In my short time here at the DA's office, I've learned some interesting things that I would like to share with some of you, the few readers I have left:
- It's not Law & Order. I know, it's a disappointment. I don't know that I fully expected it to be, but the contrast is so stark it's unsettling. Rather than the large oak paneled walls, high ceilings, and solid wooden tables and chairs the court rooms are claustrophobic inducing rooms with cloth covered walls - essentially cubicles with cielings. And the furnishings are more Office Space than To Kill a Mockingbird.
- It never ends. This is another thing that I never really thought about, and consequently was humbled by the sheer scale of it. The paperwork, the files, it's a constant ebb and flow of folders moving about. They never seem to come from anywhere, they are just there, multiplying like tribbles.
- A case is never 'just a.' While most people around here are guilty of doing this from time to time, I take a point to notice, and try to not use this language. As in, "this case is just a shove." Or something similar. Maybe to us it's a 'just a' shove, because we've seen an attempted murder, an aggravated assault and a kidnapping case in the past half hour, but that victim may have never been the victim of any crime, and to that person it certainly is not 'just a' shove.
- 'Domestic violence' as a term is too sanitized, and potentially, allows us to further detach ourselves from it. Family violence is a bit better, and when appropriate 'Intimate partner violence' seems to address many of the concerns involved. Especially considering the increasing number of same-sex batterers we are seeing.
- The prosecutors are young. Maybe it's my age, and my sensitivity to it, but the prosecutors that I interact with daily range in age from about 32 to 26. Yes, I'm serious.
So far, this experience has been invaluable. I've participated in jury selection (tedious, but very interesting), helped prosecutors prepare for trial (it's less than you'd imagine), watched and transcribed interrogation tapes (if you ever plan on being a detective, Mirandize the suspect on the tape, please).
I will catch up with more later. There are a backlog of stories to catch up on, including my First (of many) 29th Birthday, and on the horizon--a new job.
In 1969, after 
