Weird election day incident

[teryang]

I really didn't have time to get overly involved in november election observations or politics. The trouble is like a lot of people, desperate for employment, I'm caught up the productivity exploitation cycle. I was forced to take the most undesirable employment in my profession where I am overworked and underpaid every single day.

It isn't in my mind either. People come up to me several times a day and say "I don't know how you do it." It's killing me. I know it when I look in the mirror every day. That's how I do it.

Enough with the background. In the middle of a courtroom circus, bailiffs burst into the courtroom and ordered everyone to evacuate. No reason was given. Hundreds of people from several courts, all the courthouse employees, judges and everyone else were herded outside. We were directed to get far away from the building from by the numerous sheriff's deputies. The road to the public library nearby, a major polling place, was closed. We stood outside on election day afternoon in the blazing hot sun, defendants, probationers, deadbeat dads, prosecutors, lawyers, clerks, and bailiffs, for about an hour and forty five minutes (which is a lifetime in my courtroom) with absolutely no explanation. It was rumored to be a bomb threat by a disgruntled defendant. It was inferred from the behavior of the deputies that it was a bomb threat or a bomb threat drill because of the distance we were forced to maintain from the building.

Then two F-16 fighter aircraft flew overhead at low altitude, off airways, not on any low altitude training route that I ever heard of in northeast florida, in a very poorly maintained echelon formation. All the males debated about what kind of aircraft they were trying to display their military macho expertise. I made a joke about it must be bin laden attacking again and was rebuked by one of the deputies to the effect that this was saving my life.

Rumors passed through the crowd about a similar event occuring simultaneously at another government building. I never got the specifics. I calculated whether I would get through my fifty pretrial conferences that afternoon in enough time to make it to the polls before they closed. People in the crowd discussed how they were voting for Amendment 3 to curb attorney's fees in contingency suits.

I speculated whether personal injury lawyers would consider me lucky by year 5 in the double bush whammy.

One of the sites I visited today had a story on these phony exercises being staged all over the country for a couple of weeks including election day. Wow, I really feel safe now. Especially watching that sloppy Air Force formation over the Court House annex.