This sounds like an extremely small town (I have a friend who is the "Water Guy" for a small town down the road). Thanks to this frivolous case, these guys' great-grandkids will hate each other and not even know why.
I've had a "lawyers are bad actually" post bouncing around in my head for a while and this may be enough to finally push it out. I agree with you that ar the end of the day almost everyone involved did their best and even the system didn't do any one egregiously bad decision, but it's still bad when there's massive human costs the system seems blind to.
This was almost exactly my experience on a jury last year. It was domestic violence. Clear something bad had happened but not what was being alleged. The couple needed to go to a priest not the government.
Truly beautiful writing, I really enjoyed this. And having lived in New Orleans for three years—where the sewage and water board is filled with staggering corruption and there is a lot of genuine criminality, unlike what happened here—I couldn’t help but laugh at times. If only this sort of grim procedure could have been applied somewhere where a fight over city water would’ve actually solved something, but that’s really the point you make at the end: it’s ridiculous at times, and there’s ways it could be improved, but this really is the best system one can have for adjudicating criminality.
I think the problem is that the way a lot of those municipal workers are compensated is with a feeling of power. And that opens them up to getting really bruised egos. It’s so hard to make that stuff work and the pay is terrible and the work is thankless. I did have respect for the people who did it, even though they went nuts in this instance.
"I think this is the best justice available to mankind."
Really? Really!??
Its a waste of time , resources and emotional energy.. amount of waste in this is probably equivalent of saving lives of thousands of children from hunger.
And, no, I am not saying we should donate money to children.
What’s the better system? I have ideas on making this kind of system more efficient but in terms of who actually decides? Nothing beats this in practical reality.
Stakeholders should decide (in this case citizens of the town who have wants water services) . The three parasites who have meetings every month and installed themselves at taxpayer expenses - need to be gone. The criminal -lawyer system which did the same ( at vastly more expenses) - should go away. In the words of Javier Milei " Afuera!"
The three commissioners actually seemed like relatively nice people who probably got a bit too into the “authority” aspect of being a boss and forgot the “good faith” part of being a human. They might make money but we’re talking like a thousand dollars a year. People get bent up and out of shape and it’s our job to help bend them back out of shape. I wish this had gone to a quicker adjudication but the defendant in the case had the right to a lawyer to help him make an argument.
After going through the process, I feel pretty good about it. I mean, everyone really showed up with a purpose despite not wanting to be there and feeling it as an inconvenience. People focused their whole attention on the problem.
This sounds like an extremely small town (I have a friend who is the "Water Guy" for a small town down the road). Thanks to this frivolous case, these guys' great-grandkids will hate each other and not even know why.
This town was about the smallest in the county
I've had a "lawyers are bad actually" post bouncing around in my head for a while and this may be enough to finally push it out. I agree with you that ar the end of the day almost everyone involved did their best and even the system didn't do any one egregiously bad decision, but it's still bad when there's massive human costs the system seems blind to.
But what do you do that’s better? I have my answers.
This was almost exactly my experience on a jury last year. It was domestic violence. Clear something bad had happened but not what was being alleged. The couple needed to go to a priest not the government.
Yikes. I don’t think I could have done fairly in that situation.
Truly beautiful writing, I really enjoyed this. And having lived in New Orleans for three years—where the sewage and water board is filled with staggering corruption and there is a lot of genuine criminality, unlike what happened here—I couldn’t help but laugh at times. If only this sort of grim procedure could have been applied somewhere where a fight over city water would’ve actually solved something, but that’s really the point you make at the end: it’s ridiculous at times, and there’s ways it could be improved, but this really is the best system one can have for adjudicating criminality.
I think the problem is that the way a lot of those municipal workers are compensated is with a feeling of power. And that opens them up to getting really bruised egos. It’s so hard to make that stuff work and the pay is terrible and the work is thankless. I did have respect for the people who did it, even though they went nuts in this instance.
"I think this is the best justice available to mankind."
Really? Really!??
Its a waste of time , resources and emotional energy.. amount of waste in this is probably equivalent of saving lives of thousands of children from hunger.
And, no, I am not saying we should donate money to children.
What’s the better system? I have ideas on making this kind of system more efficient but in terms of who actually decides? Nothing beats this in practical reality.
Stakeholders should decide (in this case citizens of the town who have wants water services) . The three parasites who have meetings every month and installed themselves at taxpayer expenses - need to be gone. The criminal -lawyer system which did the same ( at vastly more expenses) - should go away. In the words of Javier Milei " Afuera!"
The three commissioners actually seemed like relatively nice people who probably got a bit too into the “authority” aspect of being a boss and forgot the “good faith” part of being a human. They might make money but we’re talking like a thousand dollars a year. People get bent up and out of shape and it’s our job to help bend them back out of shape. I wish this had gone to a quicker adjudication but the defendant in the case had the right to a lawyer to help him make an argument.
After going through the process, I feel pretty good about it. I mean, everyone really showed up with a purpose despite not wanting to be there and feeling it as an inconvenience. People focused their whole attention on the problem.