Our trip to the Manhattan Court house, though on a rainy day, was not without its moments. As we entered the court house we first had to go through a metal detector. I remember being happy that we didn’t have to take off our belts and shoes because it would have been quite a nuisance. I will admit I had to laugh when the metal detector beeped as I went through.
The first court room was not what I had imagined at all. The very layout of the room was different from what i had seen on courtroom TV shows and movies. One thing that stuck out about this courtroom (besides the attractive stenographer) was the fact that though this was a courtroom, everyone who worked there was very casual. I saw police officers eating food, throwing paper balls, and having side conversations while standing at the bench. One of the lawyers was on Facebook and i thought that was just crazy. As we watched the cases it dawned on me that some the people who were summoned to court were probably there for hours only to be seen by the judge for less that 5 minutes. One case that really stuck to me was the man who was caught selling handbags without a license. He had had numerous violations in the past and i found it quite funny that he was arrested on Canal St., a street notorious for selling fake items, which is located about 2 minutes from the courthouse.
The second courtroom was so much different from the first. This courtroom specialized in murder trials. The very atmosphere in this courtroom seemed more tense and edgy than the last. There was even a jury there. I felt this courtroom resembled the courtrooms that I had grown accustom to seeing on TV. The person on the stand in the case that we were watching seemed to be a witness to the murder of a friend of his. When the lawyer asked him to point to the person that killed his friend, i couldn’t help but wonder what might even happen if he pointed to someone in our class even though they wouldn’t have been involved at all with the case.
As we left the courthouse I said to myself I would never want to have to come here whether it be due to something i did or to something i witnessed.
