COURT RANT

I had court yesterday, I hate court, the place sucks, it is filled with jaded people who have seen justice trampled upon time and time again. I come away from that place every time with the feeling that nobody cares and the world will never ever be a better place.

Being at court is part of my job. If I make an arrest I have to eventually be there and to give testimony when needed. However, working early nights and getting home at 1:00 am usually (but not always because when I have a late call, arrest or report due, I can be at work till all hours of the morning) compounded with job induced insomnia (partially from aggravation and partially from working many years on the overnight shift) does not bode well for being awake and at my best for court at 8:30 am (sometimes as many as 2-3 times a week, and it doesn't matter if it is on my scheduled days off or not, I am compelled to be there) I can be subpoenaed by the district attorneys office (which is usually the case) or the defense (as was the case yesterday)

Yesterday, I was compelled by the defense to be at court, I had absolutely no pertinent information to provide. I was on scene for a total of five minutes, just long enough to hear from the arresting officer that the victims identified the suspect, I watched as the suspect was handcuffed and I got an alarm call in my sector and had to clear the scene to take my call. That was the sum of my involvement with that call. With that in mind I can tell you that I was stuck there for the entire day and the defense attorney never called me to the stand.

I sat there in the waiting room until the last cop testified and came back to the waiting room to let me know that they were beginning closing arguments in the courtroom and it looked like I wasn't going to be testifying.

Yes, looking at the bright side, I got paid overtime to do absolutely nothing at all.

But as a taxpayer, I find this to be an abhorrent misuse of taxpayer funds perpetrated by the defense attorney, as a cop, I find it to be annoying, and as a person I find it to be just plain bad manners (if you are going to make me be there, at least call me to the stand and let me say hi to the jury, Ok?)

Oh yeah, before I forget, the case that was being heard yesterday was a post operative transvestite hooker who allegedly pointed a handgun at a carload of teenagers who were harassing her . She was ultimately found not guilty and will probably be back out working the streets before this post hits the Internet.

And as always, have a nice day....