My civics lesson.

I finished jury duty Wednesday, so now I'm free to say anything I want about the case.

It was quite interesting and it couldn't have been any easier. So all that dread about jury duty was totally wasted. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

I told you that I wasn't on a jury for a trial, but for an inquest. An inquest is an investigation, in a way -- but the investigating is done. They present all the witnesses and evidence to us, and the jury comes to a decision about the facts of the case. Any time a police officer is involved in a death, there's an inquest.

This inquest was about a state trooper who had to shoot a man on the freeway last Christmas Day. The man got out of the car he was riding in, started pounding on the car behind his, ran onto the freeway, stopped traffic, took off his belt and waved it around hitting cars. His pants fell down. (People who called 911 said he was exposing himself, but that didn't seem to be the point -- he just appeared angry.) The first police officer on the scene shot him in the back with his tazer, but it didn't have any effect except maybe to enrage the man, who then charged the officer. They got into a scuffle where the man seemed to get the upper hand -- he grabbed the officer around the chest and hit him with his fist. The officer managed to break free, pulled his gun and shouted at the man to stop. Instead, the man charged him again and the officer shot and killed him.

There were a number of witnesses. We listened to half a dozen of them with very similar stories. The Department of Transportation cameras were turned on -- so we even saw video of the whole thing. It was all very, very thorough.

After we were dismissed, I looked up the story online and realized that what you'd read about it wouldn't be totally accurate. Keep that in mind when you read the newspaper!

I got my absentee ballot and voted today. So I'm feeling all civic duty-ish and self-congratulatory.

Please vote!