A gift that keeps on giving...

Some might remember that story from last year when I woke up to the sound of helicopters circling in the sky above our neighbour, went downstairs to prepare coffee, pulled the blinds, looked through the glass door and saw two kids hiding for merely 2 seconds before I went up to call 911 and grab a baseball bat...
 
A month later I received a first subpoena but finally didn't have to show up. I should mention that I couldn't even identify the kids when they caught them an hour later, merely their clothes, as loosely matching, not all that conclusively as far as I'm concerned. 
 
This morning, guess what I found in the mail? A second subpoena. 
 
You guys have no idea how pissed off I am... It's just like being dragged into this old nightmare which I thought we'd finally left behind. I've always tried to live the most irreproachable life because, 1: I have a conscience and I'm not an **** and 2: I don't want to have anything to do with crime or criminals or anything that could mess with my desire for a simple, honest and quiet life.
 
Yet I'm once again dragged into it because of this repeated offender who's made the life choice of not only not contributing, but actually enjoying the fruits of other people's hard work - having them slaved for him, more or less. And when he gets caught, society still ends up paying the bills.

It's like there's no end to the negative consequences, either way we put it, there's no way of fixing this to everyone's benefit. We all have to pay for his existence, any which way...

ampfixer
Well, rich people and politicians always fall back on the "I can't recall" line. Maybe you should put it to work. The justice system is designed to help criminals and the rich. Average people pay for both of them but the rich can bend justice to their will if their pockets are deep enough.
 
 

Right on, John.
 
It is a fact, I cannot identify any of them. Even on the spot, the cops acknowledged that it was quite understandable that I wouldn't recognize them.
 
Besides the financial pit they represent on a collective level, what frustrates me even more is to have my life reorganized to accommodate this charade, even if it's just for a day, to have my freedom revoked even if it were just for an hour.
 
(Actually, considering that I have to be there on a Monday morning at 8:45, that we only have one car and that my wife has two shows every night plus rehearsals 5 days a week these days, it involves a lot more and has quite an impact on us.)

It scares me how bad I am at describing a face I've seen only 5 minutes before. I have no idea how the cops end up with those artist impressions from witness descriptions, especially when they're so good that the perp ends up being caught on the strength of it. 
 
"Describe his nose"
"It had two nostrils and seemed to be in working order"
"Describe his eyes"
"They were kind of eye shaped"
"Describe his mouth"
"Closed, except for when he was talking"
 
 
I'd probably end up with something like this (mind you, they apparently caught the man in question as pictured on the right):
 

 
But man, once those cops get it into their heads that you're going to be their star witness, there's no stopping them. Many years ago back in England I partially witnessed an assault and told cops I probably wouldn't recognize them again. They sent me a summons which I didn't get for one reason and another, then the next thing I knew I'm walking out of a public bathroom in the city center and this scruffy, unwashed looking guy taps me on the shoulder and says my name. I said "yes?" and he immediately shoved a summons into my hand. It was an undercover cop! To this day I don't even know how in the hell he found me - the only explanation is that he must have trailed me from my home all the way into the city center (a good couple of miles). But why? A uniformed cop could have just handed me the summons as I was coming out of my building. I know what it's like when you just can't be bothered with this crap and you know you're not going to be any help to the case. But, you gotta do it....

Even though I often question our ethics and the reasoning behind them and what sometimes look like non-senses in our democratic societies, at the end of the day, I put all theoretical disagreement aside and quite candidly oblige. 
 
It's ironic to see that the people who refuse to question any of those noble principles we've inherited are often the first ones to seek every possible ways to exempt themselves from the resulting responsibilities. They're the people who didn't see a thing in the bus.
 
Maybe as a result of often feeling alienated in their world, I always behave as a guest and yield to rules, even when I can't vouch for them. Which is what I think potentially makes me such a magnet. 
 
But now I just wish that they'd remove my name from their little list where it ended up because of a couple of carbon units in favour of which I cannot say a word.

Not sure I want to know, but what's an "RTA?"

sharke
It scares me how bad I am at describing a face I've seen only 5 minutes before. I have no idea how the cops end up with those artist impressions from witness descriptions, especially when they're so good that the perp ends up being caught on the strength of it. 

It is not just you. There is a large body of scientific evidence that questions the validity of eyewitness testimony. The police rely on the natural tendency of witnesses to see what they expect to see, and to try to please authority figures who they trust would not present them with an innocent to identify. A vague recollection can become distinctive, detailed and set in stone as the time to testify approaches. Juries, on their part, tend to give eyewitness testimony way too much credibility, since they can see no reason why a witness would "lie" about what he saw.
 
If you have not already seen this demonstration of witness unreliability you should take a look.
 
http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html
 

Hang tough Rain.  I know this is not fun for you but it will all pass in time.  All things must pass right?  I had an event in L.A. where I caught someone break into my house and as soon as I saw them they jumped out the window.  I called the cops and later they picked me up and draw me by the guys they caught.  THey were facing away from us so that our faces would not be clearly visable to them.  THat was it for me and I did not have to go to court.
 
Is there any other recourse you might have with the D.A.?  Hope it is all over soon for you.
 
Jimmy
 

Rimshot
Hang tough Rain.  I know this is not fun for you but it will all pass in time.  All things must pass right?  I had an event in L.A. where I caught someone break into my house and as soon as I saw them they jumped out the window.  I called the cops and later they picked me up and draw me by the guys they caught.  THey were facing away from us so that our faces would not be clearly visable to them.  THat was it for me and I did not have to go to court.
 
Is there any other recourse you might have with the D.A.?  Hope it is all over soon for you.
 
Jimmy
 

I wished they'd contacted me for a phone interview or something, to determine whether I could be of any assistance. Personally - and not only because it pisses me off to have to be there - I believe that the only answers I can give would actually serve the accused better than the prosecutor.
 
There are many too many details I can't ignore, too many assumptions which I cannot make, assumptions which would be crucial for the prosecution to get what they want. As much as I find the system isn't a tenth as hard as it should be on criminals, in this case, there's no way anything I can say could be used against anyone without being intellectually dishonest. (Yeah, I know, that's how lawyers earn their life...)
 
The last time I acted as a witness, the judge took a moment to thank me and mention that I was one of the most articulated witness he'd heard in his career. (The fact that it was in French helped I guess...) My tendency to exhaustively analyze events and a certain gift for logical deduction mean that it's a lot harder to get a usable  statement out of me. In this case, this could better serve the defendant than the prosecution.
 
 

Or point at the judge and say "What's with the guy in the dress?" 

 
Maybe they'll give you a Babel fish. 

Just got back.
 
Looks like I got up in the middle of the night (7am) and showed up for nothing. Postponed at the last minute for whatever reason. 
 
And guess what? I'll most likely get a 3rd subpoena and go through this crap again.
 
Whether it's your money or your goods or your time and energy, parasites always feed on you... I guess they do give back in return - they must represent a goldmine for those prosecuting and defending them...
 
By the way, what do you call someone who feeds on parasites?

No need to call, they'll get in touch via subpoena. ;)
 
BTW - Thanks. It puts a smile on my face every time I see it. 

By the way, I got to speak with the prosecutor before I left last Monday, told her that I really wasn't sure that I'd be of any help and she told me to get back in touch with whoever would be working the case if I received another subpoena. She'd suggested that I called the generic number, but I didn't feel all that happy with that so I looked up the Victim Witness dept and called them as well.
 
Hopefully I'll get a call back and I'll finally be able to at least speak with someone.
 

There's some posters upstairs that could use witless protection...