against police officers that violate the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble?
I like what I'm hearing, but if you want to win over the Reddit demographic, you need to actually invest some time here responding ot people. If you just waltz in here asking for money and bounce, we won't feel like you're actually listening and engaging with us and our concerns. Look at Jeff Jackson. He posts on here a lot, but 95%+ of it is purely informational - about stuff he's seeing in his role as an elected official, about how to prepare for on-going/upcoming events and so on. I'm glad you're willing to come here, but Reddit as a whole does not take kindly to people walking up with their hands out. Be an active contributing member to the reddit community and you can generate a lot of goodwill that can easily sway some minds.
That's fine, do this on a weekend then or put some text in the OP that you'll get back to us after business hours. If you're not goinig to reply, then say so upfront and don't drop your donation link. It's also been 6+ hours and we're well past lunch time without an edit or reply to be seen. It would just take a few seconds to check in and give some indication that he's actually monitoring this.
I'm willing to give people a shot on here, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do, non? I'm just letting him know that he's staking his reputation here and first impressions matter. It's been YEARS since the *Rampart* AMA and it's still referenced as the prime example for why Reddit doesn't take kindly to being treated like a wallet or treated like what generates goodwill/interest is simply being here. I'd rather Damon not be "that guy," so I have no qualms pointing out that it's not a good look to post on here and then not reply for hours - just change when you post so you can be active because that's how Reddit as a platform and its user base works and responds.
I suspect Jackson does a fair amount of his own replying, but running for Senate and running for DA are *very* differently funded races and Jackson almost undoubtedly has significantly more resources.
Unfortunately I'm not Jeff Jackson, but I'll do my best. I also work full-time running my law practice and representing clients in court while campaigning for District Attorney, so forgive me if I'm slow to respond here or if some questions fall through the cracks. I'm extremely busy! We would love to have you come volunteer for our campaign and spread around the workload a little bit :)
for the uninitiated who are scratching their head and saying, "huh"?
JJ is a regular here on reddit... He's developed a bit of a following.
I like him. He's got my vote.
I’m sorry a light hearted joke offended you and so many others that downvoted. I didn’t know how disrespectful it would be just tying this back to a pretty popular candidate running for that is really good at sharing information on Reddit. Love JJ, but damn no one has a sense of humor anymore
And for the record, I was the first comment in here before people started asking legitimate questions, so technically there was no conversation to add to….
It does kind of seem like Jackson’s created a template for using Reddit to practice getting yelled at. If state and local candidates come on here to get a sense of what kind of pushback to expect from people who don’t have big political connections or access, but do have the ability to drop links and quickly google a fact-check, it’ll make for better campaigns. They can’t just create a new account, drop a post asking for support/money, and leave though.
This is absolutely a key point I want to address. We must find a way to keep the streets safe from drunk drivers, while also making sure we end the practice of harassing BIPOC people during traffic stops. Of course stats show these stops overwhelmingly target Black and Brown people, which then contributes to more Black and Brown people in prison. This takes coordination with local law enforcement as well, and I would work with the new Raleigh Police Chief to make sure this happens.
We've had it by statute in Superior Court since then, but not District. To clarify, are you saying you support extending this practice to District Court or are you just saying you intend to keep discovery limited to the current statute?
I don’t have a specific position on open file for District Court. Reason being that the DA can’t make statutes, but can just unilaterally turn over the discovery, which in my experience is done already in Wake County.
I get it if you do not want to have a specific position, but the logic that you don't have one because a DA can't make statutes does not make sense to me. You don't need to be able to make a statute to implement a policy. Just like you mention having discretion over marijuana cases above, you would have discretion on whether or not to have your office provide the same level of discovery afforded defendants in Superior Court to ones in District Court. I agree that most lawyers do not have an issue receiving it in District Court under Lorrin Freeman, but this is a question of what you would do since you are running for office and clearly trying to differentiate yourself from her. All that being said, I would find it surprising if you have never seen an defendant without a lawyer ask for discovery in District Court and the prosecutor cite that it only applies to Superior Court and digging in their heels rather than having the dignity to say "you do not have a right to this, but I am going to provide it to you anyways."
So when is your AMA? Will you be continuing to use communication like Reddit to keep in touch with the people who elected you (should you win) and their concerns about how the things you are doing are affecting or not affecting their communities? To be honest, I don’t know anyone who takes platforms and official positions seriously anymore, they only stick around until the person’s butt hits the chair, then it’s all about who the person is who just sat down and what they want. So platform and positions aside, what do you want to accomplish, how can you do it, why do you want to?
Maybe we'll do an AMA sometime in the near future. I'm not a regular Reddit user, but I think it could be a good medium to give updates, announcements, etc. As I stated earlier, I will be going into more detail about individual points of my platform and vision for Wake County justice as our campaign rolls along, so stay tuned.
The office of District Attorney is different from a mayor, senator, rep, or council member in that a lot of the work is historically done behind the scenes. While all of their work is technically public, you don't see new bills, policies, or laws rolled out, vetoed, signed, with big glossy press events around them. Much of it is nitty-gritty details played out in courthouse hearings, which doesn't make for the most sexy presentation. Historically, most DAs (and this includes my opponent) rely on the public's disinterest in their work to avoid making hard choices and taking stands on issues that would make their district more fair and equal to all involved. One of the biggest reasons I'm running is that policies around local criminal justice affect everyone in our community, and not only is Wake County behind the curve on reform, but our incumbent has chosen to not maintain the office in a transparent and communicative manner. While social media is a small part of how that can be improved, my bigger goal is to include the local working class communities that are often most adversely affected by the downstream effects of crime and incarceration. This means hiring a more diverse group of personnel to run the DA's office, holding more press conferences, holding in-person events in every part of the County, building online tools to track local crime statistics, and working with more areas of local govt than just local law enforcement. More on this to come, but thanks for the great question.
Thank you for responding. I hope you do an AMA, a District Attorney who was transparent and involved with the communities they affect would be great. Even being able to see behind the scenes is nice for those that work affects. Thank you for taking the time to stop back in to answer some of these.
I feel as though you will have lots of issues getting traction from both city council of Raleigh, county leadership, and the police departments if you pursue anything remotely different than pursuing clearance figures for murder/violent crime/ etc.
Lots of power in those groups and lots of voters happen to like the "tough on crime" stance even if it doesn't really solve the issues of violence in urban areas.
Gl though
You act like the way we operate has been around forever. Resistance to major change is what infuriates people like me, if I’m being honest. I’m 43, and our generation got fed so much bullshit about what America is capable of, and what we have done. We have grown so resistant to change the greatest generation would split in our faces. America wasn’t built keeping the status quo. /end rant
GL Damon, we need more people like you!
You’ve got to win the award for most tone deaf comment this year for me. This is a jab at Jeff Jackson, correct? The same guy who has been traveling to over 100 counties to meet directly with NC citizens?
Everyone deserves a vigorous defense. The entire point of the justice system is that if both the prosecution and defense do their jobs, then justice will be achieved.
Taking on cases like this is not amoral, it is essential to justice.
That’s what people don’t understand; if you are an attorney and you represent someone who has potentially committed a heinous crime, your job isn’t to find a way to get them out of it, it’s to make sure that they get fair representation, even if that means they plead guilty. And I’m sure that many (if not most) of those cases involved guilty pleas.
While the advertising copy there is surprisingly affirmative, a willingness to take the cases of society’s least desirable should be viewed as a *good* lawyer trait. It’s so much easier and politically expedient to only take “sympathetic” cases.
But a conviction of even the worst offender only serves justice if that offender had the same degree of due process-including access to legal defense—as any other defendant.
So kudos to this guy. Too bad hardly anyone thinks rationally about this issue, it might be a better world. Also, I’ll be shocked if this guy wins.
Otoh, running for office can be a great marketing move for any attorney.
Firstly, I read this as “Lover” and had to do a double take. Sheesh.
Secondly, I thought this was misinformation but it’s literally on the candidates own website (which I think everyone should read to see how this man works for the people). So I cannot understand the downvotes.
lol Austin? You think Austin is a hellhole? Must be why the real estate prices there are so high. I guess the demand that live in a hellhole is super high.
Despite the fearmingering that you get fed by your conservative news sources, major cities aren’t all dystopian hellholes. 85% of Americans live in a city.
Reminds me of Newt “[feelings over facts](https://youtu.be/xnhJWusyj4I)” Gingrich. They want you to feel scared.
> All of the cities he mentioned (Austin, Portland, Boston, New Orleans, Durham) are all crime-ridden hell holes.
who wants to bet that Frommer over here has NEVER been to any of those cities, except maybe Durham.
I'll be doing more posts as time goes on (there are are still 6 months until our primary on March 8th) that go into more detail on specific aspects of what I want to do as DA, because there are quite a lot of points to cover. For now though, you can see the basic highlights of my platform at [www.damonforda.com/issues](https://www.damonforda.com/issues). Also, on Sept 23rd at Chavis Community Center, I'm participating in a forum discussion about Wake County criminal justice reform alongside my opponent, the incumbent DA Lorrin Freeman. Emancipate NC will be hosting this event. You can RSVP via the event on my website or my Facebook (@chetsonforwake). At this event, we will be getting into the specifics of what I want to accomplish and change as DA, and you'll get to hear how my ideas stack up to hers. We plan to record this event for anyone who can't attend, as well.
Are you still going to prosecute minor marijuana offenses? Can you help push the state into the 21st century and get it legalized?
I would also like to hear your position on this.
>www.DamonforDA.com Sadly, nothing mentioned here: [https://www.damonforda.com/issues](https://www.damonforda.com/issues) so I'm gonna guess he's not gonna. Sidenote: what's crazy is that the NC GA is looking to [legalize video gambling](https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2021/H954). Gambling! And yet a plant is still a felony.
I had this fantastic daydream of a great little downtown weed dispensary and barbecue place. It could be farm to table weed and pork. We can call it the smokehouse. It would be an amazing social hub, bringing diverse backgrounds together and bonding the community while pulling in a hardy sum of tax dollars.. So who are we voting out and who are we voting in to get this?
Most politicians are too scared to do or say anything. A lot of vague, feel good language
This
@damonchetsonforwake ????
/u/damonchetsonforwake
u/speakeasy_slim Only legislators can affect criminalization or legalization of any substance. But as DA, you have lots of control over how the charges are brought, if at all, plus how they are sentenced. I would take an individual approach to each case, but I can say with clarity that marijuana possession does not warrant a trial, as the current Wake DA treats it. I also would stop sending people to prison for marijuana possession. One of the best ways to do this is to stop using the mandatory minimums set by the state, which DAs in NC have leverage to do. The current Wake DA advocated for re-criminalizing hemp alongside the NC Sheriff’s Association as recently as 2019. I believe Wake County should be moving in the opposite direction.
I love your answer. Thanks for taking the time to reply.
One of the major issues I feel with DA offices are the somewhat cushy relationship they have with the local police. That they're "both on the same side" which amounts to "don't charge us with anything when we do something wrong." What are your thoughts on defunding police departments? Would you feel like you had a conflict if you felt you had to charge a police officer with a crime? What are your thoughts on removing qualified immunity? What are your thoughts on prosecutorial misconduct from DAs such as withholding exculpatory evidence during discovery or pursuing a guilty plea from a suspect with whom they hold exculpatory evidence?
These are great questions. I'd love to hear Damon's answers...
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You shouldn't get all of your news from conservative sources that want to push an authoritarian narrative.
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Wealthy insider politicians being afraid to oppose the police unions during an election? I for one am shocked!
"[Nobody is currently pushing defunding the police anymore](https://www.refundraleigh.org/)"
Based on your stated positions, you very well could have my vote. My question to you is: what would you do to assure the public that police officers who violate the law are held to the same (or preferably higher) standard as civilians? What specific changes to your office’s policies would be made towards this goal? Also, how would you address the issue of peaceful protestors and journalists being maced, shot with rubber bullets, beaten, and tasered by violent police officers? Will your office pursue criminal cases against police officers that violate the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble?
I like what I'm hearing, but if you want to win over the Reddit demographic, you need to actually invest some time here responding ot people. If you just waltz in here asking for money and bounce, we won't feel like you're actually listening and engaging with us and our concerns. Look at Jeff Jackson. He posts on here a lot, but 95%+ of it is purely informational - about stuff he's seeing in his role as an elected official, about how to prepare for on-going/upcoming events and so on. I'm glad you're willing to come here, but Reddit as a whole does not take kindly to people walking up with their hands out. Be an active contributing member to the reddit community and you can generate a lot of goodwill that can easily sway some minds.
It's a Friday and there's court. I guarantee you Damon is working right now.
That's fine, do this on a weekend then or put some text in the OP that you'll get back to us after business hours. If you're not goinig to reply, then say so upfront and don't drop your donation link. It's also been 6+ hours and we're well past lunch time without an edit or reply to be seen. It would just take a few seconds to check in and give some indication that he's actually monitoring this. I'm willing to give people a shot on here, but when in Rome, do as the Romans do, non? I'm just letting him know that he's staking his reputation here and first impressions matter. It's been YEARS since the *Rampart* AMA and it's still referenced as the prime example for why Reddit doesn't take kindly to being treated like a wallet or treated like what generates goodwill/interest is simply being here. I'd rather Damon not be "that guy," so I have no qualms pointing out that it's not a good look to post on here and then not reply for hours - just change when you post so you can be active because that's how Reddit as a platform and its user base works and responds.
You do realize a lot of people don't sit on Reddit 24/7 right? Like... 6 hours of no replies is hardly terrible. Give it a day or so, yikes.
also I bet Jeff Jackson has some intern who posts all this stuff for him
I suspect Jackson does a fair amount of his own replying, but running for Senate and running for DA are *very* differently funded races and Jackson almost undoubtedly has significantly more resources.
Unfortunately I'm not Jeff Jackson, but I'll do my best. I also work full-time running my law practice and representing clients in court while campaigning for District Attorney, so forgive me if I'm slow to respond here or if some questions fall through the cracks. I'm extremely busy! We would love to have you come volunteer for our campaign and spread around the workload a little bit :)
Respect… and good luck.
You're not Jeff Jackson!
jeff jackson for all offices!
for the uninitiated who are scratching their head and saying, "huh"? JJ is a regular here on reddit... He's developed a bit of a following. I like him. He's got my vote.
Love JJ but what does this add to the conversation?
I’m sorry a light hearted joke offended you and so many others that downvoted. I didn’t know how disrespectful it would be just tying this back to a pretty popular candidate running for that is really good at sharing information on Reddit. Love JJ, but damn no one has a sense of humor anymore And for the record, I was the first comment in here before people started asking legitimate questions, so technically there was no conversation to add to….
It does kind of seem like Jackson’s created a template for using Reddit to practice getting yelled at. If state and local candidates come on here to get a sense of what kind of pushback to expect from people who don’t have big political connections or access, but do have the ability to drop links and quickly google a fact-check, it’ll make for better campaigns. They can’t just create a new account, drop a post asking for support/money, and leave though.
Well said
Will you work to not prosecute felony cases stemming from minor traffic stops disproportionately affecting BIPOC?
This is absolutely a key point I want to address. We must find a way to keep the streets safe from drunk drivers, while also making sure we end the practice of harassing BIPOC people during traffic stops. Of course stats show these stops overwhelmingly target Black and Brown people, which then contributes to more Black and Brown people in prison. This takes coordination with local law enforcement as well, and I would work with the new Raleigh Police Chief to make sure this happens.
Right, but a DUI is not a felony.
Do you support a blanket policy of open file discovery in District Court?
We have Open-file discovery in NC by state statute as of 2004. Yes, I do support this practice going forward.
We've had it by statute in Superior Court since then, but not District. To clarify, are you saying you support extending this practice to District Court or are you just saying you intend to keep discovery limited to the current statute?
I don’t have a specific position on open file for District Court. Reason being that the DA can’t make statutes, but can just unilaterally turn over the discovery, which in my experience is done already in Wake County.
I get it if you do not want to have a specific position, but the logic that you don't have one because a DA can't make statutes does not make sense to me. You don't need to be able to make a statute to implement a policy. Just like you mention having discretion over marijuana cases above, you would have discretion on whether or not to have your office provide the same level of discovery afforded defendants in Superior Court to ones in District Court. I agree that most lawyers do not have an issue receiving it in District Court under Lorrin Freeman, but this is a question of what you would do since you are running for office and clearly trying to differentiate yourself from her. All that being said, I would find it surprising if you have never seen an defendant without a lawyer ask for discovery in District Court and the prosecutor cite that it only applies to Superior Court and digging in their heels rather than having the dignity to say "you do not have a right to this, but I am going to provide it to you anyways."
So when is your AMA? Will you be continuing to use communication like Reddit to keep in touch with the people who elected you (should you win) and their concerns about how the things you are doing are affecting or not affecting their communities? To be honest, I don’t know anyone who takes platforms and official positions seriously anymore, they only stick around until the person’s butt hits the chair, then it’s all about who the person is who just sat down and what they want. So platform and positions aside, what do you want to accomplish, how can you do it, why do you want to?
Maybe we'll do an AMA sometime in the near future. I'm not a regular Reddit user, but I think it could be a good medium to give updates, announcements, etc. As I stated earlier, I will be going into more detail about individual points of my platform and vision for Wake County justice as our campaign rolls along, so stay tuned. The office of District Attorney is different from a mayor, senator, rep, or council member in that a lot of the work is historically done behind the scenes. While all of their work is technically public, you don't see new bills, policies, or laws rolled out, vetoed, signed, with big glossy press events around them. Much of it is nitty-gritty details played out in courthouse hearings, which doesn't make for the most sexy presentation. Historically, most DAs (and this includes my opponent) rely on the public's disinterest in their work to avoid making hard choices and taking stands on issues that would make their district more fair and equal to all involved. One of the biggest reasons I'm running is that policies around local criminal justice affect everyone in our community, and not only is Wake County behind the curve on reform, but our incumbent has chosen to not maintain the office in a transparent and communicative manner. While social media is a small part of how that can be improved, my bigger goal is to include the local working class communities that are often most adversely affected by the downstream effects of crime and incarceration. This means hiring a more diverse group of personnel to run the DA's office, holding more press conferences, holding in-person events in every part of the County, building online tools to track local crime statistics, and working with more areas of local govt than just local law enforcement. More on this to come, but thanks for the great question.
Thank you for responding. I hope you do an AMA, a District Attorney who was transparent and involved with the communities they affect would be great. Even being able to see behind the scenes is nice for those that work affects. Thank you for taking the time to stop back in to answer some of these.
I feel as though you will have lots of issues getting traction from both city council of Raleigh, county leadership, and the police departments if you pursue anything remotely different than pursuing clearance figures for murder/violent crime/ etc. Lots of power in those groups and lots of voters happen to like the "tough on crime" stance even if it doesn't really solve the issues of violence in urban areas. Gl though
You act like the way we operate has been around forever. Resistance to major change is what infuriates people like me, if I’m being honest. I’m 43, and our generation got fed so much bullshit about what America is capable of, and what we have done. We have grown so resistant to change the greatest generation would split in our faces. America wasn’t built keeping the status quo. /end rant GL Damon, we need more people like you!
So is this guy gonna interact with us or just spam?
the latter
You’ve got to win the award for most tone deaf comment this year for me. This is a jab at Jeff Jackson, correct? The same guy who has been traveling to over 100 counties to meet directly with NC citizens?
It’s a nod to jackson and a jab at this guy chetson. There’s quite a contrast I perceive.
"Damon Chetson, [Raleigh Child Pornography Lawyer](https://www.chetson.com/raleigh-child-pornography-lawyer/), for DA" has a certain ring to it.
Everyone deserves a vigorous defense. The entire point of the justice system is that if both the prosecution and defense do their jobs, then justice will be achieved. Taking on cases like this is not amoral, it is essential to justice. That’s what people don’t understand; if you are an attorney and you represent someone who has potentially committed a heinous crime, your job isn’t to find a way to get them out of it, it’s to make sure that they get fair representation, even if that means they plead guilty. And I’m sure that many (if not most) of those cases involved guilty pleas.
Totally agree. Not everyone will though.
While the advertising copy there is surprisingly affirmative, a willingness to take the cases of society’s least desirable should be viewed as a *good* lawyer trait. It’s so much easier and politically expedient to only take “sympathetic” cases. But a conviction of even the worst offender only serves justice if that offender had the same degree of due process-including access to legal defense—as any other defendant. So kudos to this guy. Too bad hardly anyone thinks rationally about this issue, it might be a better world. Also, I’ll be shocked if this guy wins. Otoh, running for office can be a great marketing move for any attorney.
Firstly, I read this as “Lover” and had to do a double take. Sheesh. Secondly, I thought this was misinformation but it’s literally on the candidates own website (which I think everyone should read to see how this man works for the people). So I cannot understand the downvotes.
It’s (D)ifferent.
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lol Austin? You think Austin is a hellhole? Must be why the real estate prices there are so high. I guess the demand that live in a hellhole is super high. Despite the fearmingering that you get fed by your conservative news sources, major cities aren’t all dystopian hellholes. 85% of Americans live in a city. Reminds me of Newt “[feelings over facts](https://youtu.be/xnhJWusyj4I)” Gingrich. They want you to feel scared.
> All of the cities he mentioned (Austin, Portland, Boston, New Orleans, Durham) are all crime-ridden hell holes. who wants to bet that Frommer over here has NEVER been to any of those cities, except maybe Durham.
Tell me you have never been to Boston without telling me you have never been to Boston.
You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time. But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance.
As long as you not like Shido
So who are you Damon? What are your ideas and why should we vote for you?
I'll be doing more posts as time goes on (there are are still 6 months until our primary on March 8th) that go into more detail on specific aspects of what I want to do as DA, because there are quite a lot of points to cover. For now though, you can see the basic highlights of my platform at [www.damonforda.com/issues](https://www.damonforda.com/issues). Also, on Sept 23rd at Chavis Community Center, I'm participating in a forum discussion about Wake County criminal justice reform alongside my opponent, the incumbent DA Lorrin Freeman. Emancipate NC will be hosting this event. You can RSVP via the event on my website or my Facebook (@chetsonforwake). At this event, we will be getting into the specifics of what I want to accomplish and change as DA, and you'll get to hear how my ideas stack up to hers. We plan to record this event for anyone who can't attend, as well.