JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG

WELCOME TO THE OFFICIAL RICHARD E GERSTEIN JUSTICE BUILDING BLOG. THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO JUSTICE BUILDING RUMOR, HUMOR, AND A DISCUSSION ABOUT AND BETWEEN THE JUDGES, LAWYERS AND THE DEDICATED SUPPORT STAFF, CLERKS, COURT REPORTERS, AND CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS WHO LABOR IN THE WORLD OF MIAMI'S CRIMINAL JUSTICE. POST YOUR COMMENTS, OR SEND RUMPOLE A PRIVATE EMAIL AT HOWARDROARK21@GMAIL.COM. Winner of the prestigious Cushing Left Anterior Descending Artery Award.

Wednesday, July 01, 2020

CASTING THE FIRST STONE

Item: Princeton University to remove President Woodrow Wilson's name from their school of International Relations and Affairs because of his racist views. 

Rumpole has had enough. 
If you have not sinned, lets start casting some stones. 

Washington DC. The Washington Monument. All named after our first President who owned slaves. Remove the name and take down the monument, and while you're at it, call PM Boris Johnson and let him know that after further review we beat the British with a racist at the head of the army and we'd in fact like to surrender than be seen as honoring a racist slaveowner. 

Dwight D Eisenhower. Supreme Allied Commander, WWII. Head of an army of millions from 1941-1944. Arguably the most powerful man in the world. While married, and much older, took advantage of a younger woman who was not equal in power to him (Kay Somersby). Call Prime Minister Merkle, we cannot live with the results of WWII when the armies of the allies were led by a man who took advantage of a young woman. #Metoo USA #SurrendertoGermany. 

While you're at it, the second most powerful man in the world at that time- President Roosevelt, also slept with a younger woman in a relationship in which the power was not equal. Time to surrender to Japan and Germany. We won the war with  men  who took advantage of younger women in relationships where the power was not equal. #METOO= #LoseWWII. 

General Patton? Saved the allied army by repelling the Germans in the battle of the bulge. In an unmatched display of generalship, On December 19, 1944, as the Germans were breaking through all Allied lines, Patton disengaged from a major battle, marched three divisions over three hundred miles  in 48 hours in a snow storm and attacked and smashed the Germans. Patton was an avowed anti-Semite, consistently railing against Jewish conspiracies. Can't accept what he did, saving the Allies in 1944 from a German attack that could have led to a peace with Hitler. #Surrendernow. 

And while we are busy surrendering to Germany and Japan, lets tear up the US Constitution. It was written by slave owners. And do we need to even broach the 3/5 of a person clause (Art I, Sect.2)? 

While racism is rearing it's ugly head, perhaps we need to remove all the streets named after Dr. Martin Luther King, as well as end the national holiday. As a powerful leader of a worldwide movement, Dr. King unfortunately entered into a number of sexual relationships, while married, with younger women who may well not have felt comfortable saying no to such a powerful and important man. #METOO= No More Dream. 

And looking forward, before we all race to get the Covid-19 vaccine, lets make sure we approve of the personal, sexual, and racial views of the inventor of the vaccine, lest we save the world with someone who does not adhere to all the correct views. 

Too bad we did not have a mediocre man leading all the allied armies in WWII who didn't  sleep around. Maybe we would have lost. Maybe the war would have taken two more years and 500,000 more lives. But at least we would not be glorifying men who took advantage of younger women. 

Lets roll it all back. No Washington DC. No USA. No Constitution. No Civil rights act of 1964. Call Buzz Aldrin and tell him to fly back to the moon and remove the plaque he and Armstrong placed. President Kennedy, a man known to cheat with younger women outside of his marriage challenged the country to land on the moon. We are all cheapened by responding to a challenge by a man of such low moral character. 


Here is the point. We are human beings. We are at our best when we learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of those who came before us. But we have no right to expect that every single person of achievement also adhere to all the right views. We can strive for that. There is no rational, reasonable, or moral defense of racism. Men who use their power to take advantage of younger women are of low moral character. But make no mistake, if the surgeon who saves our life cheats on his wife, then we will take the trade off. If the scientist who invents the Covid-19 vaccine does not like Jews or Asians, we are getting the vaccine. 

We will not knowingly eat at a restaurant of a racist. Silence does equal acceptance and we should not support anyone who is a racist. But President Wilson does not need to be erased from history. It's okay to have a statute and honor the man who conceived of the league of nations, as long as his story is fully and fairly told. 

But in looking backward, not forward, the fact is that in different times different behaviors were unfortunately acceptable. That does not mean that the person who engaged in unacceptable behavior or views, but also contributed to the well being of human kind should be erased from history. A full discussion of the good and bad is appropriate.  We can admire the genius of the Constitution, and recognize and praise the contributions of Thomas Jefferson, while still teaching about the full man, and the fact that he owned slaves and slept with female slaves. And even though that behavior is reprehensible, we do not support removing a statute of Thomas Jefferson. 

This is absolutely "in for a penny, in for a pound." Remove Wilson's name for racism; then remove Dr. King's name for sexism. It is as simple as that.  Or accept that each man had both a genius, and like most humans, many flaws. 

And finally this- none of this applies to Confederate Statutes, names, flags, or honors. The Confederacy was run by traitors to the Nation who supported slavery. Every one of them was a traitor. Most were war criminals. Not one should be honored. 

Happy Fourth of July. 




24 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Washington DC. The Washington Monument. All named after our first President who owned slaves. Remove the name and take down the monument"

Don't think they won't try. They've already done that to other memorials to Washington.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/19/us/portland-george-washington-statue-toppled-trnd/index.html

But it was in Portland, so maybe it doesn't count?

Of course, Jefferson is on the chopping block too, being not just a slave owner, but a raping slave owner.

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2020/06/protesters-take-down-thomas-jefferson-statue-in-front-of-portlands-jefferson-high-school.html
https://www.wweek.com/news/2020/06/20/portland-man-describes-tearing-down-thomas-jefferson-statue-its-not-vandalism/

"Patton was an avowed anti-Semite, consistently railing against Jewish conspiracies. Can't accept what he did, saving the Allies in 1944 from a German attack that could have led to a peace with Hitler."

Don't forget may have also molested his niece, who then went on to commit suicide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Gordon_(Red_Cross)

Anonymous said...

Let me tell you something Runpole - this was the BEST post that you have authored. Ever. You are 100% correct. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole - I fundamentally disagree with your Wall Street analysis. You have disregarded the power of the Fed. You have gone against the marching orders left behind by Wall Street great - the late Martin Zweig. “Never bet against the Fed!”

You have been short. I bought the bottom and filled the account with Apple, Facebook, Tesla, Microsoft, Google, PayPal, Square, Shopify, etc. - all at their lows for the year.

Needless to say, the account is at historical record highs with nice gains - especially on Nasdaq blue chips.

I don’t see a “crash” coming. Do you still see a stock market catastrophe? Sure, the banks, airlines, domestic auto manufacturers, hotels, etc are all in the toilet for the foreseeable future - until successful vaccines are available to all in 2021.

I value your thoughts and have followed you from the very first blog post. This time - I respectfully dissent.

Anonymous said...

Bad people can do good things or good people can do bad things. Who do we revere? How do we tell?

Anonymous said...

AMEN to your excellent post!!!!!!!!!
I am THE most liberal person I know but this IS GETTING RIDICULOUS.

Confession:I am in my 70's. When I was in first grade at P.S. 78 in NY. they had a little reader with large print, I can still vividly see the print and colorful drawings. It was called "Little Black Sambo". So politically incorrect that I am embarrassed to admit this, BUT I LOVED that book.

My exposure to that first grade reader began my fascination with and love of Africa and all things African including their amazing people. Before law school, I went there to live and work. During Law School I took a summer course in Paris to study "African Legal Systems". I've been back to Africa several times including visiting Rwanda right after the massacre with a Tutsi prince with whom I am still friends. He financed the trip to bring myself and 25 reggae musicians to perform concerts to bring joy and the healing power of music back to his war ravaged country.

Anonymous said...

The difference between the confederate statues and those of our nations founders is armed insurrection. The other characters you mentioned had flaws, and we should not sugar-coat their human failures seen in the light of the twentieth century. Slavery was wrong, we know that now. Racial discrimination is wrong, we know that now. Gender discrimination is wrong, and we know it now. Rape was wrong and we knew it then. If the cost for our refusal to recognize these truths is tearing down statues or monuments to people who practiced them, then do it. It's taken over 150 years, too long in my view.

Anonymous said...

"Hero" cop's response to woman at airport being sucker punched...courtesy of leo affairs:

"With the airport incident what am I missing?

The officer is talking to the person, then the subject goes ballistic and is aggressively challenging the officer and pushing up on him. From the dept manual that's good enough to taser her, yet him striking her is wrong?

If subjects are allowed to do this to us on the street one of us is gonna get sucker punched or killed.

Why is the officer being investigated?"

See, here is the problem. How about back the fuck off, instruct her that she is going to be arrested if she approaches him again, and then if she does, arrest her.

KFR, you need to see what they wrote in the report and then charge the other cops present with lying if they disneyed the report in any way. Do your fucking job.

Anonymous said...

"We won the war with  men  who took advantage of younger women in relationships where the power was not equal."

What in the world are you even talking about? Repeating another lib talking point (without thinking) ?

Were the women underage? Did the women not consent to the relationships?

Young women who have reached the age of majority have the autonomy to choose who to have a relationship with. Period.

Tell us more of your "unequal power" rule. What is the permitted age difference? Where can i get a power meter so i can measure my power against a possible partner?

Total stupidity.

Anonymous said...

But as excellent as the satire was. You treaded upon the reputation of Dr King. That may not be forgivable.

Anonymous said...

But do we have to celebrate them without making an effort to put their entire lives in context? Lee was a traitor to the Union and took up arms against the federal government in order to perpetrate a system of chattel slavery. Why does he get a prominent place on Richmond's Avenue of Monuments? Because of white supremacy and the "lost cause" mythology. That is not 'our' heritage - he lost. I've said in court that no one is as good as their best moment in life or as bad as the worst but we should acknowledge that some of these monuments were / are designed only to glorify something that shouldn't be celebrated: Racism. There are no good people in the "jews will not replace us" chanting neo-nazi crowd and we should say that out loud. Just because I want to improve the United States, doesn't mean that I hate my country and want to destroy it.

Anonymous said...

Barack Obama:

“I believe that marriage is the union between a man and a woman...Now, for me as a Christian, it’s also a sacred union. God’s in the mix.” 

Anonymous said...

Next on the chopping block is Yale, whose founder Elihu Yale was a slave trader. And what about the Johnson Space Center? LBJ notoriously threw around the N word as if it were the equivalent of any ethnic label.

Anonymous said...

What about our currency? From the dollar bill to the 100 dollar bill there are many which contain the likeness of slave owners. It pains me to think of the anguish the BLMers must go through every time they are forced to look upon the likeness of one of our former presidents who was a slave owner. I have a solution. They can send their offending currency to me and I will see to it that it gets disposed of properly.

Anonymous said...

Your ass is really hanging out on this one. You are complicit.

Anonymous said...


In 2016, officials at California’s Bob Hope Airport came to a decision: The comedian’s name needed to go. Never mind the fact he was still well-loved by millions of fans around the world. People in the tourism community believed more travelers would use the airport if they realized it was close to the area’s main attractions. “Bob Hope isn’t doing it,” as one airport commissioner said. So goodbye Bob Hope, hello Hollywood Burbank Airport. Almost no one complained. Business is business, after all.

Unfortunately, a similar scenario is not playing out in nearby Orange County in 2020, where the local Democratic Party is now demanding that actor John Wayne’s name be stripped from their local airport for a much better reason than mere dollars and cents. “An airport name should reflect our values, and white supremacy is not one of them,” as local Democratic Party Chair Ada BriceƱo said.

This should be an easy decision. Wayne, like many an actor fond of opining on politics, was not exactly shy about sharing his views. In an interview he gave to Playboy in 1971 — one that regularly makes the rounds five decades later — Wayne let loose with such thoughts as “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.” He claimed Native Americans “selfishly” would not share their land with white settlers. For good measure, he called gays “perverted” and referred to them by an offensive slang term I won’t repeat.

Anonymous said...

Rumors about Alito retiring on Markus' blog.

Someone get Robert Luck up in the bullpen.

Or maybe Renatha Thomas perhaps. Is she old enough to be on the USSC? I know technically you dont have to be a lawyer to get on the USSC, so by her having a JD from Florida Gulf Coast online law school, she is actually overqualified.

Anonymous said...

Fantastic! I’ve been trying to make that point for a while. Not nearly as eloquent as you have. You can’t judge the past with the same ethics and morals we share now. Progress brought us to this point and we still have a lot to grow as a society and don’t really know what direction it will take. Women were given the vote 100 years ago, that means anybody who abided their 2nd citizenship is tarnished. Kids were being paddled in public schools until at least the 70s and that will get you a nickel in prison today. Maybe 100 years from now, dogs rights will be equal to humans and we’ll be considered scumbags ( probably going to happen anyway ). The point is, we have to be fair to our ancestors who weren’t as evolved or as perfect as we are. They thought they were better than their ancestors too.

Anonymous said...

And so they arrested Ghislaine Maxwell.

https://apnews.com/89212f72a6ca436f038e88ffd0250a40

Let's so how long she survives now...

Rumpole said...

11:07 am. I do not often laugh. At best I am a curmudgeon. But you made me laugh.

Anonymous said...

Bravo

Anonymous said...

George Merrick is credited with the establishment of the University of Miami in Coral Gables in 1925 with a donation of 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land and a pledge of $5 million. Merrick said in 1937 that he envisioned a Miami that had all of its black people completely removed from the city limits. Oops-how about that fancy mall?

CAPTAIN JUSTICE said...


THE CAPTAIN REPORTS:

SAD NEWS TODAY AS JUDGE SHELDON "SHELLY" SCHWARTZ HAS PASSED AWAY

Judge Schwartz was first elected to the County Court bench in 1996 when he defeated Larry King. He was last elected in 2006 defeating Migna Sanchez Llorens. He retired from the bench in 2012. He became a member of the Florida Bar in 1969 and celebrated 50 years as a bar member this past November. He previously was a law partner with Alvin Entin for more than 20 years.

Judge Schwartz was a real mensch and he never felt more comfortable than when he spent those six years on the bench serving in the "peoples court", County Court. He was sometimes criticized for taking too much time explaining to un-represented defendants how the law worked and how it would affect them in their decision in court that day. He was proud of the fact that he took the extra time to treat each citizen who came before him with respect and compassion.

He famously apologized on this Blog when he once had a particularly bad day on the bench and he felt bad about it. Here is the link to that Blog post:

http://justicebuilding.blogspot.com/2006/01/honorable-judge-sheldon-schwartz.html

We will miss you Shelly.

Captain Out .......


Anonymous said...

Whenever we go through a necessary course correction, as in a just war, there will be unjust casualties and property damage. We can scrutinize each individual action for proportionality but we don't, except insofar as the military has rules of engagement and conduct. And even so. The metoo# movement involves women and their supporters rising up against millenia of oppression. The BLM movement involves black people and their supporters rising up against centuries of enslavement and oppression. Both are righteous movements, without written rules of engagement or conduct, that have been remarkably peaceful all things considered. If the immediate reputations of some complex individuals are the casualties of these movements, we can all live with this, for the sake of creating a more perfect union.

The anti-Vietnam war movement had excesses, some violent, yet helped to end an unjust war. Passionate civilian movements with righteous goals have excesses. Like just wars.

Our participation in WWII was righteous. But Japanese-Americans were interned en masse and the USSC affirmed this atrocity. Condemnation of the architects of internment and the members of that court is useful in reducing brutality and injustice, no matter how many good qualities all those men (most certainly) may have had.

Anonymous said...

Rumpole, An excellent and well-thought-out commentary!
America is all about aspiration: Our constitution doesn't deny that it may require work --- maybe lots of work --- to bring its ideals into fruition.
I watched The Vote, a 4-hour documentary on Channel 2 this week; I'm sure it's available on some streaming facility: It was women who developed the march through DC in large numbers as a powerful tactic (though Coxey's Army of Civil War vets was first to start that type of protest and demand for redress), and women were first to picket the White House, on a daily basis, the goal being to push Pres. Wilson to come out in favor of extending suffrage to women, as the federal amendment was under consideration in Congress. He was actually opposed to it, personally.
Re: Japanese being interned: Earl Warren was Attorney General of California then, and implemented this practice. And after Warren was appointed by Eisenhower to the USSCt, Ike ruefully stated, on seeing the way the court was going, that he sorely regretted making that appointment.
The answer to all of these issues comes of course from Winston Churchill: "Never, never, never [not sure how many times repeated] give up!"