people in the notes suggesting it was “improper” for the juror to do this or that it “introduced bias” to the court proceeding 🙄 the ice agent in question accused a moc of assaulting him / resisting arrest. how is the agent being a white supremacist not relevant. what universe are you living in
As a member of the world’s SECOND oldest profession, I assure you this is just one of many ways the justice system is systematically fucked up.
For anyone who wants to know how to fact check something you are told while on jury duty without getting fined:
First, you need to understand that the rule that jurors can’t just google things is coming from a good place. Like imagine that you are on a jury that’s considering, say, a medical malpractice lawsuit and one of your fellow jurors comes into the jury room and says to you, “I think the victim’s expert was lying because WebMD totally contradicts everything they said.”
And you might be like, “But WebMD is notoriously unreliable website and the expert you’re talking about is a researcher from Mayo Clinic.” But this person cannot be swayed.
Like, we can all agree that would be bad.
So even though these rulescan contribute to unjust outcomes as in the case above (and seriously, the fact that the defense attorney didn’t fact check that is probably grounds for legal malpractice), they also prevent jurors from just looking up bullshit online and taking it more seriously than the actual experts the court has put on. And I think in the era of anti-vaxxers/QAnon/COVID denial/etc., we can all understand why it’s a bad idea to trust that people can tell fact from bullshit online.
So in light of this, how do you as a juror fact check something?
The key here is that you have to ask the court for information. Jurors can ask questions of the court during deliberations, so if something you said sounds off to you, you can ask for more information.
The key term you want to use here is “credibility.”
The job of a jury is to decide what are called “questions of fact.” Long before the trial even starts, lawyers will have hashed out all the “questions of law” — like, what the statute of limitations is; what laws, exactly, were allegedly broken; whether the court you’re in even has jurisdiction; stuff like that. Jurors are responsible for deciding which side’s version of the facts has more credibility.
For instance, if the prosecution’s witness says X and the defense’s witness says Y, the jury is responsible for deciding which is true, X or Y. And you do this by weighing which one is more credible.
So in this case, if the juror had known to, he could have told the judge, “In order to properly assess the ICE agent’s credibility, I need more information about his tattoo. I have doubts about whether he was telling the truth about it, which would impact how credible I would find his testimony. Can the agent please provide evidence that it really is what he says it is?”
There are a lot of problems with our legal system, and I think one of the biggest is that jurors aren’t educated about what they can and can’t do. Juries have a lot of power, if (and only if) they know how to use it.
hi the artist is ryan long, these are just a few pieces from a larger series…i’ve seen this post so many times but never once with an actual artist credit :-(
These are all wonderful, and I’m doubly grateful to see the artist named & recognized!
“Everyone thinks he’s mentally ill but he actually just has superpowers.”
Okay, but like, what if both? Can we get a superhero with a mental illness depicted in a nominally positive way? That’s not just a cheap plot twist? Is that really too much to ask?
And not the whole “I’m psychotic and I could lose control of my powers at any moment” shit. I’m sick of that.
How about “I’m psychotic, but my telepathy helps a lot. If I think I’m hallucinating, my friends can let me see what they see and hear what they hear to keep me grounded in reality.”
Or you know, maybe someone whose mental illness and superpowers are unrelated. A speedster with depression who knows they /could/ clean their apartment in under four seconds, but would rather just watch Netflix and eat chocolate. A super strong hero who also has ocd and keeps rearranging their furniture, and sure it’s physically easy, but it’s still a pain.
Like, literally just in the few minutes it took me to write this post, I probably already came up with a good 30 character concepts. It’s not that hard, as long as you like, you know, think of mentally ill people as people and not plot devices.
“think of mentally ill people as people and not plot devices” Yes please!
People that are like “climate change is worsening and all of humanity is going to deserve it” should realize how kind of evil and insane of a thing that is to say
Like, no actually, the masses of people in the world that are impoverished, homeless, poor and working paycheck to paycheck to survive, plus the masses of indigenous folks, POC, queer and religious minorities trying to survive the trauma of generations of industrialization & colonization DON’T deserve to go extinct over the actions of a few dozen oil executives and an economic system we have no control over, especially when we’re doing all that we can for a safer healthier planet wtf
The lives of 7 billion humans do not deserve extinction over the actions of very few oil companies destroying the planet, don’t say shit like that.
So, this hasn’t crossed my dash yet. (Not blaming anyone, there is soooo much going on in the world and I’d also missed it in the noise).
There is currently a strike at Frito-Lay. in Topeka. These workers are striking because:
They were being forced to work 84 hour weeks. The company’s best offer so far is a 60 hour cap. This is shit we fought for a century ago, people.
Their generous offer also includes a whole 4 percent wage increase…over the next 2 years. I’m not sure what COL is in Topeka, but… Well, it’s better than the entire 77 cents they’ve apparently gotten in the last decade.
There’s also a report that a worker literally collapsed and dropped dead on the line and the foreman’s response was to make them move the body out of the way and put in a replacement. (However, this is unconfirmed and, of course, the company denies it).
There have been multiple OSHA violations at this plant over the last few years, including a forklift accident that’s under investigation.
They’ve now been striking since July 5 but, of course, it only hit the national media yesterday.
Because Frito-Lay is refusing to budge. They are attempting to make the excuse that union leadership agreed to the 60 hour work week and crappy pay cut…when union leadership only agreed to put it to a vote.
And this means that we need to put the thumbscrews on them. Remember, this is about 19th century style working conditions.
So, I’m calling on my followers to boycott Frito Lay’s until the strike is involved.
Frito-Lay owns:
Lay’s
Doritos (Sorry. I really am. I KNOW there’s no good alternative to Doritos, although Zapp’s are good if you can find them).
Fritos
Tostitos
Cheetos
Ruffles
Sun Chips
Baken-ets
Chester’s
Cracker Jack
Islen plantain chips
Funyuns
Grandma’s (the cookies)
Matador Meat Snacks
Maui style potato chips
Miss Vickie’s
Munchies
Munchos
Rolled Gold
Sabritones
Santitas
Simply
Smartfood
Stacys
The Walking Taco
NatuChips
PopCorners (this one wasn’t on their website, but was bought by Pepsi’s in 2019 with the intent of adding it. So best avoided just in case).
Yes, this really is more than half of the snack aisle. Suggested alternatives:
Kettle Brand Chips
Zapp’s (If you can find them. My supermarket had them once and not since, so I’m guessing the culinary cowards in this neighborhood were afraid of “Voodoo” flavored chips).
Pringles
On the Border for salsa.
Wise Cheez Doodles
Bugles
Utz
Store own brand alternatives, if your store has ones that are any good.
Cheez-its
Check before you buy and let’s tell these people they don’t get to treat workers like that.
This was posted on FB recently by someone supporting the strike!
Anonymous
