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tl;dr - braindump from jury duty

notentirely

my trial is over and i can talk about it.

the DA didn’t make the case for the crime and i went into the deliberation room knowing that. i also knew a half-dozen white orange county folks might not see it that way. the defendant was latino, there was a gang charge in addition to robbery.

sure enough, as we went around the table to give our first impressions, the white ladies used language around “gut instinct” and “he shouldn’t be hanging out with bad people” and the like. others were undecided because there was so much unreliable testimony.

they got to me and i flatly said “i have reasonable doubts.” i stated some of my reasoning and heads started to nod. the next 3 jurors to talk after me were hispanic. they stated that they understood why this might be confusing, and then gave some personal perspectives about growing up in disadvantage neighborhoods, how not everyone is a gangster just because they live there. one white lady said “well, you know, they should really move if that’s the case.”

the discussion opened up and it went right to gangs, right to how the defendant shouldn’t be hanging out with gang members. everyone had an opinion about how the defendant looked, or talked, or that he was drinking a 40 just before the robbery, or that he was related to a gang member. they went right to that.

but that’s not what we were supposed to decide on. we were there for a robbery as the primary charge. a robbery that i very clearly felt the state had not be able to pin on this guy.

so… being the loud mouth that i sometimes am… i interrupted and said “let’s all turn to page 14 in the jury instructions and go through what would make the charge ‘guilty’, line by line, and see where we all stand.”

sure enough, when we focused on the actual charge, and the facts actually required for someone to be found guilty, most in the room agreed it wasn’t there. well, except for two white ladies.

so i, also a white lady, helped to walk them through the list. when “gut instinct” or “it’s a bad neighborhood” came up, i kindly pointed out that those are not facts of the case. when i requested that they use the facts of the case to provide reasoning for their position, they both quietly agreed there weren’t any.

and that’s how, in about an hour, we came to a unanimous decision of ‘not guilty’.

i don’t have experience with the court system. and i don’t watch court room based tv dramas. so i was really a blank slate to all this.

i was taken aback at the very clear inherent bias that some jurors displayed, and all the while realizing they didn’t think of themselves as bias. but i was also taken aback by how focusing on the process, the rules, and the facts quickly squashed that line of reasoning.

this has buoyed me a bit, in light of the actions of the aclu over the muslim ban. but it also feels so fragile. so very fragile.

jpgr1965

And this is exactly why I have never tried to get out of jury duty. We need clear thinking, intelligent people on juries. I get so frustrated with people I know who are always looking for a way out of serving.

weasowl

somebody offer this hero a cape

fritokal

Fellow whites. THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING.

Which means -get yourselfs on juries-. Don’t skip jury duty. Don’t skip don’t skip don’t try to sneak out of it, get on that jury, and make sure you are keeping all the other white people in line.

raedusoleil

LOUDER FOR THE WHITE FOLKS IN THE BACK WHO ARE BUSY CHECKING THEIR PHONES:

Fellow whites. THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD BE DOING.

shamandrummer

Coyote Medicine. Coyote is a cunning shapeshifter who can adapt to any habitat. While the habitats of most predators are diminishing, Coyote’s territory is expanding. Call upon Coyote for these shapeshifting qualities, but beware, for Coyote is a magician, trickster, and heyoka. The heyoka or sacred clown uses satire, folly and misadventure to awaken people to innovative and better ways of doing things. The mischievous heyoka behaves in ways that are contrary to conventional norms in order to violate peoples’ expectations. In such paradoxical states, people can assimilate new information quickly, without filtering.

Coyote’s lesson is to stop acting out of habit. You must be willing to plow old habits into the soil in order to cultivate new patterns that enhance your natural growth. Innovative change will revitalize your life and precipitate renewed growth and creativity.

Sometimes we unwittingly cut off the voice of our inner truth, or sense of what is correct; relying instead on old, soul-killing patterns of judgment, control, and distrust. Inner truth reflects, like a mirror, the higher, universal truth that exists in every situation. Yet even when our point of view is at its most positional, narrow and self-righteous, higher truth, often in the guise of the trickster, is there to open the way back to balance and wholeness.

See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

tl;dr - braindump from jury duty