MYSTERY GIRL TESTIFIES

I was an early fan of Court TV. There was a time when I worked nights at the door of Max. Fish, our local EV watering hole. So I had plenty of quality daytime TV hours to wile away. It started with the Menendez brothers- rich Hollywood brats, charged with blowing their parents away with a shotgun. They put the ass back in salassious. Lurid details of incestuous tooth brush rape and a rogue's gallery of witnesses (the S&M shrink with the safe word "thorns" stands out) made this trial required viewing for any loser who worked nights. Once OJ came onto the scene it sealed the deal. Court TV was a staple. Voyeur court room viewing hadn't seen such numbers since Perry Mason and Night Court. When I didn't have a day job, I was glued to the box.
    I'll watch almost anything, but I never watch CNN. I think the channel must exist solely to supply The Daily Show with clips. The talking heads (no matter how they are whored up and trotted out as experts) are abrasive and seem  pretty ignorant. Maybe there's a good one in there, but I haven't found him or her. I can say this with a little confidence, because once again, I'm in session. And this time (I'm ashamed to say) I'm tuned to CNN. Between working on the Lion Cage and going to the eye-doc, I'm intently watching the George Zimmerman trial. Rather, I'm screaming at the asshole pundits and trying to follow the testimony, in between Cialus commercials. Here's an update:


Day one:
    Mystery Girl testifies. No, not that Mystery Girl. But that's the way Yahoo News characterized her. Rachel Janteal, Trayvon Martin's 19 year old female friend, and the last person to talk to him on the phone, took the stand. In mumbled delivery, this girl showed less fear, and more contempt for the system than I've ever seen. And with good reason. As Zimmerman's lawyer chipped away at her, she basically showed him just how little she cared about him, the court and the system as a whole. Her friend was dead. The guy who shot him sat there, looking at her. And CNN- white, black and brown, danced all around the fact that this sweating, mumbling, disrespectful, under-educated, insolent young woman was all our doing. We the People had produced her. No one would touch that. You'd need insight. Who's got time for that? She'd already given up that anybody represented her and that life would be fair. When the defense attorney moved to continue his questions in the morning. Rachel did the classic ghetto head weave, glared at him, like he'd cut in line, and uttered  "WHA.......?"

Day two:
   RJ continues her testimony, now obviously chastised for the flippant, sneering impertinence of the previous day, with "Yes sir." "No sir." responses. I would bet Trayvon's mom read her the riot act. This time she keeps up the distain, but tempers it with the expected polite response. CNN edits together all her "Yes sirs." in a disgusting montage, ridiculing the poor girl. At one point she admits she can not read the cursive script of a letter she had dictated to a friend sent to Trayvon's mother. That's where my heart really went out to this kid. But considering all this, in my TV court watching opinion, she held her own. No "creepy-assed cracker lawyer"(my characterization) was gonna rattle her. Trayvon would be proud of his friend. I hope that tonight she's in the pool, with a tall drink, trying to put the whole thing behind her. You go Mystery Girl!

Day three: Still in session.