At least three victories and triumphs of (not exactly) the previous week or so.
Paramount or minuscule, a win’s a win!
- Ever in search of meaningful, if unpaid work on criminal (in)justice, I joined Court Watch NYC. We literally witness criminal court proceedings to increase their transparency, making elected district attorneys and appointed judges immediately accountable to the public.* Well, some of us witness.
- I first trained to observe and report what’s happening in an arraignment courtroom in late July. After several rounds of scheduling and rescheduling, I first watched yesterday. Due to a pitifully typical bureaucratic breakdown, I saw little. According to a couple of Five Boro Defenders and conversations overheard, there were forty to fifty cases to be processed ~ possibly fourteen to nineteen people on the premises, ready to see a judge, hoping to get released. Because of a mysterious printer malfunction though, the accused couldn’t be moved from one location to another. No paperwork, no progress. After two hours of waiting, watching, watching others wait, and waiting to watch, I left without seeing a single arraignment. What did I witness?
- As I feared, watching may not be for me. Data input and analysis, however, are my speed. The tweets you see getting some love for @CourtWatchNYC add my insight to what other watchers see.
& A Fail
- Jews hire goyim to do things that are prohibited on Shabbat and holy days. In kind, I signed up for Court Watch shifts on Christmas Eve and Day. Above, I described the two hours I actually completed of the three-hour former shift. Hanging my head ~ for being a bad volunteer, bad Jew, bad person? ~ I canceled the latter one. I’ll stick to the data for now. To be continued.
Asterisk & Aside
* Putting Twitter to work and generating focused reports.
45/52
SeeknSea 