Posted on
February 20, 2008 in
When asked about the minority composition of the DA’s office at last night’s debate, Kelly Siegler stated that the DA’s office has more black and hispanic lawyers than the bar as a whole. I suspect that she knows what she’s talking about.
This made me wonder: how does the Harris County Criminal Lawyers’ Association’s diversity compare to the Harris County DA’s Office’s?
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Did anyone bother to ask about qualified ADAs or do they only care about how the group look?
I’m not sure I understand your question, Jason.
He is saying that when there exist racial disparities in representation of a class such as assistant district attorneys, it is not due to racism (direct or institutional) but to a shortage of qualified blacks, i.e., their inherent intellectual inferiority. Similarly, an inherent moral inferiority is the reason for the opposite racial disparity you see in representation of the ‘defendant’ class.
Right Jason?
Oh for God’s sake, PJ, you take liberalism too far. I’m surprised you can get out of bed in the morning for fear of oppressing your floor’s rights by stepping on it.
Here’s the bottom line, our country has finally woken up and smelled the coffee. Major firms are realizing that we should all better reflect our societal make up, and they are recruiting minorities aggressively too.
NEWSFLASH: Baker & Botts, Fulbright, and all those other big firms offer a new lawyer more than the ELECTED District Attorney does, right out of law school. You try telling me how a government entity can compete with THAT.
While you seem to want to continue with your “subtle racism of low expectations”, the reality is that minority attorneys are a hot commodity in today’s market, especially the legal field (and quite deservedly so). There is so much to offer outside of the D.A.’s office that the government can’t offer enough incentives for them to say.
Attorneys you see on the defense side, like Michelle Beck, Alvin Nunnery, Loretta Muldrow, Vivian King weren’t ASKED to leave the Office. They wanted to go out for their own personal reasons, whether it be for more money, or just more damn independence. Had they elected to stay with the Office, there would be more of them in higher positions. The same can be said of Judge Belinda Hill, who was an incredible trial attorney with the Office.
When Troy Cotton was first placed on the Chief’s poll, he was about 12 people down in terms of seniority, and he was voted Chief by the promotions committee on his first appearance. He was an incredible litigator, and the Office would kill to have him back.
Furthermore, I’ve seen posts on some of the blogs stating that the D.A.’s Office doesn’t recruit anymore at TSU, which is just a bald-faced lie. Check out how many minorities are coming into the Office and you’ll see they are being actively recruited.
The problem is that when it comes to longevity, the Office can’t compete with the bigger firms.
But go ahead, PJ, and continue your rant. I’ve never known the facts to slow you down.
Correction, AHCL:
Baker & Botts, Fulbright, and all those other big firms offer a new lawyer, right out of law school, more than the ELECTED District Attorney makes.
Hey, Mark?
Why are you picking on AHCL’s extremely minor typos so much lately? Seems a bit mean-spirited.
Leave him/her alone! Grr!!
I thought y’all were friends.
(But, of course, it’s hard to read “tone” on a blog.)
You were right Mark. That’s what happens when I type in a frenzy.
Anon C,
“Extremely minor typos” are things that don’t change the whole meaning of the paragraph; I think my friend AHCL was making a valid point, and I wanted to help her out.
AHCL,
I wasn’t making a substantive point about the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. I actually found it interesting that they apparently have minority attorneys on staff in excess of their percentage in the state bar.
What I was doing was trying to ferret out what underlies Jason’s comment–irrespective of its relationship to the real world–which contains an implicit assumption.
And spare me the “subtle racism of low expectations” bit. Who are you trying to be, President Bush? As if that would give you some kind of credibility? (FYI, the Dixiecrat line is soft bigotry of low expectations.”)
But by all means, let’s take you instead of Jason, since you went ahead and suggested “subtle racism of low expectations.” Let’s discuss this further and break it down. Nothing wrong with a little honest discussion on race, right? Why don’t you start by telling me what you mean by that phrase. I assume this is a reference to affirmative action, but I’ll let you tell me. We’ll get to so-called “facts” later.
(But thanks for giving me my campaign slogan for when I run for elected office: PJ: Taking liberalism too far since 2008.)
PJ, for some reason Pat Lykos isn’t using the slogan that AHCL suggested for her campaign, “The Anarchists’ Choice for DA”. Maybe you should consult with her handlers.
The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that the implicit assumption in Jason’s query is that the proportion of qualified minority lawyers to qualified white lawyers might be smaller than the proportion of minority lawyers to white lawyers.
That assumption bothers me.
Mark, you’re right about that word changing the whole meaning of what I was trying to convey.
PJ, I’ve been reading your raging and long-winded debate on my own blog for two days now. I’m not about to get into a debate with you. I’ll never convince you. You’ll never convince me. Why waste the time?
Besides, Seinfeld is on.