Wednesday

Ethnic Courts...

Attacking what he called racial and ethnic segregation, the Phoenix district attorney filed a federal lawsuit yesterday against Arizona court programs set up to provide treatment for Spanish-speaking and Indian drunken-driving offenders."


Phoenix DA Andrew Thomas

The programs are not actually courts. They are probation programs that steer people to therapy and other treatment in an effort to combat alcohol addiction, though a judge may impose jail or other sanctions for people who violate the terms.

What does he really care about? Mr. Thomas, a Republican, said he acted out of an obligation to uphold the Constitution. But then, of course he let the real deal slip, saying the Spanish-language and Indian courts had resulted in disparate treatment among offenders, with defendants in the special courts receiving lighter penalties for violating probation.

Ah, that's what this is about.

3 comments:

Indefensible said...

Naw,
I'd rather see more justice for everyone--the fact that there are considerate judges in the alternative courtrooms only makes me sad that 'whitey' doesn't get more consideration. The post, as usual was about the transparent motivation of the DA.

Skelly said...

Here's more about Andy Thomas's transparent motivations.

Anonymous said...

It was my understanding that the softer penalties would be at least partially a result of recommendations from the prosecutors when the probation violations are heard in court. I know that even if I could show that one of my clients didn't go to treatment because he was kidnapped by al-quaeda if the probation officers and the state recommended 180 days the judge would likely follow the states rec