Sending a Not So Politically Correct Message

Judge Marvin Arrington is fed up with the defendants he keeps seeing in his courtroom, so on Tuesday, he ordered white lawyers out of his courtroom so he could lecture African-American defendants.

"In retrospect, it was a mistake," Judge Marvin Arrington told reporters. "Because my sheriff said to me, 'Judge, that message should be given to everybody' -- 'Don't violate the law, make something out of yourself, go to school, find a role model, somebody that will help you advance your life.'"

Arrington, who is African-American, is a judge in Fulton County, Georgia.

"I came out and saw the defendants, and it was about 99.9 percent Afro-Americans and at some point in time, I excused some lawyers -- most of them white -- and said to the young people in here, 'What in the world are you doing with your lives?'"

The judge apparently thought his message would make a greater impact if he delivered it to a black-only audience.

"I didn't want them to think I was talking down to them; trying to embarrass them or insult them; be derogatory toward them, and I was just saying, 'Please get yourself together,'" Arrington said.

He said he would open his court doors to everyone today and "I am going to give the same identical speech: 'You've got to do better.'

Sometimes the message is more important than being politically correct.   

John M. Hanamirian