L.A. court system needs new head

OPINION

Some may consider him distinguished looking, with his silver gray hair and his crisp business suits. He is an eloquent speaker, his work puts him in a position of authority, and his name is well known in the media. But right now, Gil Garcetti's job is on the line, and for good reason.

There appears to be an interesting trend in some recent verdicts handed down in the Los Angeles Courthouse. Although this judicial branch has handed down its fair share of "guilty" verdicts, it's the "not guilty" verdicts that deserve careful consideratio n.

Calvin Broadus, alias Snoop Doggy Dogg, has been recently acquitted of being an accomplice to murder. Though there has been some mention of a possible retrial, perhaps the verdict does represent what really did occur at the scene of the crime.

Rodney King never did spend any time behind bars, although evidence in a court of law showed that he clearly defied the law, by resisting arrest, on the night of the highly publicized videotaped beating.

Since then, King has been accused of assault and soliciting prostitution, but still he walks free, and is never held accountable for what he did wrong.

And who can forget, the most famous of the three, O.J. Simpson, once called a football legend, is a free man, enjoying a life of leisure; hours of golf when he chooses, and supervising his daughter as she tries to earn money at her own orange juice stand.

In addition, he has used the media as a tool to project himself as either a hero, or even a victim.

Yet there is little doubt that O.J. did beat his wife, and evidence at his double murder trial proved that his blood was found at the scene of the crime, and Ron Goldman's blood was found in Simpson's white Ford Bronco.

There are common threads that link the three defendants mentioned above. The most obvious one, of course, is that all three are African-American men.

Two of the three, Broadus and Simpson, carry celebrity status, and have the benefit of more than adequate financial means that easily cover for the best legal service that money can buy, as well as any other legal costs that need to be covered.

One may suppose that it is true that all three defendants are in fact innocent, and thus jail time is not warranted, but if one thinks about it long, hard, and logically, reaching this conclusion seems pretty difficult. Many also claim that "If it was just an average everyday on-the-street Joe Blow, whose name was not well known and who didn't have the financial resources as do Snoop and O.J., the outcome of that trial would certainly be different."

The conclusion, then, is that the court system in Los Angeles, including also the surrounding community, is quite easy. We are influenced by such issues as financial prominence, celebrity status, and terms such as "the race card." The logical equation of "A equals B" is not working as it should, or perhaps more correctly, it is not being implemented in the Los Angeles courts. Something is very fishy in the court system.

Things need to take a dramatic turn for the better. New laws need to be written, or perhaps the old ones need to be enforced. We need a change of direction. If this means that District Attorney Gil Garcetti leave his post, allowing somebody new, with f resh ideas and a clear head, then so be it. We need a California judicial system that has the authority and respect that it deserves.