Tuesday, October 28, 2014

(very little) jury duty

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Yesterday I had to go in to see if they wanted me to serve on a jury.  (Luckily it was circuit court, a mile from the house -- I could walk.)

It kind of blows my mind that they can make 67 people give up their mornings, on the off chance of being one of the 26 people who must give up more mornings and afternoons, on the off chance that the persons accused of crimes did not commit them (and the jury happens to arrive at a correct verdict).

I've been on jury duty before.  I am very cynical about the ability of your average juror to think her/his way out of a paper bag.   

It's true that jurors care about fairness and justice.  (Lawyers only care about winning.)  Jurors do care about justice, but this does not indicate they have clue one how to apply rational thought, let alone the law, to the situation at hand........

Yesterday, I got lucky -- the only time they called my name was at the end when they were finishing up and giving each of us who was not selected our $17 for our morning's time (and parking fee).

One of the people who was selected for the jury I might have been on is a student at a university an hour or more from here.  They have the right to tell her that she will be here, not at school.  That she will miss class (and not be able to hand in assignments or take quizzes/tests).  For as long as the trial happens to continue.  !!!

I can't see that this is right.  Why should they be able to screw up someone's life like this?  It's one thing when the work can wait, or when someone else can do it (a substitute teacher, maybe). 

The last time I was called for jury duty, the woman in the seat next to me in the jury box had a 4-month-old baby.  AND she was running daycare out of her home.  She needed to be home with her baby.  Not miles away in a courtroom.  And her business could be ruined.  When people need daycare, they need it now.  They can't wait until their daycare provider gets off jury duty.

I am not seeing it as reasonable that governmental agencies should have the right to screw up someone's life and ruin their business.  Some kinds of work require the worker to be there, now, or the work will go to some other business (maybe never to return).

Jury duty should not be imposed on people who will suffer like this.

I had no interest in being on a jury, yesterday, but I figured -- better me than someone whose life would be seriously negatively impacted.

But of course that has no bearing on who is selected.

I'm not thinking I'm down with the way it's done.........................

Adding insult to injury, the bailiff who walked us from the jury assembly room to the court room (where we might actually be selected for the jury) informed us that if we were excused from duty, and we left the court building without checking out, a warrant would be issued for our arrest.  !!!  Really?  REALLY?  They have SO MANY idle police officers that they have some who can run around arresting jurors who were excused, for failure to check out as they want?  REALLY?  There are so many police officers with no actual crimes to solve that they have nothing better to do than arrest people who were not wanted for juries who don't follow directions about what to do before leaving the building?

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Unbelievable.  I know how seriously I'll take it the next time I hear how awful it is that we don't hire more police officers...........................

Feh.

Sigh.




Ok.

Cleansing breath...............................................



More in line with the usual bent of this blog -- I was not allowed to bring any device with me that was capable of recording images or sound.  So -- no camera.  I walked through West Park yesterday morning.  Before the sun was over the horizon.  The sunrise was lovely, and there was frost on the ground (the first frost I've seen since last winter).  A group of chilly ducks made ripples on the pond.

Alas, I was unable to capture any of that.........

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