I wish live action role playing were permissible in jury trials. As we’ve been watching the Derek Chauvin trial, the defense presented body worn camera video from a 2019 traffic stop that involved George Floyd. The retired police officer testified that Mr. Floyd was not following instruction and such … then they rolled the video. Dude goes up to the car and yells something like ‘show me your hands’. Mr. Floyd raised his hands in the air. The officer then repeatedly yelled for him to both “unbuckle your seat belt” and “show me your hands” … two contradictory commands. The officer then ordered Mr. Floyd’s hands on the dash and the officer on the other side of the car ordered (him? the driver?) to put their hands on their head. The officer then shoves Mr. Floyd’s hands to the dash. This doesn’t seem to be someone refusing to follow instructions — this seems like someone trying to follow instructions while two different people shout two different directions.

What’s that got to do with LARP’ing? Well — imagine if you were on the jury and jurors were paired up. Each sat in a chair six feet apart (which is more distance than provided in a car) while two people with guns drawn march up behind them and start yelling orders to them. How well do you think you’d do at following the instructions from the guy closest to you?

Does it now seem more reasonable to say things like “I don’t want to get shot!”? And, since it’s a demonstration, you know the guns aren’t loaded. I’ve had a gun waved in my face exactly twice in my life — once when I took too long to pull over on a traffic stop. The second when I was visiting a friend at work and someone decided to rob the joint. In both cases, it was incredibly frightening. The cops, in the second instance, were somewhat bemused by the fact I couldn’t tell them a single thing about the suspect but could have spent an hour detailing the gun.