Courtrooms

I'm not the sort who visits courtrooms much.  Back in 1992 I had jury duty for a couple of weeks. (It was a bit of an adventure.) But I never got chosen for a jury, because I was a student and students are too unpredictable.  There really isn't any point in calling up students, since they never get chosen.

I don't follow trials in the media either. (I'll admit I was surprised when I learned that O.J. Simpson had been acquitted.) My feeling is that I'll never know the truth about whether someone is guilty or not, no matter how much I learn about the case.  I hope I never end up serving on a jury!

I was reading about the trial of the Chicago Eight in 1969.  Abbie Hoffman and the other hippies were convicted, though their convictions were later quashed on appeal.  After being convicted, following normal procedure, they were booked at the local jail before being released on bail pending their appeal.  Except that on this occasion the jailers made a point of cutting their long hair while these hippies were in their power!  Not long afterward the Republican governor of Illinois appeared at a party rally where he produced Hoffman's long locks and declared, "Republicans get results!" What petty bullies!