There are dangerous pedophiles in the world, and some of them are civil lawyers. But that is no reason to assume that Dallas lawyer Robert J. Davis is either a pedophile or dangerous.

Because assuming that a civil lawyer like Robert J. Davis is a dangerous pedophile would be like assuming that a criminal lawyer is in cahoots with dangerous drug dealers.

And I wouldn’t do that. Most civil lawyers are not dangerous pedophiles, so if I had to take a position on the question I would be comfortable saying this: Robert J. Davis is neither dangerous nor a pedophile.

In that way I’m unlike Robert J. Davis, who wrote in a letter to the Attorney General:

It is self-evident that the release of Investigator Meehan’s personnel file to an attorney who represents alleged drug dealers could pose a threat to Investigator Meehan and his family’s personal safety and well being.

It’s probably several orders of magnitude more likely that a randomly chosen civil lawyer will diddle children than that a randomly chosen criminal-defense lawyer will reveal an officer’s information to people who would pose a danger to that officer.

But still, trust Robert J. Davis with your kids if you want to. I’m sure it’ll be okay.