INTERESTING AND VALUABLE CA ELECTION RESULT

by Bob Walsh

One of the more interesting results of last week's California primary was what is normally a seriously ho-hum subject. Judgeships. Aaron Persky presided over the rape trial of Brock Turner, a Stanford jock some while back. Turned was convicted of rape for banging a passed-out drunk woman near a frat party. He got the six months in jail friends-and-family deal from Judge Persky. That piece of grotesque idiocy landed Judge Persky in a recall race on the Santa Clara County ballot and, for the first time in 82 years a California judge was in fact recalled. (Rose Bird and friends were not recalled, they were simply not re-elected.)

In a recent editorial the L. A. Times opined that this would have a chilling effect on judicial decisions in CA and be destructive of judicial integrity. I disagree. All it means if you do something REALLY stupid you may pay the price. Once in every 82 years out of 1,500 judges in the state is not, I think, a threat to civilization as we know it. It is, in fact, an affirmation of civilization.