Day 23 Month 2 Year 2016 in BookThree: Flight Log 2016

Had court this morning but woke up so tired my vision was doubled. So… I considered that an important enough reason to say Fuck Law Library and came home after court. Glad I went to court though because (1) I don’t get enough court shifts anymore and (2) the judge is a nice guy who engaged in conversation with me and the Prosecutor about this last weekend’s news story. Even the judge was good enough to comment on how little the Paper knows/understands how the courts work because… shitty as it is; these things happen. Recap of the Story we were discussing: A mexican-born teenager was drunk driving and struck a woman, killing her. At his hearing, he received a Pretrial Score of 2 (low, because he had no previous convictions in the area). The judge gave him a Bond of $50,000 based on that pretrial score. The prosecutor did not object. Because, honestly, that’s all pretty standard. Here’s where shit goes sideways… the kid posted bond and disappeared. We don’t know where he is. We have reason to believe that he hasn’t fled the country yet but that he is making his way south to Mexico. The local newspaper and Douglas County District Attorney has placed blame largely on Pretrial (for the low score) and on the Prosecutor (for not objecting.) On the radio this morning… DJs were “bitching about the prosecutor’s office not all being fired for such negligence.” So… yeah, good to see a judge who figured “fuck those idiots who pass judgment on everyone because 1 case in 25,000 didn’t go smoothly.”

Came home; slept. It was good. Woke up to work crush texting with an idea to help the Assistant get acclimated to the job (since Assistant’s boss hasn’t trained her but left for a two week vacation as the Assistant started work). Sure, I think helping her out would be good! A few hours later… new text… Boss’ Boss (who we never see because he delegates to Boss… who, as we all know, is apathetic as hell)… decided to try to lecture the Pretrial Crew about the article from this weekend. Calling whoever was there (work crush) a laundry list of terrible things because “we’re not doing our jobs.” Excuse me? Boss’ Boss was the one that required we change systems a few years ago to (and I quote) “make the system less individual.” He’s yelling at Work Crush (in front of other employees, btw) about how Pretrial didn’t do enough to prevent Manslaughter McJackass from leaving because we gave him too low a score. When she tried to explain to him how the score was assigned, he started getting MEAN. So… unprofessionally, but understandably… she called him out for his drinking problem. This, as you can imagine, made the situation so much worse. Again: GLAD I came home and said fuck work for the day. But… yeah. That’s where we work. In that situation. Plus inmates and no support. And less than $15k per year. A horrid situation.

BTW… to show you why Boss’ Boss is being a monster about it… here’s how the score breaks down.
(1) Are you being charged with a felony? Add 1 Point
(2) Have you ever been convicted of a crime in this county? Add 1 Point
(3) Have you ever been convicted of Failing to Appear to Court in this county? Add 2 Points
(4) Are you bound over and awaiting trial on another matter in this county? Add 1 Point
(5) Do you have multiple convictions for drug offenses in this county? Add 1 Point
(6) Do you have multiple convictions for violent offences in this county? Add 1 Point.

SO.... yeah. Tell me again how a guy with only moving violations shouldn’t have gotten a low score? OH… you’re pissed because the defendant was “clearly a flight risk? Well, then… as the only person in Pretrial that used the old scoring system… allow me to give you a giant middle finger for making the decision to switch us over. Because the old system allowed us to “arbitrarily” (his words) penalize an individual for “being born or having significant ties outside the jurisdiction;” as well as “unfairly” (his words) penalizing non-English speakers because we were “assuming too much” about their ability to flee the jurisdiction. But two years later, your decision blows up in your face and you decide to spend a good chunk of your time and energy picking on an employee for doing her job? Seriously… shitty humans being shitty… not surprising but… why do they so often rise to positions of power that allow them to continue to avoid accountability and enable them to act shittier?

All that being said… I have quite a lot of work to take care of in the next few days. Because (it seems) the attractive younger women in my office are getting LOADS of interviews at Law Firms (while the over 30 male flounders) and need me to cover for them. I can do that, more court time is certainly agreeable to me! It means in the next 3 days, I have 4 court shifts! But two of them are tomorrow… and I need to do RAP interviews. So, the absolute minimum amount of hours for tomorrow is 7.

JUST SAW THIS:

OH BOOM! GROWL! Now… if you know me, you know my story. But this is a big deal to me. AND… when my relatives post “Anti Rape/Anti Violence against Women” stuff.... people come out of the woodwork to support and retweet and reblog and all of that shit. This? NOPE. “We don’t want to give men the power.” How about you fuck off! Lets take care of VICTIMS and not be selective about Gender, Race, Social Status.... lets help VICTIMS, you miserable assholes!

Sorry… dialing it back for another gender thing that is somewhat less controversial

While this is too short to go into details, I like what this article is suggesting. Acknowledging that my own experiences are unique to me....... when I was growing up (before the age of 5), I heard how “cute I was.” From 5 to 13, all I heard was that I looked like a little girl. From 13 to 20: I heard that I was too skinny, gangley, nerdy, too effeminate looking. From 20 to present: I heard how I’m fat, out of shape, I have a weird head shape, etcetera. AND, I kid you not, I once had a lady in a theater class tell me (these exact words): “I’m not going to talk to you. We’ll never work together because you have no muscle, so I’m not going to waste my time with you.” I don’t even hear it from girlfriends or significant others. Never have. That isn’t a cry for sympathy or fishing for compliments… just factual statement. The “Boy Story” is that we aren’t expected to be called attractive… my wife may do it in hindsight to further a dig. She’ll look at a picture from 8 or 10 years ago and say “You were really attractive back then. You should work out more.” Things like that. The linked story unfairly ignores sexual assault and dehumanization experienced by women but the male point should be considered. We’re just as likely to see images and receive the messages (online, from friends, and from everywhere) that only certain body types are acceptable for guys. Back in the 80s it was Arnold Schwarzenagger or Tom Cruise; now its Ryan Gosling/Reynolds or Vin Diesel. I do still struggle about once a week with body image issues because I’ll never look like David Boreanaz or Ryan Reynolds or Hugh Jackman, David Beckham, Justin Timberlake, Adam Levine, or Kenny Chesny (once had a girlfriend very upset that I didn’t look like him).
So while it is unfair to think the sexual attention paid to women should “just be seen as a compliment”… this may bridge understanding. A lot more guys than would dare admit it have body image issues and would love for someone randomly to tell them they are attractive.