BLOG ISSUES

Anonymous writes:

What a great blog - take the comments from the last post, and use them as the new post - how incredibly creative! What's next?


Rumpole Responds: Early in our blogging career, when we didn’t have any readers, we just wrote long winded pieces about unimportant matters like the death penalty, the PD lawsuit, the life and death of Rosa Parks, and what criteria Judges should use in sentencing. Then, lo and behold, our self made “feud” with Brian Tannebaum took off, Bobby Reiff posted a comment and someone threw a cross check back at him, and a few regular readers emerged. Someone whispered the blog address into some assistant public defender’s ear, and things really took off.

We developed the style of re-printing the comments and responding to them because 1) it was sort of fun to engage in dialogue with readers; 2) we believe it gave people greater incentive to write comments; and 3) the comments we received were manageable.

Comments like Jason Grey’s insightful analysis, the comments on Judge Crespo’s life and untimely death, and the comments by Judges Larry Schwartz and Sheldon Schwartz lead us to believe the formula we are using works. What emerges is a dialogue on issues that gets directed by both the readers of the blog, and Rumpole, the humble barrister.

Now, we are getting dozens of comments a day and we cannot respond to them all. The blog hit meter shows a few hundred hits a day, which is rewarding. We have tried to find our way in cyper space by interweaving our dialogue with readers with posting thoughts of our own. We are still finding our own way. We will leave it up to the readers. Look at the new poll and vote.

However, now that you mention it, here is something on our mind.

“NO BABIES OR CHILDREN. NO BEEPERS OR CELL PHONES. NO TALKING”.

Pop Quiz: the above sign is commonly seen at : 1) A Florida Prison; 2) Dick Cheeney’s secure hiding spot. 3) All Federal Courtrooms. 4) Most Dade Circuit Courtrooms.

If you answered “2” you might be correct, but if you answered “4” you are 100% correct.

PS: As far as we know, despite all their pomposity, the federal college of cardinals does not ban children from the courtroom. Justice? Nope, that is not allowed.
Reasonable doubt, fairness, presumption of innocence are all quaint ideals no longer practiced in post 9/11 hysteria. But children are still treated as human beings with the right to be in court and watch injustice in action. It’s a sad day when the federal college of cardinals treats someone better than our near and dear state court robed readers.

Querry: What is it about children and babies that Dade Circuit Judges hate so much, as to outlaw and ban them from their courtrooms? Weren’t they babies or children once? (OK- lets acknowledge the hanging curve ball here: some of the current judiciary still might be called babies or children.) Aren’t babies and children protected under the equal protection clause? Don’t they have rights too?

Isn’t the final product of the whole right to life movement crying babies and rowdy children with sticky fingers who ask questions as loudly as possible at the most inappropriate times?

In one major northern industrial city where we used to live and work, the practice was that when a parent was in court with a young child, the judge dispatched the bailiff to speak with them, and then- here’s a real shocker- the Judge called that person’s case ( or the person they were in court for) OUT OF TURN. Yes, as radical as that sounds, the court system had a heart, and accommodated the parent of the baby or child and took their case out of turn.

Hopefully, dozens of robed readers are saying to themselves “why didn’t I think of that?”

Wake up call to the Judiciary: it’s the 21st Century. Everyone has a cell phone. Instead of hanging a sign banning them from your courtroom, how about a sign reminding them to turn them off or set them on vibrate? One defense attorney we know loves to tell the story of getting yelled at by a judge who, when he walked in court late, and was yelled at because the judge said her staff was told by his office that he could not be reached by phone or beeper, asked to be excused, walked outside, removed the sign taped to the door banning cell phones, and walked back in to court and told the judge he was merely following the court’s rules.

The point is, that whole “NO BABIES NO CELL PHONES” signs taped to courtrooms looks mean, amateurish, and just plain stupid.

Kudos to Judge Edward Newman who does not ban children from his courtroom and has a professionally created sign reminding people to turn their cell phones off.

Least our robed readers forget, the courtrooms belong to the citizens.
You, fair robed reader, are merely an employee whose term can be ended the first time a Hispanic female Public defender who has been a member of the bar five years decides to run against you. Not a very comforting thought, is it?


See You In Court with our cell phone on vibrate.