In orientation at least three different people stressed my participation is vital for this "fair and impartial system" to work! As if. I'm sure most of the people believe what they are saying. That is the nature of systemic bias. "The" law applies differently to police. They are not held to the same level of accountability as civilians, that has gone up to the USA Supreme Court in various cases to the extent that there is, effectively, a police exception to the Bill of Rights. Of course that is going to have an effect on police culture. Of course I am going to treat police testimony differently. So I had to say "yes" to that question. (19 people before me said "no".) I was thanked for my "candor" and excused.
My jury duty in county court is from October 17 to 28, in a USA state. I was only in the court house two days last week, and was not "empaneled". In a few hours I will get an automated email telling me if I need to report tomorrow. I do not fit in this system. The amount of social training was large and constant. I am supposed to be a compliant cog in this biased system and feel virtuous about it.
Once before (20 years ago?) I was called, felt nervous, did orientation, wasn't needed, I don't remember much about that orientation. I was totally expecting not to "fit" and nothing was surprising, really, except that so many people weren't wearing masks. The emotional experience, on the other hand …
I have witnessed a policeman lie at a mandatary "active shooter" program for my job before I retired. With a straight face he said tasers aren't dangerous and haven't seriously hurt anyone. My HR person got an earful about that. To the contrary, people have died. That cop was either lying or thought that the kind of person who would be hurt by a taser weren't really "people." Of course I will question the ability of police to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" about something contentious, or something that involves the "thin blue line".
If this is not already obvious, my default feeling about any individual police is "enabler of bad apples". Because reasons upon reasons. On further observation I may conclude "also a bad apple" or "trying to be a reformer".
Police often describe protest as violent, describing protest as inherently violent, with the implication that it's appropriate to treat violence with violence. Of course I would question police testimony, especially if I don't hear them testify their definitions of certain important words they use. Long ago I was in a social gathering where I didn't have the opportunity to leave where I got into a conversation with someone who said he was a policeman and thought the sitting protestors in that California protest that became much-memed. He said the protestors "got what they deserved." He would not concede that the pepper-spaying was unnecessary punishment, that it was police usurping what the court was supposed to do.
In the orientation, we were all specifically told that the judge couldn't tell us what to decide. But then we were also told we would only be told to decide certain things, and could only base on what evidence was produced in court. For many civil cases of racism, sexism, courts demand individual proof rather than statistics. Even though statistics is how science solves problems. The standard of individual proofs favors power over weakness. I have no idea what type of evidence was in the two cases I was excused from or what will happen next week, but I have a strong suspicion I could have trouble with what constitutes "proof" when there's so much hair-splitting and (if I get that far and am not excused again) I'm only allowed to ask questions of the judge not the defendant or the plaintiff. Per my police testimony answer, I think I don't have to worry about being put on a jury for a criminal case. But civil cases are not peanuts. If I see a hole I don't want to be told I have to make a decision anyway. But I don't want to be participating in a biased system anyway.
I should mention I’m retired (everyone who works long enough should get a pension that covers safe housing & living expenses) so my sleep schedule is already sketchy, because of other current events worries. The trouble with Jury Duty is I have to be there at 9 am and can’t sleep in. I’m posting this wondering if other people have had this same reaction