Massachusetts public defenders may deserve more money, but to pull the plug on the entire justice system, put the community at risk and grind the wheels of justice to a halt is not a good look.

Hundreds of “bar advocates” – private attorneys who get paid by the state-funded Committee for Public Counsel Services to represent indigent defendants – are on a work stoppage, refusing to take new clients while they seek a higher pay rate.

A court ruling last week held that any defendant held for seven days without representation be released from custody. After 45 days, the charges must be dismissed, even for serious crimes.

As a result, hundreds of potentially dangerous people accused of crimes may have their cases dismissed and released into the public starting this week and throughout the summer. Two accused of drug crimes were released in Boston Municipal Court on Monday because they did not have lawyers. It’s just the beginning.

“The consensus is we’re not going to do this any more,” said attorney Jennifer O’Brien. “Nobody wants to get out of law school with all that debt and make $65 an hour.”

Never mind that many people would love to make $65 an hour. Or that no one is forcing people to go to law school and become bar advocates. It’s not our problem that lawyers have a lot of debt. Why is that the public’s problem?

But refusing to do your job does not demonstrate that you care about public safety or the public interest. Holding the state hostage is bad optics. These bar advocates are not putting the public or justice first. They are undercutting the system for more bucks.

According to the high court, there were at least 557 unrepresented indigent defendants in Boston Municipal Court, at least 36 in custody. In Middlesex County, there were 587 defendants with at least 25 in custody.

This is a serious public crisis.

And it’s not just with public defenders. It’s becoming a trend with public employee unions.

Massachusetts school teachers now routinely go on strike when they want better contracts, despite the fact that striking is illegal in the state.

As a result, thousands of kids are not getting the education they deserve. Teachers that are a part of powerful public employee unions now have a standard playbook to get more money: go on strike, hold rallies, secure public support and hold school districts hostage until they get what they want. The ploy works.

Now these bar advocates are following a similar playbook, all for an extra 50 bucks an hour.

And of course some lefty lawmakers and public officials are getting behind the bar advocates’ fight for greater pay.

“This is sacred work,” Governor’s Councilor Mara Dolan said. “This is our hearts and souls caring for the people of this country, upholding the Constitution at a time when it is in greater peril than it has ever been.”

Nice to see Dolan can get in some Trump-bashing while she can.

But it’s unlikely the public is going to be so sympathetic when alleged drug dealers are walking free.

If you’re sworn to represent indigent defendants, then you strike, you’re not thinking about public safety, and that is going to frost a lot of hard-working people who are also underpaid.

If you’re not going to do your job as a bar advocate, then don’t be one. Find another job.

The governor could step in to try and resolve this crisis, but it’s unlikely Maura Healey is going to put pressure on public defenders to go back to work. A spokesperson for Healey referred questions to the Trial Court. Nice leadership.

The courts could get involved to resolve the dispute, but the liberal SJC is probably not going to be the one to do it.

There needs to be some other mechanism here to address the pay scale of public defenders. A work slowdown or stoppage that endangers the public is not the way to do it.

Attorney Jennifer O’Brien speaks outside the State House during a rally for higher pay for bar advocates. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)
Gov. Maura Healey (Herald file)