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 "Judge bashing" a cowardly actRe "Bust" editorial, August 16, 1986: Your editorial superciliously attacking Syracuse City Court Judge Mathilde Bersani by comparing her to Inspector Clouseau shows not only an unfairness in analyzing the situation where the judge was compelled to dismiss charges against 14 alleged drug dealers but, more importantly, reflects a woeful and dangerous ignorance of the foundations of the criminal justice system. In your rush to ridicule, you seem to have forgotten some fundamental propositions: ! "Judge bashing" is not only the surest way to engender disrespect for the law and its processes but is also a pointless and cowardly indulgence since most judges will feel themselves bound by the Judicial Canon of Ethics and not respond publicly to that sort of criticism. That is not to say, however, that judges should never be criticized, but when the criticism stems from a problem - i.e., drugs - which our judiciary did not create in the first place, it hardly seems fair to take out our frustrations on these highly visible targets. ! Newspapers, probably even more than the judiciary, are one of the last outposts of protection against either fascism or mob rule since both of those particular forms of behavior cannot succeed when the public really knows and understands what is going on in the society which surrounds them. Your smugly focusing on what may appear to have been an absurd "technicality," (the felony complaints were either not signed or dated) shows all the intelligence of throwing gasoline onto a smoldering charcoal grill. I wonder how many of your readers even thought about the ramification of hauling somebody off to jail or before a judge on an anonymous complaint where somebody - no name, just somebody - says that, the person accused did something wrong. What is the judge supposed to do? Just take "somebody's" word for it? The legislature says that you have the right to know your accuser and what it is you are accused of. What a novel idea! What will those hare brains think of next? A trial by jury? Nah, let's forget about that and just have Clint Eastwood, Bernard Goetz, and a social worker duke it out in a locked room so that we can decide what to do with this particular miscreant. You simply have missed the point: it's those little "technicalities" which stand between us and the knock on the door at midnight. While Judge Bersani does not deserve any medals for simply applying the law she was sworn to uphold neither does she deserve your smug condescension when she has no choice in applying the law which has preserved the tattered fabric of our society for lo these 200-odd years. EDWARD Z. MENKIN, Syracuse. |
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