Just a Punk

📷 Frans Mäyrä

SHE NEVER QUITS!!!!

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dark eyed juncos are one of my favorite winter birds so of course I had to make a print of one

Jury Nullification is when a jury finds a defendant Not Guilty even though they (perhaps secretly) believe them to be guilty.

In the United States, this has come up primarily in the case of 'escaped slave laws'. Good people are not willing to send formerly enslaved people back to their captors.

Governments hate this sort of behavior. But it's hard to stop. How have they tried?

1. They keep it secret. Jurors are not informed of this possibility. Activists who talk to jurors in front of courthouses have been arrested.

2. Jury Selection. Anyone who brings up nullification in jury selection gets removed. All jurors musts agree to "accept as correct the rulings and instructions of the law as provided by the judge." But they can't stop you from changing your mind.

3. Declare a Mistrial. If the defense or anyone else mentions nullification, they can scrub the whole thing and try again with a fresh jury. They will also find excuses to strike individual jurors if they need to.

4. They Flat Out Lie to You. Quoting Wikipedia here:

In 2017, a jury was instructed: "You cannot substitute your sense of justice, whatever that means, for your duty to follow the law, whether you agree with it or not. It is not for you to determine whether the law is just or whether the law is unjust. That cannot be your task. There is no such thing as valid jury nullification. You would violate your oath and the law if you willfully brought a verdict contrary to the law given to you in this case." The Ninth Circuit upheld the first three sentences of the jury's instruction and overruled the remainder but deemed that instruction a harmless error and affirmed the conviction.[67]

So expect scary people to tell you that you are breaking the law if don't give the verdict they want you to give.

But you don't have to do what they tell you to. If you find yourself on a jury you can come to whatever conclusions your conscience demands.

Maybe that bag of weed looks like oregano to you. Maybe that gun looks like a prop. Maybe the cop or the prosecutor seems shifty. Perhaps the defendant just has an honest face.

It was probably five years ago now.

I used to get on the train after work sometimes and just go to center city. And there was a dress shop I'd stop in front of. The kind you don't walk into unless you know beyond a doubt you've got the dough to buy something.

There was a floor-length dress on a model in the window that I was taken by. It was stunning. With bead work enough to fill a craft room.

It glowed down at me from up on its pedestal of perfection, and I felt down my body, trying to imagine if I'd ever look good in something so magnificent. My pitiful excuse for self-worth was eating at me as I mentally checked every reason why, even if I could afford something so nice, it be wasted on someone like me.

I heard him before I saw him. The jingling of a wallet chain and the heavy thump of black work boots.

He stopped next to me, a big fucker, probably 6'8 or 6'9, in all black except his face which was done up with white and black grease paint. The lines were crisp, and the colors didn't bleed into one another at all. To finish the look, he was wearing an ICP tee, the sleeves cut off at the shoulders. He looked every bit the stereotype.

He looked down at me, them to the dress and then back at me.

I don't know what he saw but he spoke to me, with warmth and conviction the likes I'd never received from a stranger before.

"That dress would look beautiful on YOU."

I could only nod and give him a thank you. He shook his head and pointed at the dress then me.

"You aren't listenin. That DRESS," he pointed again for emphasis, "would look beautiful on YOU."

I thought I understood then what he was trying to say then. That I would be the one assigning the beauty. Not the dress, not the clothes. But me, the person wearing it. I nodded and thanked him again, saying it with more confidence.

Then he kept walking. I never saw him again. The interaction took probably all of twenty seconds. But I'll never forget.

The dress looks beautiful on YOU. Not because the fabric is nice or the materials or fine. But because it's on you. And you make it beautiful.

"Members of the Teamsters union went on strike at Amazon early Thursday in a labor action at seven facilities in four states coast to coast just ahead of the holiday gift-giving rush.

Amazon said that its operations will not be affected by any of the union’s actions. Although the Teamsters claim to represent 7,000 Amazon workers nationwide, that accounts for less than 1% of the company’s US workforce."

"Amazon shows no indication it is willing to reach a deal with the Teamsters or even recognizes that the union speaks for any of its workers, despite the union declaring that employees at numerous Amazon facilities have signed cards asking to join."

source 1

source 2

The point is to shop as normal and show Amazon that it cannot keep up with orders without workers.

Shop as normal.

Do not boycott.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES 2023, dir. Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Dale

Bonus: