Cafe Hitch-hike

2020-02-27

Discontent, mistrust in the system

I had the glorious opportunity to serve on a jury (for the 4th time in my life). The juror pool definitely represented our community. People say all kinds of things to not get selected and they are pretty east to spot. This pool stood out, however. Of the 50 people, half of them, regardless of lot in life, expressed intense dissatisfaction with the legal system, going from this local level to where one potential juror said she didn't because the senate no longer follows the constitution.

Another claimed she was a relative of a recent high-profile case of a cop who was found guilty of murdering a civilian (and what convicted the cop was the victim's OnStar roadside assistance recorded the whole thing cos he was waiting on a tow truck, and the cop seriously lied through his teeth about everything).

Seriously, I've never seen this expressed in a juror pool and by so many people. Most people hate jury duty, but the discontent? The intense mistrust? That says A LOT about where we are as a country, and perhaps its direction.

The system says we are equal, but the interpretation is carried out by people and circumstances that are not objective. Some people are more privileged than others in the justice system. I have more than some and less than others, and both give me pause. Station in life highly influences whether or not one sees justice, and so does bias. Evidence... that is subject to interpretation that may or may not be influenced by bias, or if people woke up on the right side of the bed that morning.


Sister update: one hot mess. No new info from Orlando PD. Beads is not doing well at all, and her manchild of a boyfriend wrecked her car. I am not sure why she is still having money problems; maybe she is not working? We have no idea when her daughter's homicide trial will take place, maybe in the fall of 2022 (seriously). Well, at least the software used to decide whether to grant the suspect bail decided not to and determined he was a flight risk (yes, courts use those here). The suspect's attributes (clears throat) helped on that.

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