I had my first jury duty duty (hahah i said duty, twice), the other day, and it did little to change my view of most adults; which is they are just over sized children who are emotionally challenged, yet are in charge of shit.
addressing the potential jury
The potential jury pool for the day was assembled in an auditorium style room, where we all had to fill out some further information forms. As we were being instructed the issue of parking came up, caused a 25 minute digression concerning the fairness and clarity of parking instructions for the day. Seriously grown-ups should really be able to find parking and get to an appointment on time, barring any disaster. I bet if you needed to be at the court at 9am to receive money, they’d be there with bells on and have found parking the night before. To be fair there were a few retirees and people who genuinely were pay-check to pay-checking it, but they were not the people complaining. Why is it always the more privileged and well off people who have time to mount some sort of complain-campaign, for no one else benefit save their own. TO be sure there were no outcries voicing concern for those less fortunate that might actually benefit form clearer parking instructions or less burdensome parking rules that make you not only take a day from a paying job but then force you to pay for parking, and pay for more time then you may need, just so as not to get a parking ticket that would then set you back even more. NO these voices were completely selfish, ‘woo unto me for i have suffered, i had to pay 5 dollars to park my 65k dollar car’. Seriously shut the fuck up. What is your democracy worth to you? If its not worth a day and 5 dollars, be sure those that complain were NOT losing a days wage, even my employer will pay you for your day of service.
Tokyos mayor, in a bit of whats been seen as a gaff and a super un-classy, atypical and inconsiderate thing to say has been quoted as saying something along the lines of ‘ japans tsunami might be divine punishment for the Japanese’s selfish ways’. Good job buddy, you might be a the kind of douce useful in america. We could sure stand to have some honest and self reflective light shown on us right about now. We are selfish and ruthless and holier-then-thou as a rule as well as in general practice. And its super annoying and disheartening to see in action. The American dream promotes upward viewing only and with the possibility of upward mobility it also promotes using those below you as stepping stones to continue on upward. There is no us in the USAs collective thoughts, there is me and an immediate we, which include family members. The national dream so eloquently stated by Dr King has dissolved into, personal quests of success without remorse or concern for those trampled underfoot. The means to my end is justified in the my Ends being grater then yours
Out side the court house is a statue of MLK, each time I passed it, I looked at it a bit little longer and was upset a little more. The statue, a bronze or a bronze want to be, is almost character-ish. The body seems short and the head seems too heavy and balloon like. The statue seems to be a representation of the way our memory works, which seems to highlight and memorialize the least actionable qualities of which it represents. Martin Luther King was a flawed man like all men, he was human, but the message he preached was done so with absolute sincerity and commitment. And yet this statue is not majestic. It is not humbling to stand in front of. It is not a powerful symbol to remind one of an important dream for america. And there it is a fitting reminder to the sham that is our American dream; a land of opportunity and fairness under the law.
candidate.
The days jury pool was selected, and we were ushered into a court room to begin jury selection. We were introduced to the defendant, his lawyer, the prosecution and the Judge. –Holy crap, if you ever get arrested and can afford a real lawyer please do. This poor defendant, had a fresh from the bar exam public defender and he seemed to have as little a clue as to what was going on as I did. and I haven’t been in a court room since being a minor. TO be fair im sure their are plenty of better than good PDs, however I couldn’t help but wonder how this lawyer, who couldn’t even make it three sentences into questioning the jury pool with out be admonished by the judge, ‘council you cant say that’, ‘council, stop, you cant say that, i understand what your saying but you cant say it that way’, would negatively affect his clients chances at a fairly waged trial between what should be equally matched lawyers. This poor PD who wasn’t even used to saying, ‘yes, your honor’ ( he called the judge, maam more than once), wouldn’t even back track to rephrase is question, he just accepted her ruling and moved on. So clearly this poor guy, guilty or innocent couldn’t afford legal council, while he was set to compete in the court with the state backed DAs, highly trained and well equipped team of lawyers. How can that produce fair results. I acknowledge the fact that had the defendant had the money to pay for council in the first place the chances of him being arrested or accused of his crime would greatly decrease for he’d already have the money, he probably was seeking in allegedly committing the crime to which he was being charged in the first place. However we should not discount the number of criminal endeavors undertaken by the well off, prompted by boredom or greed, or all other manner of ill conceived notions leading to mis-action. Fairness is not what i think of when i consider our legal system. It may be the best there is and get as close to ‘fair’ as it gets, but qualifying your shit as the best only when held up to and compared with other holy inadequate systems is a joke.
Those of us not chosen to trial service were dismissed, sent back to the auditorium to await our certificates of service. Even though we were instructed to not speak to one another about the case to each other it was apparent that many of the group were able to form quick bonds of chatty cathy-isms and were fast friends. I was the first to enter the auditorium and choose a seat in the back closest to the exit; safety first. This has been a pattern for me for over 20 years, I dont sit with my back facing an entrance/exit and when at all possible i like to be as close to the exit as I can be. This may seem odd and it might very well be and indication of undo paranoia in me, however if those options are not available it will not dissuade me from an establishment or room. Its just a matter of choice and practicality, and an area where the idea of last in first out actually makes some sense. At any rate seated near me were a group of woman verging on hysterics over the invasive and public nature of the jury selection process. They were all upset at having to ‘potentially’ disclose bits of information, ” i mean who knows what kind of criminals are in this room with us, they could here our names and the towns we live in and rob us!”, one said. To which all clamored in agreement. Mind you none of them had had anything revealed about them save had their name read aloud, in a string a 72 other names, which amounted to gibberish after the 5th name was read, who can remember all that. More to the point, what criminals show up for jury duty? what criminals even show up in the database the state uses to find prospective juries? God knows the amount of complaints id get to hear if the selection process was a one on one endeavor, you’d need a week to even do all of those interviews alone. We’ve become a nation of hysterical hand ringers, with enough motivation to complain loudly when personally wronged while being lazy enough not to do much about the actual causes of these issues. Individually we get guns, locks and security systems and largely ignore, education, healthcare and poverty levels.
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