Fulton County Judge orders all honkies out of his courtroom.

**Norm357** · 03-29-08, 12:36 AM

God I love Atlanta, you can't make this stuff up.

wsbtv.com is reporting...

Judge Orders Whites Out Of Atlanta Court

POSTED: 5:07 pm EDT March 28, 2008
UPDATED: 9:51 pm EDT March 28, 2008

ATLANTA -- Judge Marvin Arrington insists he's not a racist; despite ordering white lawyers out of his courtroom on Thursday.
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.
"I didn't think about racism or reverse racism, I practiced law for 30 years and 75 percent of my partners were white," he explained.
The judge said the majority of people who appear before him accused of crimes such as murder, rape and robbery are black and he wanted to do something about it, one on one.
"I didn't want them to think I was talking down to them; trying to embarrass them or insult them; be derogatory towards them and I was just saying 'Please get yourself together,'" he said.
Arrington added that he may make a similar speech next week, but this time he'll allow everyone to hear it.

**Shoestring** · 03-29-08, 12:52 AM

He has an interesting point of view

**Ducky** · 03-29-08, 12:54 AM

Originally Posted by Shoestring

He has an interesting point of view

Interesting, but probably not effective. They didn't listen to anyone up till this point, and could care less what a judge says, no matter what color he may be.

**countybear** · 03-29-08, 01:30 AM

Judge excuses counsel to address defendants in criminal cases individually....

Sounds like mistrials incoming...

**Twan007** · 03-29-08, 02:32 AM

Originally Posted by countybear

Judge excuses counsel to address defendants in criminal cases individually....

Sounds like mistrials incoming...

+1

and sounds like someone's getting ready to run for congress...

**Jks9199** · 03-29-08, 01:38 PM

Or get the next daytime court show...

If the defendants were the sort that are gonna listen to anyone -- THEY WOULDN'T BE DEFENDANTS!

**PCSD722** · 03-29-08, 02:49 PM

These defendants needed this speech when they were young kids and it needed to be delivered in a woodshed by a dad with a stick of firewood slapping their asses instead of 20 years later in a courtroom by a judge with a wooden gavel hitting a desk.

**Xiphos** · 03-29-08, 03:00 PM

I admire him. He's trying to reach out and give some reality based advice to obviously troubled youth who are embroiled in a culture that worships criminality. Bill Cosby took a lot of heat for making similar speeches. It's time more leaders in the black community started trying to help realistically rather than the race baiting that people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are involved with. Their attitudes encourage the problems we have today so it's great that people are trying to turn that around.

**213th** · 03-29-08, 03:26 PM

If he wants to be personally involved, he could see that they are sentenced to the max

**Norm357** · 04-02-08, 12:37 PM

CNN is reporting...

(CNN) -- An Atlanta, Georgia, judge who ordered white lawyers out of his courtroom so he could lecture African-American defendants called that decision a "mistake" Tuesday night.

Judge Marvin Arrington says he is fed up with the defendants he keeps seeing in his courtroom.

"In retrospect, it was a mistake," Judge Marvin Arrington told CNN. "Because my sheriff said to me, 'Judge, that message should be given to everybody' -- 'Don't violate the law, make something out of yourself, go to school, find a role model, somebody that will help you advance your life.'"
Arrington, who is African-American, is a judge in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes the city of Atlanta.
He said he got fed up seeing a parade of young black defendants shuffle into his courtroom and decided to address them one day last week -- out of the earshot of white lawyers.
"I came out and saw the defendants, and it was about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans," Arrington told CNN affiliate WSB-TV of Atlanta, "and at some point in time, I excused some lawyers -- most of them white -- and said to the young people in here, 'What in the world are you doing with your lives?'"
The judge thought his message would make a greater impact if he delivered it to a black-only audience, he said.

Watch judge talk about decision to lecture black defendants »
"I didn't want them to think I was talking down to them; trying to embarrass them or insult them; be derogatory toward them, and I was just saying, 'Please get yourself together,'" Arrington said.
In his Tuesday night appearance on CNN, Arrington told Anderson Cooper that that seeing the same faces walk in and out of his courtroom year after year takes its toll.

"I ask them all the the time, 'What progress are we making with you?' And sometime they cannot answer," he said.
He said he would open his court doors to everyone on Thursday and "I am going to give the same identical speech: 'You've got to do better.'"E-mail to a friend