Posted on 04/02/2008 5:46:50 AM PDT by tobyhill
ATLANTA — Fulton County Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington says he intended nothing racist when he ordered white lawyers from his courtroom while he lectured black defendants.
Arrington, who is black, ordered the lawyers from the courtoom on March 27th. He says he walked into the courtroom and saw a crowd who appeared to be "99.9 percent" black. He says he decided to talk privately with the suspects.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Just imagine the MSM howling if this situation were reversed!
why are we allowing this to continue? do any white men have any balls anymore?
The thugs are no more likely to listen to him than to Cosby, and exiling the whites was dumb. But, good intentions and no great harm done.
Sounds like his lecture was on the money. However, he should not have segregated the courtroom and should know better.
It appears that he understands this now.
My bet is the only regret he has is that it was made public.
I wonder if (cough) ‘Judge’ Marvin can spell... “Mistrial” or, “Overturned on Appeal”.
Agree. Racism is racism and this was in an official capacity. The judge should be sanctioned. An attorney can comment, but could this behavior be used by a white defendent to appeal the judge's decision in a future case?
Was the Lawyer a “Typical White Person”?
if a white judge got rid of any black lawyers...he’d be fired.
He ought to be investigated for committing a hate crime.
Go read what happened again. I’m 100% for what this guy said, and I don’t blame him one bit for excusing the lawyers.
Did the judge also remove the court reporter? By removing their lawyers, he handed an instant winning appeal to any one of those defendants he later found guilty.
White folks have been lectured for the past 30 years that there doesn’t need to be any “intent” for it to be racist.
Not that I really care about this particular situation. ‘Cause I don’t.
It’s only racist if a white person is doing something insensitive Don;t you know? Having lived in a predominately black neighborhood while growing up, I experienced black on white racism at it’s worst. There were many days when I would have to bolt off the school bus and would be chased all the way home just to keep from getting my butt kicked. You’d be amazed at how many times I was treated like I was crazy if I brought it up and lectured on how only whites can be racists. The logic was that when a black person did it, it wasn’t racism it was “payback”.
With that said, his heart is in the right place. This was kind of a dumb move, but he didn't mean any harm by it.
I can see where he was coming from -- from a certain point of view, the white lawyers in the room represented 'the man' even more than the judge. I find that incredible, but that's the way some people think. So he was trying to remove that excuse from the equation, so to speak, and speak to these young defendants man-to-man.
I give him points for trying, and I respect him more for it. I've always thought of him as just another political hack, but this demonstrates that he has a heart.
That’s too bad about your experiences. You are right to raise the issue and when will ‘payback’ be done? I see the US excusing black racist rants, Pastor Wright, and all the heated rhetoric from the black community.
Another pol who only sees the color of their skin, & not the character of their heart.
Why does he still have a position of power & influence?
I thought the only way you could talk directly to the Judge was with both parties agreeable and present? I guess I am just another dumb blonde, and here I thought I was making progress.....back to square one. I will never understand our legal system.
“I’m 100% for what this guy said, and I don’t blame him one bit for excusing the lawyers.”
It’s fine - if you’re a preacher, principal, etc. But, not if you’re a judge. What ever happened to justice being blind?
Defendant is entitled to counsel only at a "critical stage of the proceedings" - in other words, a regular part of the trial process that has an effect on the trial and/or the defendant's guilt or innocence.
A mass lecture on general principles at an arraignment calendar is not a critical stage of the proceedings.
This is just another example of the two Americas that is being forced on us with judges, politicians, lawyers, etc.
Fair. Nothing fair about this. Even if his intentions were good, this would not be tolerated in reverse. Its plainly racism. In fact, this judge has violated the “civil rights” insisted upon by minorities and enacted into law. This just shows that “racism” means white on black racism only in this country.
I really can't agree that this particular incident is forcing anything on anybody. The judge was concerned about what appeared before his eyes -- 99% of the offenders in his courtroom were black -- and tried to do something about it.
Call it a "Cosby moment" -- the city is overwhelmingly black, the mayor, the police chief, and almost the entire power structure are black. Comes a point you can't blame criminal conduct on 'the man' any more, because your victim, the arresting officer, the judge, and a good number of the lawyers are all black. It seems that the judge has come to that realization.
I don't believe larger issues of race even crossed his mind -- that's just a given in Atlanta.
no, we’re not allowed to...
The judge was obviously so embarassed by the undeniable evidence that most of the crime in his community was done by minorities that he decided to chastize them. Such things are best done in private, as you would do with family members.
I don’t see how race as a larger issue didn’t cross his mind since he sent a white lawyer out and meant to. There’s no excuse for racism from anyone.
Turn the tables and this would be on every headlines. The courts are not a community service program.
Racism is the belief that one race is inherently superior to another.
I think maybe it would be fair to call it 'racial solidarity', which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Have you ever heard the expression "Shande vor de goyim"? It's a Yiddish expression, literally, "[you're making a] shame before the gentiles." In other words, chastising somebody for making your people look bad in front of others.
Not necessarily a bad thing or a racist thing, it's like yelling at a misbehaving kid for bringing the family to shame in public. It sometimes does some good, at least if the person misbehaving is not beyond all counsel and advice. . . even then he can be a bad example to others who are watching.
I think that's where the judge was going here.
Do you think that all the black people in Europe are celibate?
perhaps he’d be more comfortable with liberal use of the n-word that way.
Ever tried “showing a set of balls” to a sitting Judge?
Not likely to get anywhere...
There is no way of knowing what his “lecture” really was about. There is no account in the story other than his.
no, unfortunately, we have Milli Vanilli as evidence...
I agree. This is nothing to get riled up about. Save it for depictions of dumb white males being outwitted by chic, urbane blacks (especially black females) on TV. (The newish Domino’s commmercial with the stupid white customer with magic-marker eyebrows being humiliated by the hip black female pizza deliverer is especially foul.)
Technically black people in Europe have African ancestory, so I could argue it that way. But since an argument can be made your way, it just reinforces my steath point that there’s no polite way to say “all whites get out”, whether it’s a courtroom or Zimbabwe. And the reverse is true, as well.
But this is not the same situation at all.
Judges clear the courtroom for all sorts of things. I hold no brief for Marvin, I've always thought of him as a no-talent political hack. But in this case, he was not motivated by racism but by trying to do some good and reach these defendants.
It looks bad, but I don't believe he intended any harm. He should have just said "all lawyers" and he could have accomplished the same result.
Ok. I have to say he made a mistake in this case, but I have been before this judge in the past and he was very good to me. I am a white guy and I was treated with a lot of respect in his courtroom.
He threw out the charges against me and berrated the over zealous Police Officer for clogging up his courtroom with “this nonsence”.
Needless to say, I’m ok with the guy.
Comes a point you can’t blame criminal conduct on ‘the man’ any more, because your victim, the arresting officer, the judge, and a good number of the lawyers are all black. It seems that the judge has come to that realization.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. In Atlanta there is no longer room to shift blame. I lived most of my life in north Dekalb county so I know what it’s like.
“The courts are not a community service program.”
I consider getting criminals off the streets a community service. And since the judge had a bunch of them conveniently in one room he took the opportunity to lecture them. If he got through to one of them that would also be a community service. Just because the media made a big deal out of him asking the attorneys to leave doesnt make it wrong. That is especially true if he asked ALL the attorneys to leave, not just the whiteys.
That's the way I see it. He addressed the entire audience and not specifically the defendants.
It's like a school teacher saying, "Everybody with a grade point average above 2.5, take a 15 minute recess. I need to have a talk with the rest of the class."
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"I didn't want to appear to be condescending, talking them down," Arrington told Atlanta radio station WSB. The judge, who has been on the bench for six years, noted that he grew up on inner-city streets in Atlanta. Arrington says he urged people in the courtroom to take a hard look at their lives. He says his message was "Get your life together, get in school, you can be a better you if you work hard." Arrington says his message was essentially the same that comedian Bill Cosby has made.
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