Can we also note that, to paraphrase, he tried to deny their adulthood before stating his sexual desire for them?

Defence lawyers are only really vilified for opposing the police. After all, they’re helping someone the police arrested, and everyone the police arrest are evil, right?

In the broad strokes, I absolutely agree, but I think you need a few asterisks in that statement to avoid becoming copaganda yourself.

There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the law*, with enforcing said law** or those who chose to enforce it***

* The law isn’t always just, and can be just as rotten as the lawmakers can. It used to be against the law to be gay, and that law IS fundamentally wrong. “Don’t murder people” is a just law, though.
** The law isn’t always enforced evenly. Some officers only enforce the law when it suits them, letting wealthy people get away with murder while cracking down on minorities for minor offences. If you make sure to treat everyone evenly, you’re fine.
In addition, enforcing unjust laws is unjust, and I don’t care if you were just following orders.
*** Not everyone chooses to enforce the law for the sake of the law. Many cops became cops because of the status that comes with the badge. They don’t care about protecting the innocent. Luckily, even the most ruthless in the 99 is in it to protect people.

It’s kind of been a running thing that the only way to make a group of cops the good guys is to have them point out how bad most cops actually are. There’s an episode where Terry gets racially profiled and has to sacrifice a promotion so he can get even a little bit of justice. There’s an episode where NYPD posters keep getting defaced, and Gina has to point out how most people hate cops for good reasons. The series starts with Holt pointing out the NYPD kept him from getting promoted due to being a gay black man, then promoted him when they thought it would make them look good.

Heck, all of season 8 is spent opposing a police union and trying to stop police corruption.

It’s copaganda that desperately didn’t want to be copaganda.