Category: Civil Rights

You know I love my cops, but...

6/8/2015

From Judge Cristina Live at 9, 4/13/15

By now, I’m guessing that you’ve all seen the brutal video of the killing of Walter Scott at the hands of a South Carolina Police Officer Michael Slager.

Ok - yes, we don't all facts yet... You know I love my cops… But it's guys like this that ruin it for all the good intentioned moral cops, don’t you think?

I could not believe what I saw in that video. Here we are living in year 2015 and I watched an unarmed black man get gunned down, shot in the back 5 TIMES by a white police officer. All because the man was scared of going to jail for being behind in his child support payments. He was cornered, running toward a fence that he probably couldn’t easily make it over. I can only imagine that man’s terror. Did he know he would die in such a brutal way at that moment? For missing child support payments?

There is just no excuse for what that officer did. The poor man was treated worse than a wild animal. I mean, this cop hunted and shot the man in cold blood – like an animal. And actually, I’ve heard from people who hunt that WILD ANIMALS ARE TREATED BETTER BY HUNTERS. The cop actually fired 8 times and 5 shots hit the man. HUNTERS DON’T JUST SPRAY AN ANIMAL WITH BULLETS. THEY TRY TO KILL THEIR PREY AS HUMANELY AS POSSIBLE, USUALLY WITH ONE SHOT. If Slager thought he couldn’t handle Walter Scott alone, all he had to do was wait a few minutes for help from other officers. So many other things could have been done to take him into custody.

And if not for a brave young man with his cellphone camera we would have no idea what really happened. It sounds like body cameras are not enough. Do we all need to become walking camera and evidence collectors with our cell phones? Because without this young man and his camera, we would never have been privy to such depravity of human life - to such utter perversion and evidence of the worst of human behavior.

Slager planted his stun gun near the victim and thought he could get away with it. This cop is absolutely un-defendable. I’m calling it murder, not manslaughter, and he should get the maximum penalty.

So what's going on with America? It's that disease I keep talking about in my opening statements here on Judge Cristina Live. It’s worse than cancer because at least with cancer while there is no cure, there is hope. In a story like this, I don’t see the hope. Do you? I see an anger – a HATRED – that is all consuming. One that eats at the core of every single person infected by it. And it makes me sad to say this – but I don’t even know if I’m shocked anymore.

Honestly, it sounds to me like this was more of an assassination. And speaking of… AND no one is talking about it, but did you know that of all days this happened on April 4th?

April 4th was the 47th Anniversary of the day that Martin Luther King was assassinated. And instead of taking the time as a Nation to reflect on that tragic event, we ended up with another one happening right in front of us.

But this isn’t just about race. And this isn’t just about the police. You might think that something like this will never happen to you. You would never run from the police or get into that situation, but are you one hundred percent sure about that? If one group of people can be singled out – WE are all at risk. None of us are safe from the abuse of authority.

Walter Scott ran because he had a warrant for being behind in his CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS.

Did you know that in South Carolina if you fall behind on child support payments, they can take away your driver’s license??? Well how are you supposed to go to work to earn the money to make the payments if you can’t drive to your job? I also read that on average, 1,500 people are in jail in South Carolina, for nonpayment of child support.

We might need to ask ourselves if this is something that should be punishable by jail time? How can someone make payments if they are behind bars? This system needs to be looked at because it seems to me that the goal is to put people in a much worse position than they were in BEFORE they couldn’t make the payments! How is that helping the kids?

What if laws are passed to make it a crime to be behind in your house payments? Or your car payments? Or your credit card payments? What kind of pre-Revolutionary War era debtors prison are we trying to create here? How many people will be running from the police if something like that ever happens? And how many times will ONE BAD COP decide to take his or her gun out and just blow the person away?

And with all due respect to cops we need to me more aggressive with them for all of our sakes... No one is above the law. Badge or no badge -- Everyone must be accountable for their actions.

So what is the answer? Continuing field education?? Periodic psychiatric testing??? How can we weed the bad seeds out of the police force before they take an innocent life?

You be the jury and tell me: How do we keep this from happening again? How do we weed out the bad cops before they take another innocent life?

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#TBT: I Have a Dream... or a nightmare?

4/30/2015

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As originally heard on Judge Cristina Live at 9, on KABC Radio

For my Throwback Thursday opening statement today, I decided not to choose a famous court case or legal trial from the past to look at, like I did with my last throwback Thursday statement on the OJ Simpson trial. No, instead I was inspired to talk about a different throwback event in American history. One that I couldn’t help but think of in light of this week’s disturbing events in Baltimore.

Did you know – it has been 52 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and gave his infamous “I have a Dream” speech? 52 years since on that day, August 28, 1963, King addressed approximately 250,000 people who had gathered on the mall in Washington, with millions more watching on television from home. I think of all that has changed since then, especially with things like science and technology. Do you remember those video watches on the TV show The Jetsons – also debuting in the 1960’s? Well now we have those in real life with the Apple watch. We have electric cars, computers, and maybe even soon… the famous Jetson flying cars.

But what HASN’T changed since then - apparently?

Well – if you watched the news this week, you saw it and it looked a lot like the civil rights riots of the 1960’s. Lines of police in riot gear, fending people off – mostly young people, children at that – who threw rocks at them. They lit businesses on fire. They torched police cars. Honestly at one point, if I didn’t know any better, I would have thought I was watching news reports coming out of the Middle East. Lighting buildings and cars on fire? ATTACKING police officers? I’m sorry but some of those kids were acting more like little domestic terrorists in training – street terrorists. What is the difference? Are the fires different if they are lit in the Middle East? Is destruction different when it’s in another country than America? How much SLACK are we willing to give these criminals and thieves, simply because many in the media are calling them protestors – as if their actions are for a noble cause so that makes it okay. President Obama even came out, and condemned – and I quote – “the criminals and thugs who tore up the city.” How is this a noble cause?

Do you really think this was really Martin Luther King’s dream? No, this was his nightmare, not his dream. I don’t believe that this is what he was envisioning that day in his “I Have a Dream” speech – not at all.

One question that I raised earlier this week – and one that had MANY of you calling me with passionate opinions – was: Why would people destroy their own neighborhoods like this? Why would they want to hurt their own community?

And how many of these young people even know who Martin Luther King Jr. even was? Do they think his name is just a name on a street sign in most American cities?

Then I started to think about the word community and how it’s used so often in the news, by politicians, and even by people who call themselves “community leaders.” Sometimes it sounds like – well the community thinks this, so that’s what we do and think. I mean, ask 10 people of any background about a topic and in a free society you’ll get 10 different opinions. And yes, maybe I’m confused – maybe I’m not just getting it. But I think of the phrase “The Latino community” and sometimes wonder – who are they talking about? Every group of people – whether racially, culturally, or geographically grouped together – is extremely diverse. Very unique. I just can’t help but wonder if sometimes the word community is used with a different intention… Like – you are one of us – you will do what’s best – for the community… So when there is a riot, there is must be a simple explanation – the community is angry.

How can we have UNITY when the word COMMunity is often used in such a divisive, politicized manner? Is “community” a word that is being used to divide us?

But in Baltimore – it WASN’T the community that was rioting. It was a select group of pepople who were taking advantage of a situation to cause trouble.

And then… in the middle of it all… like a ray of hope… in some news stories that you didn’t see so much on CNN or Fox News – we got to see the ACTUAL community. The real people of Baltimore!

The now famous mom who publicly hit and scolded her child for throwing rocks at the police, sending the message – NO, young man. That is NOT how I raised you. That is NOT acceptable.

The line of people who stood united in front of the police – to protect them from rioters.

And then – the next morning – approximately 2,000 citizens showed up, gloves on and trash bags in hand – to clean up their city. There was a tweet from a 26-year-old resident named Renee who brought her kids with her to the clean up. She said she was there to “show my kids how community works.”

YES. Now that definition of community – I can get behind. All these good-hearted people showed up simply to do the right thing. They showed up and thanklessly cleaned up the messes left behind by other people. They weren’t looking for credit, they didn’t bring a bullhorn or a soapbox or a media crew or a political agenda. They just showed up, and did the right thing. Community means doing the right thing.

If we can build THAT kind of national community – of good, decent people who want to build up, not tear down their neighborhoods… well I think that’s something Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud of.

But what do you think? What does the word community mean to you? And what do you think Martin Luther King Jr. would have had to say about the riots this week in Baltimore?

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You know I love my cops, but...

#TBT: I Have a Dream... or a nightmare?

Opening Statements

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