#ops

During voir dire, the interviews for jury selection, each person is asked under oath about their experience with the criminal justice system, as defendant or victim, but usually not even the most elementary effort is made to corroborate those claims. One ADA [Associate District Attorney] told me about inheriting a murder case, after the first jury deadlocked. He checked the raps for the jurors and found that four had criminal records. None of those jurors were prosecuted. Nor was it policy to prosecute defense witnesses who were demonstrably lying--by providing false alibis, for example--because, as another ADA told me, if they win the case, they don't bother, and if they lose, "it looks like sour grapes." A cop told me about a brawl at court one day, when he saw court officers tackle a man who tried to escape from the Grand Jury. An undercover was testifying about a buy when the juror recognized him as someone he had sold to. Another cop told me about locking up a woman for buying crack, who begged for a Desk Appearance Ticket, because she had to get back to court, for jury duty--she was the forewoman on a Narcotics case, of course. The worst part about these stories is that when I told them to various ADAs, none were at all surprised; most of those I'd worked with I respected, but the institutionalized expectations were abysmal. They were too used to losing and it showed in how they played the game. ↗

— Edward Conlon

#district-attorney #irony #jurors #jury-duty #pathetic

I happen to think singing is hilarious, especially when it pops out at the wrong time. ↗

— Ed Helms

#happen #hilarious #i #out #pops

Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged. ↗

— Thomas A. Edison

#develops #discouraged #every #every man #gets

While there used to be one or two Pops orchestras, now there are all kinds of European orchestras that suddenly look upon this as a golden wand that can enable them to make money recording this music. ↗

— Skitch Henderson

#european #golden #kinds #look #make

We need to spend more money to insure that our troops are properly equipped. ↗

— Brian Higgins

#insure #money #more #need #our

Well, first of all it's entertainment. That stops us becoming too pretentious or thinking we're great artists. ↗

— Richard Thompson

#becoming #entertainment #first #first of all #great

Why isn't there a special name for the tops of your feet? ↗

— Lily Tomlin

#name #special #tops #why #your

However, the fact that the tanks had now been raised to such a pitch of technical perfection that they could cross our undamaged trenches and obstacles did not fail to have a marked effect on our troops. ↗

— Paul von Hindenburg

#could #cross #did #effect #fact

Well, really the way worked was that I had probably built fifty robots before Mystery Science Theater, and I had sold them in a store in Minneapolis in a store called Props, which was kind of a high end gift shop. ↗

— Joel Hodgson

#built #called #end #fifty #gift

I have defended the interests of France at the G8 in Washington; afterwards I was at Chicago to announce the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan; I have participated in two European summits, so I have fully respected the engagements I made to the French. ↗

— Francois Hollande

#afterwards #announce #chicago #defended #engagements