And just like that, the trial ends. The case was dismissed this morning, due to lack of evidence and a bunch of other technical, legal reasons that I can't go into because... well, because I don't know.
The interesting thing about hanging out in a courtroom as a juror and not a journalist is that you know a lot less about what's going on. They keep you out of the room when the judge and lawyers are talking about things that you're not supposed to consider. This is all as it should be, because you're not supposed to be passing judgment on anything but the facts as they're laid out before you. And if the judge rules that some evidence is inadmissible, it's a lot easier to disregard it if you've never seen/heard it in the first place.
After the whole thing was over, the jurors discussed things a bit while waiting for an elevator, and it's pretty clear how we would have voted. I can't really tell if I'm disappointed that we didn't get a chance to deliberate or not. After all, none of us really wanted to be there, but once we were, it would have been nice to have had some resolution.
Thus ends my civics lesson for the week.
If you haven't noticed, posting's been a bit light around here lately. I got called for jury duty this week. And while I can't discuss any details of the trial, here are a few things I've learned this week:
- Jury duty in New York begins with a 30 minute video which begins with a scene showing medieval folks throwing a guy into the water to see if he sinks. The message: Sure, it sucks getting called into court for a few days, but would you rather we judge people based on superstitions?
- Everybody wants out of jury duty. Although nobody's exempt from being called, there are a few situations where they'll dismiss you... or if you've moved out of the county, they'll send your summons to the appropriate district. When the woman in charge lists the reasons people should come to the front to discuss their situation, 5 or 6 people got in line. When she asked if anyone had other reasons, about 20 people piled on, even though it was unlikely they had anything to say which would sway her.
- Having lived in Brooklyn for just under a year, this week is the first time I've spent any time downtown. It's a bit crowded and hectic, but there are drug stores besides Duane Reed, which is somehow much more exciting than it should be. But really, that's the biggest difference between downtown Brooklyn and Bed-Stuy: there are more retail chains downtown. And taller buildings.
- While there's WiFi available in the jury selection/waiting room, access to some sites, including Blogger.com is blocked. Of course, you can always update your blog via email. And they don't block IM, Twitter, or other sites that would let you get the word out. And if you're in the jury selection room it means you probably haven't been chosen for a trial yet anyway, so what exactly are they trying to prevent you from writing about?
Sometimes you can't make this stuff up. Okay, maybe you can. But the real news reads just like the fake. The New York Daily News has an article this weekend about the city issuing a fine to a family for graffiti. The graffiti in question happens to be the chalk art doodlings of a 6 year old girl.
But the article seriously reads like something out of The Onion, right down to the posed photograph with the little girl and her mother looking up defiantly at the camera with a chalk drawing and an open box of chalk on the ground.
Apparently any time someone calls 311 to complain about graffiti, the city automatically sends out a warning notice that says you have 45 days to remove it or you'll get a $300 fine. But the odds of any chalk art sticking around for 45 days are pretty much next to nil, making the whole newspaper story completely ridiculous, yet still somehow oddly engaging.
Living in New York is great. Trash is picked up three times a week, there's curbside recycling, and you can get pretty much anywhere you need to go by train, bus, or foot.
But if you've got a car, things are a bit different. Since I work from home most days, my car doesn't really go anywhere. But I have to move it across the street four times a week because of New York City's alternate side parking rules.
Basically, the city cleans one side of the street on Monday and Thursday mornings and the other side on Tuesdays and Fridays. It's nice that the city wants to keep the streets looking tip top, but four cleanings a week seems to suggest that there's slime oozing down the streets and that it needs to be regularly cleaned up before it gets out of hand. I just looked out the window and guess what? No slime.
Anyway, it looks like the city sanitation department might be willing to cut back on its street cleanings, which would let us leave cars parked in one place a bit longer. The AP reports that one Brooklyn neighborhood received a break because its streets were clean 90% of the time when inspectors came out to look at them. The sanitation department says it would be open to reviewing other streets and neighborhoods. But like everything in New York, the process could be a long one. Odds are I'll get frustrated and sell my barely-used car long before any change comes to our neighborhood. But it's nice to see some light on the horizon.