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Leading experts on judicial ethics condemned his remarks, as did Commonwealth's Attorney Tom Wine and friends and family of the Grays, some of whom have started a Facebook page urging Stevens' removal from office.
He (Wine) also said that "had the assailants been old fat men with white beards, I believe the child would have the same reaction to similarly described persons."
"Judge Stevens blamed and shamed the victims," said the girl's paternal grandmother, Dawn Renee Bryant, who said her daughter-in-law cried when she read the judge's post. "It is very disturbing to be called something you are not."
In an email, Ronald Rotunda, a law professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and the author of a widely used course book on legal ethics, said Stevens violated the Code of Judicial Conduct, both by using the prestige of his office to further his personal interests and by commenting on a pending case on Facebook.
"The judge, acting like a pop psychologist, decides to attack the little girl and her parents," Rotunda said. "Then, after the judge … has a chance to cool down … he goes on Facebook and does it all over again."
It is stupid as hell and the judge is right to call them out on it.
"Black man invaded my home, therefore all black men are bad."
You have posted in other forums about the problem with tweekers in your area, and have been pretty broad brushed with negative statements about tweekers, and your concerns about break-ins and stealing your stuff, and the possible/potential danger they pose to you.
So if we change the quote slightly to "Tweekers invaded my home, therefore all tweekers are bad." which is a position you have proposed (in somewhat different words), then:
How are you any different than this family?
Would the judge be right "to call you on it?"
Or even more germaine to recent events:
"A cop shot my kid, therefore all cops are bad"
How are the Ferguson/other rioters any different than this family?
Are you pushing for the judge "to call them on it?"
I give wide lattitude to actual victims of a crime to hold all types of irrational fears/views, because the experience they went through wasn't a rational event, I do not give the general population the same pass.
For the record, if the perps were white, I do believe she (the girl in the article) would be irrationally afraid of white men, or if they were Hispanic, then Hispanic men, Asian, then Asian men.
It's a kid who went through an extremely traumatic event having internalized what is an irrational fear, not some Grand Wizard of the KKK attacking/doing violence to blacks simply for being black.
In an email, Ronald Rotunda, a law professor at Chapman University in Orange, Calif., and the author of a widely used course book on legal ethics, said Stevens violated the Code of Judicial Conduct, both by using the prestige of his office to further his personal interests and by commenting on a pending case on Facebook.
"The judge, acting like a pop psychologist, decides to attack the little girl and her parents," Rotunda said. "Then, after the judge … has a chance to cool down … he goes on Facebook and does it all over again."
The judge should be a little more judicious.
Whether the victims are complete *******s, racists, morons, none of that matters one bit. This judge went from being an arbiter of justice to an activist, when you hand probation to a guy who held a gun to someone's face because he was a "star athlete in high school" and because his family all said that he was "a nice guy", and the focus of your ire is on how the victims of a crime are raising their children, you have absolutely no business being a judge, particularly when that individual had pled guilty and accepted a 20 year sentence before this judge stepped in.
Jeffrey Shaman, who teaches at Chicago's DePaul University law school and once ran the Center for Judicial Conduct Organizations, said judicial criticism of victim impact statements could discourage victims from "participating in the criminal justice system and ensuring that their voices will be heard."
Indiana University law professor Charles Geyh said that while it is not intrinsically wrong for a judge to criticize a victim — such as the instigator of a bar fight — given Stevens' emotional reaction in court and on Facebook, he arguably should have disqualified himself because his impartiality might be questioned.
Whether the victims are complete *******s, racists, morons, none of that matters one bit. This judge went from being an arbiter of justice to an activist, when you hand probation to a guy who held a gun to a little girl's face because he was a "star athlete in high school" and because his family all said that he was "a nice guy", and the focus of your ire is on how the victims of a crime are raising their children,. you have absolutely no business being a judge.
The clown needs to be removed. He's as bad as the, dare I say it,..... THUGS
It is stupid as hell and the judge is right to call them out on it.
"Black man invaded my home, therefore all black men are bad."
Yep, the crime here is the 3 year old girl's irrational fear of black men after one broke into her home and held her and her family at gunpoint. Glad this discerning judge saw what really matters and used his power to right this egregious wrong. Too bad he couldn't lock up this criminal family.
Read carefully. That was NOT what the judge was saying.
Dad:
“This incident has had the most impact on my daughter,” Jordan Gray wrote. “She is in constant fear of black men. When we are running errands, if we come across a black male, she holds me tight and begs me to leave. If (she) is playing in a room and I walk into another, she freaks out. It has affected her friendships at school and our relationship with African American friends.”
Judge:
If the perpetrator had been white, would she be in fear of white men?
It is not the judge's job to discern the racial dilemma of the family, but to mead out justice regardless of his personal ideology and opinion.
He failed miserably!
"Justice is Blind" is not just a cute saying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shadowne
Yep, the crime here is the 3 year old girl's irrational fear of black men after one broke into her home and held her and her family at gunpoint. Glad this discerning judge saw what really matters and used his power to right this egregious wrong. Too bad he couldn't lock up this criminal family.
EXACTLY!
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