Atlanta Judge Removes White Lawyers From Court

by **Beta** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:55 am

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/15735848/detail.html

The Fulton County Superior Court judge said he was just fed up seeing a parade of young black defendants in his courtroom.

"I came out and saw the defendants, about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans, and some point time I excused some of the lawyers, most of them white, and said to the young people in here 'What in the world are you doing with your lives,'" he told WSB-TV Channel 2 reporter JaQuitta Williams.

Arrington said he thought his message might have more power if it was delivered to a blacks-only audience.

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by **KnoxVegas** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:08 am

While the title of you thread (and that of the article you cite) may be true, it is not entirely accurate. I don't get what the big deal is? The judge lectured some defendants in a closed door environment.

by **Beta** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 9:12 am

KnoxVegas wrote:While the title of you thread (and that of the article you cite) may be true, it is not entirely accurate. I don't get what the big deal is? The judge lectured some defendants in a closed door environment.

The radio stations here are making it into a huge deal.

What's not accurate? The article? Then write an email telling them what they need to write.

I agree, I see no big deal but people are creating a mess out of it. Although, if a white lawyer removed black lawyers from the courtroom...he'd be finding himself a new job.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/judge.whites.out/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344830,00.html

by **KnoxVegas** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:39 pm

"I came out and saw the defendants, about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans, and some point time I excused some of the lawyers, most of them white, and said to the young people in here 'What in the world are you doing with your lives,'" he told WSB-TV Channel 2 reporter JaQuitta Williams.

The title is partially accurate and designed to inflame. In the full quote above, from which the title is derived (I assume), the judge states that he excluded some of the lawyers, most of which were white. That implies that lawyers, who are no white, were also excused.

A judge has control of their courtroom. He was exercising that right. While some might be offended if a white judge had done the same, the real story is that the judge was trying to impart so lessons upon the black defendants he saw coming into his courtroom.

The outrage is on the wrong thing here. It should be on the disproportionate amount of people of color in our country's criminal justice system.

by **Beta** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:45 pm

KnoxVegas wrote:The outrage is on the wrong thing here. It should be on the disproportionate amount of people of color in our country's criminal justice system.

You're correct, people (of any color) shouldn't commit crimes.

by **Jana** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:32 pm

WSB Atlanta came up with the headline, not Beta.

by **Gvlax** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:36 pm

i think this is getting way out of hand. The judge made an observation and he did what he thought was best. As it says above, he excused all the lawyers, most were white. So that means he had some non-white lawyers leave too. He wasnt trying to make it a race thing. If he was trying to make it a big deal he would have excused the few non black offenders too.

by **Gvlax** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 6:40 pm

KnoxVegas wrote:
The outrage is on the wrong thing here. It should be on the disproportionate amount of people of color in our country's criminal justice system.

This is the biggest problem. Every race, economic status, ethnicity, etc. commits crimes but poor black people are disproportionately represented in prisons. Although statistically whites are the majority in prisons, blacks are a close second.

by **Beta** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:27 pm

Gvlax wrote:He wasnt trying to make it a race thing. If he was trying to make it a big deal he would have excused the few non black offenders too.

Correct, it's getting presented a lot of different ways...I agree with what he did 100%.

This is the biggest problem. Every race, economic status, ethnicity, etc. commits crimes but poor black people are disproportionately represented in prisons. Although statistically whites are the majority in prisons, blacks are a close second.

Every race may commit crimes...but in what percentages? I would hope white people have the largest quantity in prison...since they make up such a high percent of the population of the united states. Crime is more closely tied to economics. Asians (who on average make the most $ per household, around $60k) represent the fewest % of their own population in prison, whites (on average make about $55k per year, are next) and blacks (around $33k) represent the largest in terms of percentage of race.

The fact that any crime is being committed...is more of a problem than the color of the person committing it...white, black, etc.

by **KnoxVegas** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:40 pm

I pointed out where the title came from. I was no way slamming Beta. We agree on this for the most part.

The trouble I have with such headlines is that they convey half truths and unless you actually click on and read the article, you are left believing that some bigoted black judge kicked all the white attorneys out of his chambers, which was not the case at all.

by **Gvlax** on Fri Apr 04, 2008 10:22 pm

Beta wrote:
Gvlax wrote:He wasnt trying to make it a race thing. If he was trying to make it a big deal he would have excused the few non black offenders too.

Correct, it's getting presented a lot of different ways...I agree with what he did 100%.

This is the biggest problem. Every race, economic status, ethnicity, etc. commits crimes but poor black people are disproportionately represented in prisons. Although statistically whites are the majority in prisons, blacks are a close second.

Every race may commit crimes...but in what percentages? I would hope white people have the largest quantity in prison...since they make up such a high percent of the population of the united states. Crime is more closely tied to economics. Asians (who on average make the most $ per household, around $60k) represent the fewest % of their own population in prison, whites (on average make about $55k per year, are next) and blacks (around $33k) represent the largest in terms of percentage of race.

The fact that any crime is being committed...is more of a problem than the color of the person committing it...white, black, etc.

I agree economics and crime go hand and hand. So what do you do? Since blacks populate the greatest numbers in poor neighborhoods, how do you make the criminal justice system fair, if it can be fair. Also, i truly believe an equal amount of crimes are happening everywhere, but its the type of crimes we, as a society, target harder than the others. Of course we want guys who carry illegal guns who rob others off the street, but i bet there are millions of cases of white collar crime going on right now that police could care less about (which is odd since that crime affects us more than a simple B&E)