The Center for American Progress reports
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have only just begun to wrestle over the facts in an unprecedented series of felony trials stemming from the mass round-up arrest of hundreds of protesters on Inauguration Day. The federal government is arguing that everyone charged was an active participant, provoking alarming notions of collective punishment, but video evidence and media reports indicate that many caught in the mass arrest were not organized Antifa disrupters but rather onlookers caught in a dragnet.
[...] Lawyers from each side struggled [November 21, the second day of the trial of 6 defendants] to work up any kind of rhythm in their questioning because of the repeated interruptions necessary to navigate the gigantic pile of video evidence the government is relying upon. One might expect a serious felony trial involving thousands of gigabytes of video data covering hours of chaos in the streets to have some state-of-the-art system for playback--or at least the kind of pre-cut clips common on sports highlights shows.
But the law and order playing out in Courtroom 203 of the D.C. Superior Court has no such handy facilitation.
"I'm just going to back it up and--oops too far", Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) Rizwan Qureshi said while trying to examine one government witness Tuesday.
The system befuddled defense attorneys just as much during their attempts at cross-examination. When one of the six defendants' lawyers sought to play back video for a Metropolitan Police Department officer, her colleague's computer froze up and only played sound. As the team tried to figure it out, Judge Lynn Leibovitz leaned toward their table and suggested they all "might want to get a tech person."
Earlier in the day, defense counsel Andrew Lazerow began his questioning of a Customs and Border Protection helicopter pilot by saying he wanted to revisit a portion of video shot from the man's chopper.
"Do you know how to do that?" AUSA Jennifer Kerkhoff offered helpfully as Lazerow reached the examiner's console.
"Uh, no", Lazerow said back.
"It's okay. Here.", Kerkhoff said, rising to show her opposing counsel how to work the touch-screen system.
The interruption itself took about as long as Lazerow's brief, narrow questioning of the pilot.
The serial tech hang-ups gave the proceedings an air of farce.
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @05:43AM (8 children)
All the tech people are in jail. I am not kidding. When the FBI accused me of domestic terrorism on a bullshit trumped up charge, I was kept in jail for hours longer than necessary because the computers weren't working properly. I was waiting in hand cuffs and leg irons when one of the agents joked that I could get the computers working again.
All you motherfucking voters can suck my ass. Fuck you. Fuck America.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @06:00AM (1 child)
You were in jail for one day of your life, so all tech people are in jail.
(Score: 2) by Fluffeh on Thursday November 23 2017, @08:58PM
I can do the numbers too [xkcd.com] - makes perfect sense!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @06:39AM (1 child)
Can you be specific about your solution?
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday November 23 2017, @09:46AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Thursday November 23 2017, @12:49PM (2 children)
Complaining about hours in jail? The laughter, it hurts. Try solitary with no lights for 30 days you whiny bitch.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @02:41PM (1 child)
Sounds peaceful. Did you take advantage of it? And, would you like some cheese with your whine?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @07:37PM
Give it a try and see how long you last.
No computer. No TV. No radio. No reading material.
Just you and 4 walls.
There have been folks who poo-poo'd waterboarding--until they allowed themselves to be subjected to that.
They each lasted a tiny matter of seconds before calling off the experiment. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 23 2017, @06:53PM
Isn't that the official designation of dick pics?