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The Genius of Mr. T
B.A. Baracus (a.k.a. "Clubber
Lang"; a.k.a. "Mr.T"; a.k.a "Laurence Tureaud") made headlines
yesterday when he arrived for jury duty in Chicago.
During his time at the courthouse, Mr. T posed for pictures with "other potential jurors, county employees–and the family of the defendant in the case..."
Mr.T was a quotable goldmine. Observe:
• "It's not about 'The A-Team;' it's the J-Team–the jury team."
• "You've got to testify! Tell somebody about it. God is good!" he told an admirer as he tried to leave the building. "I pity the fool that don't get it.
• "If you're innocent, I'm your best man...But if you're guilty, I pity that fool."
Mr. T should consider the day hamming it up as time well spent. It was free press. More importantly, he was excused from jury duty.
A case could be made, however, that jury duty is better than parodying yourself in a John Cena rap video:
Back in 2007, Mateusz Machaj at the Mises Institute said the " ‘A-Team' Stands for Anarcho-Capitalism." Besides Mr. T, Reason Columnist Steve Chapman has another good case for making jury duty anonymous. In 1995, Friend-o-Reason Walter Olson looked at juries on trial. Former Reason Editor Virginia Postrel said the culture has created jurors who lack conviction, in a 1994 piece.
High Five: The Chicagoist
Xeones|4.28.09 @ 4:52PM|#
"Hamming it up" nothing. The man is who he is. Mr. T pities the fool who ever thought he was acting.
phalkor|4.28.09 @ 4:55PM|#
Genius. Not Mr. T, mind you, but the amazing circumstances that allow such a creature to exist.
|4.28.09 @ 4:55PM|#
One thing that bothered me about the A-Team when I was a kid - If you were on the run from the law, would you drive a van with a custom paint job and a spoiler? A cop would spot that thing at a rest stop from the highway.
guy in the back row|4.28.09 @ 4:56PM|#
I love how some people do one role and they can squeeze money
from it for a lifetime!
Another one schtick pony is the leader of the guardian angels,
Curtis Sliwa. He had a NYC radio show, and is still a regular on
local news.
One good idea that is a lifetime mealticket.
|4.28.09 @ 4:57PM|#
He should have been brought to jury duty the way Hannibal used to get him on planes, and then he should have woken up during the trial and Murdock could be both the defense attorney and the prosecutor for true wackiness. Howlin' Mad indeed.
|4.28.09 @ 5:06PM|#
A few observations about the Cena video:
1. Where the fuck was Faceman? What, Cena couldn't get a shrimp
like Shawn Michaels to play him?
2. They totally missed the opportunity to end the video with the
Stephen J. Cannell production logo. I mean, come on.
3. They got the guns right. That's pretty funny.
|4.28.09 @ 5:08PM|#
In honor of this auspicious, Mr. T-filled day (and, I guess, the impending faux-holiday devoted to "treating your mother right"), here is another awesome video.
|4.28.09 @ 5:22PM|#
That's just cruel.
Learn well of the dance moves therein, and maybe you'll have a
fighting chance in your next dance-off.
Alan Vanneman|4.28.09 @ 5:23PM|#
I've been unfair to Virginia. I thought she'd gone downhill recently. In fact, she's always been there. Thanks for the sleeping pill.
|4.28.09 @ 5:26PM|#
My two-and-a-half-year-old daughter LOVES the "Treat Your Mother
Right" video. In fact, one of the first things she learned to say
was, "Wait a minute... wait a minute!"
On a side note, Mr. T's short-lived reality show on TV-Land was
pure genius. How that could get canceled while "Dancing With the
Stars" survives is beyond me...
Fists of Furry|4.28.09 @ 5:41PM|#
"I love how some people do one role and they can squeeze money
from it for a lifetime!"
But enough about Matt Welch.
|4.28.09 @ 5:43PM|#
Learn well of the dance moves therein, and maybe you'll have
a fighting chance in your next dance-off.
Dennis: Mac, you take the waitress. Tire her out with your spastic
movement.
Mac: I'll tire her out with my awesome movements.
|4.28.09 @ 5:55PM|#
Face it. Your peers (average Americans) are too effin' dumb to
do a competent job of determing guilt. This makes the present jury
system is fundamentally flawed if the goal is to identify and
punish the guilty and exonerate the innocent.
I lean to professional jurors while acknowledging the problems with
selecting who they will be. The almost insane reverence for a trial
by a jury of peers makes even calmly and rationally discussing
possibilities of a more just system nigh impossible.
|4.28.09 @ 5:56PM|#
Oh yeah, Mr T simutaneously displays both all that is wrong and right with American society.
max hats|4.28.09 @ 6:03PM|#
Face it. Your peers (average Americans) are too effin' dumb to do a competent job of determing guilt. This makes the present jury system is fundamentally flawed if the goal is to identify and punish the guilty and exonerate the innocent.
I lean to professional jurors while acknowledging the problems with selecting who they will be. The almost insane reverence for a trial by a jury of peers makes even calmly and rationally discussing possibilities of a more just system nigh impossible.
Given the known issues with professional prosecutors, professional
judges and professional police, I am strongly against professional
juries.
MaterialMonkee|4.28.09 @ 6:10PM|#
There's actually a Baracus air port in lagos, in Nigeria
Apparently every on flight out of it you get offered warm milk and
sleeping pills
and there's a plaque outside that reads
"I ain't goin on no plane"
Read the wiki article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosco_ Albert_Baracus
_International_Airpo
Oat Willie|4.28.09 @ 6:29PM|#
"I lean to professional jurors while acknowledging the
problems with selecting who they will be. The almost insane
reverence for a trial by a jury of peers makes even calmly and
rationally discussing possibilities of a more just system nigh
impossible."
That would be interesting, considering what has happened with
airline screeners becoming "professional" government employees.
Besides, we already have judges, prosecuters and public defenders
on the public payroll, why not complete the circle?
Not willing to disclose who ma|4.28.09 @ 6:32PM|#
Best Mr. T story ever:
During post production on an episode of T&T, it was
noticed that Mr. T has a bit of trouble with the"ts" letter
combination, and usually leaves most of the "t" out of it. This
revelation came during day-long attempt to get him to do a fresh
recording of a line in which he offers a little boy some
peanuts.
No. I would not want him on my jury.
|4.28.09 @ 6:33PM|#
Given the known issues with professional prosecutors,
professional judges and professional police, I am strongly against
professional juries.
I admitted the problems with selection. Of the three professions
you mentioned, I find appointed judges to be the least
objectionable.
Fact is, juror are mostly incompetent boobs. Your thoughts on
improving a system that jails Corey Maye and frees O.J. Simpson are
certainly welcome.
BakedPenguin|4.28.09 @ 6:34PM|#
Learn well of the dance moves therein, and maybe you'll have a fighting chance in your next dance-off.
I sure hope so, or else Mr. Cashly's gonna tear down the community
center and build condos!
BakedPenguin|4.28.09 @ 6:36PM|#
As far as juries are concerned, I've thought for a while now that the foremen should be trained - AA or BA with paralegal - level education, only specific to court proceedings. That alone could significantly cut down the amount of shenanigans that occur.
max hats|4.28.09 @ 6:40PM|#
Fact is, juror are mostly incompetent boobs. Your thoughts on improving a system that jails Corey Maye and frees O.J. Simpson are certainly welcome.
There will always be failures. I prefer any amount of jury
incompetence to whatever the state of South Carolina will come up
with to ensure juries are adaquately "tough on crime."
Martin|4.28.09 @ 7:45PM|#
Not to piss in the punchbowl unduly, but that's actually not Mr.
T.--it's classic underground rapper Freddie "Bumpy Knuckles" Foxxx
pretending to be T. "Bumpy Knuckles" is his trademark nickname,
plus the voice is different.
This actually makes the video even more classic.
|4.28.09 @ 7:51PM|#
Someone should ask Cena if it's true that all the steroid use has left him hung like a lightswitch.
|4.28.09 @ 7:53PM|#
Some of those shots of Mr T make him look like Kimbo Slice. But you know what they say...
|4.28.09 @ 9:20PM|#
Good catch Martin. It is well known ( If you are one who knows
these things)that Freddie Foxxx has worked a lot with Cena and
obviously he is the Bumpy Knuckles playing B.A.
I didn't notice at first because I did not watch for the credits,
which listed each "actor" by his real/rap name.
engineer|4.28.09 @ 9:45PM|#
"There will always be failures. I prefer any amount of jury
incompetence to whatever the state of South Carolina will come up
with to ensure juries are adaquately 'tough on crime.'"
I hate having to agree with max hats, but in this case I have
to.
I just wish juries weren't so inclined to credit frivolous
lawsuits.
engineer|4.28.09 @ 9:49PM|#
The main thing that bothers me about the current system is that the court either A. draft jurors into service or B. Let them off so easily that only somebody with a strong sense of civic duty or (more likely) a desire to go on a power trip would actually end up serving on a jury.
Atanarjuat|4.28.09 @ 9:55PM|#
Someone should ask Cena if it's true that all the steroid
use has left him hung like a lightswitch.
Any volunteers? I hear that a lot, but I thought it shrunk your
gonads because they're no longer needed for testosterone production
(and they come back when you're off of the cycle), not the wang
itself. In fact if you're using HGH at the same time that might
make it grow permanently, like it does to the jaw, brow ridge and
intestines.
Dr Duck|4.28.09 @ 10:19PM|#
During the time of the Tea Parties, the ever-angry, always
profane, frequently humorous Bryan
Lambert posted a week of "T" Party
columns...
JB|4.28.09 @ 10:28PM|#
Two words: jury nullification.
Lawyers run and scurry like the rats they are.
Art-P.O.G.|4.28.09 @ 11:15PM|#
Oh yeah, Mr T simutaneously displays both all that is wrong and right with American society.
Oh,
|4.28.09 @ 11:37PM|#
I'm interested in knowing whether it is possible to come up with
a system of all-volunteer jurors.
I am not proposing a system of professional jurors in the sense
that we have professional prosecutors. Having a relatively small
pool of professional jurors would increase the chance of collusion
defense attorneys or prosecutors. Currently, jurors have nothing to
gain or lose by either a conviction or acquittal. And whatever you
think of the public, most people respect the Rule of Law enough
that they won't ignore the judge's instructions or falsely claim
that they can be objective or otherwise pervert justice just for
kicks.
I would continue selecting jurors from the general public while
limiting the frequency with which any individual can be a
juror.
There are two ways I would propose to get people to
volunteer:
1 - Increase the compensation for jurors so that people are more
likely to think it is worth it if they aren't doing anything else
at the moment.
2 - Tax-funded benefits such as food stamps, unemployment benefits,
college tuition assistance, etc. could have a requirement that the
recipient consent to be called a certain number of times in the
future for jury service in the same way people are called now.
Except that if you don't get any of those benefits you won't be
required to serve; and if you have received some such benefits, you
won't be required to serve more than the specified number of times,
(although anyone could volunteer to be called with certain limits
on how often they could do it). If a recipient (or former
recipient) of public assistance refuses, the person could pay a
fine or have money taken out of his or her next government check
depending on the situation. But I don't think jail time would be
necessary or desirable.
If you don't like the idea of welfare, don't think of it as
welfare. Think of it as a retainer paid to future Employees of
Justice.
And of course, the same exclusionary rules aimed at ensuring a fair
trial would still apply, and those excluded would be counted as
having fulfilled jury duty just like now.
It would be interesting to see if such a system could work.
Obviously, one possible issue is a shortage of jurors. Another
concern is the possibility that juries would become composed mostly
of poor and unemployed people and that this might have some effect
on the administration of justice.
I admitted the problems with selection. Of the three
professions you mentioned, I find appointed judges to be the least
objectionable.
J sub D,
You'll be happy to hear that defendants have the right to forego
trial by jury, and have the judge issue a verdict at the trial's
conclusion instead. I think the original historical reason for
juries was that judges were often too sympathetic to the
prosecution. Of course, this is going back centuries, so
things might be different now.
|4.29.09 @ 12:49AM|#
Sentence.
Sentence fragment.
I was going to say something intelligent, but I accidentally hit
"enter". Then I had to go to work.
ron|4.30.09 @ 12:34PM|#
is jeff winkler blind or something, jesus christ that dude in the video looks nothing like mr. t
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