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I would like to preface this by saying that this is NOT a political thread, despite involving one branch of government. Please keep it that way.

A rather infamous legal proceeding that has gotten internet famous has made its way to Federal District Court in Iowa. As I'm a stone's throw away I was tempted to sit in on a day of the proceedings. The case involved a police officer that arrested an obviously sober person.

The cool parts? Well I got to meet a couple of youtube personalities that are internet lawyers. Yes, they are literal lawyers that have youtube channels. I understand that youtube personalities are literally the D-list of celebrity status, but still cool.

The process itself can only be described as "dry". It makes a court scene from Law and Order look like an action movie. Despite fighting the urge to take a nap for several hours there were some extremely interesting bits. The officer admitting that his sworn, written testimony of the events of that evening are far removed from the reality of the video was a bit tense. More than one person was biting their lips when the officer basically admitted he made an arrest not because of evidence, but because he was mad.

Sadly, I missed day one of the trial, and will miss today's day 3. However, one day of that may have been all the "fun" I can handle for this type of thing.

Next, you will be going to school board, city council, and county commissioner meetings!

They are boring as feth, but people really should go to these on occasion to familiarize yourself with the "fun" of local government, because that is where all the stuff that really impacts you happens.

 Easy E wrote:
Next, you will be going to school board, city council, and county commissioner meetings!

They are boring as feth, but people really should go to these on occasion to familiarize yourself with the "fun" of local government, because that is where all the stuff that really impacts you happens.

I actually do attend a handful of local governmental meetings, one just last month. Our town has decided to change two major intersections where multiple major highways, and our town's lifeline to larger cities, exist. They will be changed to two 2-lane roundabouts. I personally like roundabouts, but multi-lane ones confuse people not familiar with them, and in this town we have A LOT of unlicensed non-English speakers that haven't seen one in their lives. I feel it's just asking for trouble, not to mention the estimated 2.3 years of construction that neuter travel through our town our local businesses rely on.

I think your problem is more the unlicensed drivers than it is the intersection layouts.

 cuda1179 wrote:
The process itself can only be described as "dry". It makes a court scene from Law and Order look like an action movie. Despite fighting the urge to take a nap for several hours there were some extremely interesting bits. The officer admitting that his sworn, written testimony of the events of that evening are far removed from the reality of the video was a bit tense. More than one person was biting their lips when the officer basically admitted he made an arrest not because of evidence, but because he was mad.

Good luck to the defendant, then. That’s some malarkey there.

 cuda1179 wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
Next, you will be going to school board, city council, and county commissioner meetings!

They are boring as feth, but people really should go to these on occasion to familiarize yourself with the "fun" of local government, because that is where all the stuff that really impacts you happens.

I actually do attend a handful of local governmental meetings, one just last month. Our town has decided to change two major intersections where multiple major highways, and our town's lifeline to larger cities, exist. They will be changed to two 2-lane roundabouts. I personally like roundabouts, but multi-lane ones confuse people not familiar with them, and in this town we have A LOT of unlicensed non-English speakers that haven't seen one in their lives. I feel it's just asking for trouble, not to mention the estimated 2.3 years of construction that neuter travel through our town our local businesses rely on.

This story about you attending local government stuff makes me unreasonably happy!

 cuda1179 wrote:
The process itself can only be described as "dry". It makes a court scene from Law and Order look like an action movie.

Having watched a few live trials now 'dry' for the most part is certainly accurate, but they have their moments.

Kind of amazing a quota-filling false arrest like this made it past qualified immunity / taxpayer funded payout though.

A.T. wrote:

 cuda1179 wrote:
The process itself can only be described as "dry". It makes a court scene from Law and Order look like an action movie.

Having watched a few live trials now 'dry' for the most part is certainly accurate, but they have their moments.

Kind of amazing a quota-filling false arrest like this made it past qualified immunity / taxpayer funded payout though.

Part of the reason this went through was because the officer countersued the plaintiff for damaging his reputation and lible. As it turns out, the officer refused to testify about the lible and plead the 5th (when he was accused of being a wife beater) and could not produce a single person who thought less of him

That doesn't sound good for the prospects of his countersuit.

Sounds like the plaintiff won't end up being liable for libel. Possibly definition of character, though...