Story 1:
10 of our building’s sheriffs worked overtime yesterday at the polls. This morning, some of them told me about one particular man there making some sort of a show for the TV cameras. The polls close at 8pm. At a few minutes past 8pm, a man in his 60s or 70s makes his way toward the lobby on crutches, taking his time. One of our deputies opened the door for him but told him the polls close at 8p. The man made like he was going to fall, staggering wildly, so our deputy, aware of the TV cameras in their direction, deliberately looked away so he couldn’t be accused of pushing the old man out and depriving him his citizen’s right to vote. Our deputy explained again that the polls were closed and that he was going to call a sergeant to escort the guy out. The guy started writing furiously on a pad of paper about how he was being deprived of his right to vote, he “DEMANDS” that he be permitted to cast his vote, etc. And then he handed the pad over to the deputy. He could talk, but put everything down on paper and handed the deputy a pen as if he wanted the response to be written down for the record. Our deputy refused to write anything, but read the notes and again stated that the sergeant was on his way down. The guy had a fit with other deputies and polling authorities there, and by the time he was done, 40 minutes had gone by, and the polls had closed by law before he had even come in. And yes, he was escorted out back to his car. Other deputies who were stationed outside that building stated that they saw the man in his car at 7:30p circling the parking lot aimlessly, and even after parking in the handicap spot, he was just sitting in his car fiddling and shuffling and not getting out. They had even thought him suspicious at one point, wondering what he was doing there, and he didn’t even get out of his car until past 8p. Other regular poll authorities working there said this man does this every year; coming in late and having a fit with everyone about not permitting him to vote. Gosh, and the most exciting thing I saw yesterday at the voting station was a woman volunteer collapsing a voting booth machine and disassembling the computer table’s legs.

Story 2:
The district attorney and public defender in trial with us right now just told me the story of their “favorite defendant ever,” whom they tried in another department last month. Apparently, this woman had some beef with a specific police officer, so what she did was she took a firearm (and she’s a convicted felon so it is illegal for her to be in possession of firearms) to the police station this guy was assigned to, walked up the front steps, threw the gun down on the ground and loudly demanded to see this officer, calling him names and basically having a fit. Other officers came out and took her into custody immediately. (Hey, it was a convenient walk to the holding cell with many many deputy witnesses.) I read about this in the newspaper when I was in Hawaii, not realizing it was our case. In trial, she insisted on appearing with a shaved head, such that the jurors were given a clean view of her forehead (which displayed the tattoo “F— YOU” completely spelled out), her left temple (which displayed the tattoo “I don’t give a f–k” or something to that effect) and her right temple (which displayed a lesbian pride tattoo in derogatory slang). She insisted on taking the stand, and her attorney, after ascertaining before the jury that she did not see nor speak to the targeted officer that day, asked her what she would’ve done if the officer had been there. She said gleefully, “I would’ve told him he’s a bitch.” That’s it. That was all she wanted. She went through all that, went thru trial and got sentenced to 16 months in state prison, just to create a public stage in which she could call this officer a bitch. She did it several times in trial, and very happily so. I asked, “If that was all she wanted, why couldn’t she just walk into the police station, ask to see the officer and then call him a bitch to his face, and then just simply get a misdemeanor for disturbing the peace or get escorted out? Why did she have to bring a gun to the scene and be charged with felony gun possession?” The DA and public defender looked kinda stunned. “I guess she just didn’t think it through,” the DA said. The funniest thing about her not thinking this through is, the day she did all this, the officer she wanted wasn’t even working that day.