Update: Today, July 20 marks the 40th anniversary of the first landing on the Moon. Walter Cronkite opined that the event perhaps relegated all other events of the 20th century to an asterisk.
The Apollo program remains the high water mark for our country.
We believe the comments by Judge Petersen re: Juvenile court should remain the topic for the day. We will reserve our thoughts on Apollo for tomorrow.
"UNREASONABLE AND ARBITRARY DICTATES"....
"AN ATMOSPHERE OF OPPRESSION"...
A Soviet Gulag? No.
President's Bush's White House? Not quite.
Broward? Perhaps, but not in this context.
No, those were the words of Retired Circuit Court Judge Tom Petersen on
the atmosphere in Juvenile Court engendered by ousted Chief Judge Cindy "The Tsar" Lederman.
Strong words from a very well respected member of the bench about a fellow wearer of the robe.
The title of the post links to Petersen's letter to the Herald.
Petersen said this about life under Lederman:
Unfortunately, she has done so while simultaneously creating an atmosphere of oppression and fear among those who work there. Many lawyers and judges, myself included, left the juvenile justice system rather than submit to her demands for rigid conformity and obedience to her sometimes quite unreasonable and arbitrary dictates.
Meanwhile, being immersed in dependency matters, Lederman left the delinquency side of the court to her assistant administrative judge. The result in delinquency has been years of lack of progress coupled with the same atmosphere of fear and oppression that has permeated the entire court.