Gray is not my favorite color
Almost two years ago, there was a fire on the second floor of the UGA library (where I work). There was a total of about 17 million dollars in damages. The University police, within days, arrested a 19 yr. old homeless guy and charged him with arson. So, everyone had to give depositions and such, because the trial came up (finally!) two weeks ago. The jury went out on Tuesday and gave their verdict yesterday. Not guilty. The guy was free to go.
Now, my personal feeling is that the guy actually was responsible for the fire. The cops made procedural errors when they questioned the guy, though, and the DA put on a half-assed offense because they thought they had a slam dunk. This guy had a public defender, who didn't even mount a defense, just cross-examined the prosecution witnesses and got his client off. And, you know, maybe I am wrong, maybe he didn't start the fire. He confessed to it, but the confession was called into doubt because of the interrogation tactics of the police.
I'm feeling pretty pissed off because, well, a terrible thing (the fire) happened. I'm a librarian, and I can see that the monetary value of the materials destroyed is not the whole picture--some of what what destroyed was irreplaceable. It's weird, what I'm feeling, because it's not like I (or someone close to me) was assaulted by the arsonist, or anything, but even just as an employee of the library I felt victimized by the fire. And to have no one to hold responsible for it sits ill with me. And what's stranger is that it does hit so close to home. Who would have thought that I'd feel so...proprietary... about, well, my collection. My library. And the community's library, and the flagship library of the state, when it comes right down to it.
That guy? His parents had kicked him out because of his erratic behavior. He'd been living on the streets for about a year before he got arrested. No one offered to bail him out, so he'd been in jail for almost two years awaiting trial. And now he's going...I don't know where. Not prison. But where?
Now, my personal feeling is that the guy actually was responsible for the fire. The cops made procedural errors when they questioned the guy, though, and the DA put on a half-assed offense because they thought they had a slam dunk. This guy had a public defender, who didn't even mount a defense, just cross-examined the prosecution witnesses and got his client off. And, you know, maybe I am wrong, maybe he didn't start the fire. He confessed to it, but the confession was called into doubt because of the interrogation tactics of the police.
I'm feeling pretty pissed off because, well, a terrible thing (the fire) happened. I'm a librarian, and I can see that the monetary value of the materials destroyed is not the whole picture--some of what what destroyed was irreplaceable. It's weird, what I'm feeling, because it's not like I (or someone close to me) was assaulted by the arsonist, or anything, but even just as an employee of the library I felt victimized by the fire. And to have no one to hold responsible for it sits ill with me. And what's stranger is that it does hit so close to home. Who would have thought that I'd feel so...proprietary... about, well, my collection. My library. And the community's library, and the flagship library of the state, when it comes right down to it.
That guy? His parents had kicked him out because of his erratic behavior. He'd been living on the streets for about a year before he got arrested. No one offered to bail him out, so he'd been in jail for almost two years awaiting trial. And now he's going...I don't know where. Not prison. But where?