Zombie Cliche Lookout: Not Good Enough
Justice is a funny thing. Everyone has a different idea of what’s fair and how to make things right. Or as right as possible given the circumstances. Aggrieved parties will tend to want more, perhaps more than is really reasonable, given the circumstances. The offending parties tend to want less, generally much less than what would be fair. This is exactly why we need an impartial third party to oversee things and try to keep everything as fair as possible. That’s why we have judges and juries.
The problem is that finding someone who is truly impartial is pretty difficult, possibly impossible. Most people think our justice systems are heavily flawed, but objectivity is probably the biggest issue. Everyone has an opinion, and everyone leans one way or another. But still, it’s a hell of a lot better than being at the mercy of whoever you’ve just wronged.
About this Episode:
I went through all of my faces about three times before doing this episode because I wanted a similar but different face for Danny, the guy with glasses. He’s looking pretty happy go lucky right now, for a guy holding two guns on the dude who just murdered his father. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find another face with similar looking glasses, but a more distinguished expression. Ah well.
Discussion Question: Jury Duty
We’re going to tie the discussion question into the cliche lookout once again. How many of you have been selected for jury duty in the past, and what were your experiences. And, for those of you who haven’t served, what would you think it would be like?
I’ve been called three times. The first time I never had to go in. The second time I spend half a day in a big waiting room, and read a book front to back. The third time I actually got to sit on a jury, and it was really interesting. It was a simple drunk driving case without a lot of nuance or other factors. Despite this, it was interesting to get a different perspective on how things worked, and observe the psychologies of my fellow jurors. Good times.
I always wondered about jury duty. We don’t have that over here. We don’t work with a jury. We have one or more judges…. who ought to be impartial. It’s by no means flawless, but I still think this is better than having a jury who can be more easily influenced than a jury. Of course I am very much influenced by the system I live with, and have little knowledge about how a jury really works (other than the series and films), so I won’t pretend to be very knowledgeable on this matter.
“who can be more easily influenced than a jury.” ==> *than one or more judges I mean.
Where are you from again, FL?
From the Netherlands 🙂
Given the amount of time our courts spend trying to educate a random group of people on the intricacies of things like forensic analysis and complicated financial transactions and the amount of confusion a skilled defense attorney can introduce to try and get his client acquitted our system can seem pretty messed up at times. More then once I have though we would be better off with a system of Judiciary panels or even creating a class of “professional jurors” trained in the technicalities of the types of cases they would hear. But trail by “a jury of his piers” is a deeply ensconced right in the US system and changing it would be unbelievably difficult.
The idea of professional jurors is a pretty interesting one. I wonder what the legal minds out there would think of that. What are the downsides? Would it be more fair than a jury of your peers, who aren’t schooled in the finer points of the system? Definitely food for thought.
That is practically what we have in the Netherlands. We have no juries, but only panels of professional judges.
I’m an engineer and we typically don’t get called too much for jury duty. My dad, who’s a lawyer, tells me it’s because lawyers don’t like to empanel people who can’t be easily manipulated emotionally.
I have always wanted to serve on a jury at least once. For me it’s a civic duty.
My wife told me the same thing. Lucky for me that I was the last juror called. They had already dismissed almost everyone else, so their options were pretty limited.
Interesting. Im also an engineer and have never been called for jury duty. It would be a real pain-in the-butt to be called and miss all that work, but like you I see it as a civic responsibility. I remember an old Arsnio Hall skit where he played a defense attorney in his talk show host persona. He struts out into the courtroom greeting the judge, balif, and all the spectators, then he turns to the jury bod and says “And a special shout out to all the folks who weren’t smart enough to figure a way out of jury duty!”
Missing work is, indeed, a drag. I missed a day both times I had to show up. That sucks, especially the first time since I didn’t even get to get called in.
In my best Adam West as cheesy 1960s Batman “Thank you citizen, for the execution of your civic duty”
You are very welcome, sir.
I always wondered about that. I’m an engineer and have never even gotten called (much as I would like to!). I have wondered if they would take one look at my occupation and kick me promptly out. Now I guess I know! 🙂
Do you live in a high population area? I got my jury request calls when I lived in Wayne County (where Detroit is). I’ve never gotten one when I lived anywhere else. I imagine that’s a factor.
I would imagine that they probably NEED more jurors in Wayne county on a regular basis. For those of you who dont know, our infamous city of Detroit is in Wayne County.
I dont know about high population areas, but I do have a brother in law who is a personal injury attorney and he has told me that he always tries to get as few jurors from Oakland County and as many from Wayne as he can in any jury he has to try a case in front of.
Same as Foolish, we aren’t call for Jury duty in France.
As I find it amazing in TV shows and stuff like that, I really don’t know what to think in the real world.
I mean attorneys are professional of justice, public juries aren’t.
On the other hand the fact that juries aren’t pro, their opinions about one situation or another may vary because of their own environement.
That is interesting because is justice supposed to be one, unique and unchallenged or could you have for 1 single affair multiple justices depending on who judges it ?
Idon’t think that it is pure coicidence if the symbol of justice is a scale…
I don’t know if justice can really be seen as one thing. It’s such a subjective thing, which is why it’s so challenging to come up with a “fair” solution.
So in France, there are no juries, the judge(s) just make the call?
Well juries used to be common back in the days (XVIIIth to XIXth century) but not anymore.
Only real important cases (death crime, politics…so not the majority) involve such juries mostly in order to reduce the power of (or pressures) on the judge.
I am absolutely fasinated at the number of engineers we have here. That is super cool.
Dave….you created a Lego based comic and your surprised you got a bunch of engineers? I would bet that if you went to any university and surveyed their engineering students 80%-90% would tell you that Legos (or some other building system) were their favorite toys as kids. I would also bet that either Scotty or LaForge were their favorite Star Trek character and Iron Man or Spider Man (geeky science kids hits it big) were their favorite classic super heroes.
First I am not an engineer but havving spent 20 years in he military I was not called for jury duty. I would like to mention I did go to a German court as a witness to a burgery trail.
There were two jurists who sat on either side of the judge. The jurists got to ask questions and the judge seemed to be there to advise them and to arbitrate any disputes. The defendents lawyer also did not say very much since his job was to advise the defendent who asked all the questions to the witnesses.
After my testimony the judge did instruct me as to where I could go to get reimbursed for my driving expenses and for my time spent at court.
When I first saw Danny’s face it kinda saddened me. The story I’m writing features that exact same minifigures as one of my main protagonists. Its based off of a friend of mine, but great minds think alike I suppose. There was a similar face to that one in one of the LEGO minifig, if I can recall correctly it was series 4 (orange bag) street skater.
Oh wait I think that’s actually the one you may have used. The other face I have that is very similar came from an alien conquest set featuring a double sided face with the glasses.
there is only one face with exactly these glasses if I’m right. I think this one comes closest to the one you used…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Lego-City-Police-Agents-MINIFIG-HEAD-Smile-Glasses-/230625991831
Oh yeah that’s the one I have
I like it how Danny is smiling despite his dad just got shot.
I’d say Danny should cut down on the caffeine pills, or whatever it is he puts in his morning drink before going out. He’s definitely too laid back for someone who just saw their dad get murdered. 😀
Either way, they’re going to want to pay close attention to Abe very shortly! 😀
For anyone who wanted to know, I took a couple of days off because I had to move house. Finally got a new place to live in instead of the temporary housing I was in. 😀 I may have a few more ‘off’ days when I don’t seem to be around, there’s a cyclone hanging around, although mostly it seems to be a lot of rain and little else it might develop into something really big! 😀
Maybe he is adopted.