A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from January 15, 2012
“It’s better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six” (police saying)

“It’s better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six” is a police and military saying, meaning that it’s better to be alive and to be judged by twelve people on one’s action than to be dead and carried by six pallbearers because of one’s inaction. “But it’s better to be judged by 12 men than carried by six. That’s the motto around here” was quoted in the January 31, 1973 New York (NY) Times, credited to “one young patrolman from the 83d Precinct, which covers the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.”
 
       
31 January 1973, New York (NY) Times, “Official Ban Ignored: Police Carry Extra Guns Despite Department Ban Weapons Carried Junkies With Weapons” by Christopher S. Wren, pg. 85:
“We have been told that if we get caught in the car with anything other than a .38, we’ll have charges brought against us,” said one young patrolman from the 83d Precinct, which covers the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. “But it’s better to be judged by 12 men than carried by six. That’s the motto around here.”
(Also on Newspapers.com.—ed.)
       
Google Books
The Save-Your-Life Defense Handbook
By Matt Braun
Old Greenwich, CT: Devin-Adair Co.
1977
Pp. 11-12:
Another pearl of wisdom, attributed to a deputy sheriff, was equally succinct: “Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.”
     
16 November 1979, Omaha (NE) World-Herald, “The Public Pulse,” pg. 8, col. 5: 
Remember, it’s better to be judged by 12 than carried by six.
Thomas Anthony Fleming.
 
Google Books
One Police Plaza
By William J. Caunitz
New York, NY: Bantam
1985
Pg. 143:
“Remember that it’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.”
 
New York (NY) Times
Metro Matters; Gun Possession: Lighter Penalty Than Advertised
By SAM ROBERTS
Published: June 22, 1987
(...)
He suggested that some people, Mr. Goetz among them, feel safer following these laws of the street: ‘‘I’d rather the police catch me with a gun than some guy catch me without one’’ and ‘‘It’s better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.’‘
 
10 January 1992, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), “It’s a lot better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6”:
A police officer must be extremely cautious in these areas. If in error, there’s an old police axiom which states, “It’s better to be judged by 12 than carried by six.”
 
31 August 1999, Washington (DC) Times, “Enforcement control”:
One can sympathize with the adage: Better to be judged by 12 [jurors] than carried by six [pallbearers].
 
OCLC WorldCat record
BETTER TO BE JUDGED BY TWELVE THAN CARRIED BY SIX: THE NEED FOR AN “AGAINST-SELF-PRESERVATION” INTEREST EXCEPTION TO THE HEARSAY RULE
Author: A Schoeberlein
Edition/Format:  Article : English
Publication: AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW REVIEW, 38, Part 2 (2001): 373-402
Database: British Library Serials
Other Databases: ArticleFirst
   
Amazon.com
Better To Be Judged By 12, Than Carried By 6 by The Killer (2004) - Explicit Lyrics
       
25 February 2006, New York (NY) Post, “How cops count for Eliot Spitzer,” pg. 16:
Cops have a saying: Better to be judged by 12 than be carried by six.
 
Marine Corps News
Lawyer: Hadithah CO betrayed by Corps
By Gidget Fuentes - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Jul 11, 2007 20:47:44 EDT
(...)
Brian Rooney, one of the defense attorneys, said they were “disappointed” by the recommendation “but not deterred.”
 
“I always told Marines in Iraq that in the final analysis, it is better to be judged by 12 than carried by six,” Rooney, a former Marine and judge advocate, said in the statement. If the case goes to trial, he said, Chessani “will be judged by a true jury of his peers — many will be combat veterans themselves. We are very comfortable with that scenario.”
 
USA Today
Joaquin Phoenix owns the darkly brooding ‘Night’
Updated 10/11/2007 8:39 PM
By Claudia Puig
(...)
Though it’s not quite film noir, We Own the Night has a darkly brooding style that suits the material. Screenwriter/director James Gray (The Yards) does a better job directing than writing. Some of the story becomes melodramatic, and the dialogue can be banal, but the performances are strong, marked by conflicted emotions. There are some well-played lines, such as “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6,” along with such prosaic exhortations as “You’re going to get yourself killed!”
 
TV Fanatic
Blue Bloods Fridays at 10:00 PM on CBS
Frank: Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.
Added By: C. Orlando
Date Added: 10/01/11

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityNames/Phrases • Sunday, January 15, 2012 • Permalink


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