The first time I sat in this court, I was moved almost to tears to see the imprisoned defendants shackled to the bench. Seeing the Day Labor shape-up outside the Home Depot for the first time when I moved to LA, I remember I wept. Later, I hired them. Most often they stole, or were too strung out to do a good job, and then, like everyone else, I complained. Still: these people are suspects, they have yet to plead guilty to any crime, and the only reason they're shackled together in their sadistically comic black and white Keystone Cops pants and tunics stamped "Sheriff Joe's Inmate," wearing hot-pink plastic cuffs is, they couldn't raise bail... (more)
