Clarence Norman: Victim, Goat or Both?
Clarence Norman: Victim, Goat or Both?
After Assemb. Clarence Norman became chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, he looked in the mirror and saw “Boss” Tweed. In his second look, he saw Meade Esposito. Norman was off to the races. He never saw Fannie Lou Hamer nor Medgar Evers.
Unfortunately, no rule nor custom exists in the Black community which requires any Black spokesperson or public official to speak in the language of a revered ancestor. Accountability is an alien concept. In the Black community, it is wrong to criticize a Judas goat. Although we are thoroughly disunited, we must pretend to be united.
Whites are clear about their role models. President-select George Bush delivered his “Great Society” speech after Hurricane Katrina and in front of Jackson Square in New Orleans to honor “Old Hickory,” President Andrew Jackson. His idolization of Jackson tells you everything you need to know about Bush. Blacks and Indians are in deep trouble.
A history question may have stumped Harriet Miers’ nomination as a Supreme Court justice. She was asked to name the two Supreme Court justices she most admired. Whites, in power, are big on history and role models. See Lynne Cheney’s new book distorting history.
Chief Justice John Roberts was asked a similar question. His answer was Justice Robert Jackson, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s mentor. Miers’ answer was Oliver Wendell Holmes and “Warren.” In Supreme Court history, this could either be Chief Justice Earl Warren or Chief Justice Warren Burger. We may never know. No one has ever accused her of being a historian.
Judicial corruption in New York City has been under the public microscope since at least the Tweed Ring in the nineteenth century. Meade Esposito was a political heir of Boss Tweed. Like in the civil rights cases, the Department of Justice waited until Esposito was infirm and senile before he had to repay his debt to society.
The local district attorney in Brooklyn, however, is seeking to paint Norman as the poster boy for judicial corruption. Hynes is asserting that he will cut Norman some slack if he name names even though Hynes already has more names than Norman will ever acquire in his lifetime. Eventually, all Blacks must become snitches. This was the basis for Rev. Al Sharpton’s prosecution in 1989.
This proposed exchange of information for leniency is unnecessary. The New York Supreme Court may take judicial notice that the judicial system in Kings County is corrupt. It is well-known that virtually every judicial officer in Kings County had to purchase a judgeship outright or offer an exchange of services for one.
When I got off the boat more than thirty years ago, I was advised to save my money in order to purchase a judgeship. I was then told that judgeships were like Cadillacs. You had to pay to play. Hynes grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up in Georgia.
The political establishment will use Norman’s conviction to argue that all state judges in New York should be appointed by the governor instead of the Black and Brown masses. This is a Machiavellian move. In politics, you must never judge a book by its cover.
Currently, the city is seventy percent non-white but the judiciary is more than seventy percent white. If Blacks are to build real political power in this city,we must first control the judiciary. Unfortunately, there will be no resistance to a judicial campaign allowing for the further disenfranchisement of Black voters. Political education is a rare commodity in the Black community.
There has always been a struggle by the executive branch of government for control of the judiciary. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity case is a recent example. All disputes must finally be decided by judges. Blacks who lack the consciousness to understand political power will never be able to exercise sovereignty.
The school funding case was back before the Appellate Division, First Department on October 11. The governor appoints these justices. He recently appointed Justice Bernard J. Malone of Albany Supreme Court to sit in Manhattan. This fails the smell test. The state is importing judges to control historically-oppressed groups in New York City without dissent from Black spokespersons.
Justice Malone expressed his hostility to overturning Cummings v. Richmond Co. Bd. of Ed. He is another Harriet Miers. The Supreme Court ruled in 1899 that Black children were only entitled to an eighth grade education despite the holding in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Children in New York City are still being miseducated under a Jim Crow law.
Eliot Spitzer, the state attorney general, insists that New York should embrace this apartheid ruling.This was his argument on October 11. It should be of great interest to Blacks that Spitzer is calling the shots in Fernando Ferrer’s bid to camp out at Gracie Mansion for the next four years. Black Democrats are refusing to connect the dots. Blacks are being asked to endorse their own oppression.
Gubernatorial and mayoral appointments simply mean that judges will not bite the hands that feed them. It also means that most judges in New York City will continue to be male and pale. The Black community is still not able to address problems in housing, domestic relations, crime and police brutality and criminality. Sensitive judges would help our plight.
The recent win by Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez-Torres for Brooklyn surrogate is a threat to the political establishment. She was an insurgent candidate in addition to being Latino and a female. Surrogate is a powerful judicial post. Steve Pagones’ uncle is the Dutchess County surrogate.
No reason now exists why Blacks and Latinos should not control the judiciary in both the Bronx and Brooklyn with Queens on the horizon. In violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the political establishment is seeking to establish a second surrogate in Brooklyn. Whites are still demanding a piece of the pie despite demographics.. If the right people are elected as judges, the prison-industrial complex will suffer a severe blow.
Hynes’ motive for prosecuting Norman is clear. As an advocate for the appointment rather than the election of judges, Hynes is seeking to portray Norman as the boogie man. Hynes’ next move will be to demand the disenfranchisement of Blacks and Latinos in judicial selections. We need visionary leadership.
To be sure, judicial corruption existed in Brooklyn on Norman’s watch. If Hynes had done the right thing, he would have proposed that the Department of Justice initiate a RICO investigation against the Brooklyn Democratic Party for operating a criminal enterprise. This would have also meant putting his own office under a microscope.
A long list of district attorneys has turned their heads while money was swapped for judgeships in Brooklyn. I remember hearing the story of a Black lawyer who paid the late Sen. Vander Beatty Twenty-five-Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) for his name to be put on the ballot.
After failing to see his name on the ballot, the lawyer complained to Meade Esposito who responded, “I don’t need a n----r” to collect my money. He then forked over Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) to Esposito who did put his name on the ballot for Supreme Court justice. The lawyer proceeded to become the second coming of Judge Roy Bean.
The payment of money is not only an indicia of greed. It also guarantees party loyalty. It put all criminal defendants at risk. Brooklyn courts are an assembly line for the prison-industrial complex while Black leaders are living large off the slave trade..
See, for example, the criminal conviction of Assemb. Roger Green for taking chump change from the prison-industrial complex. The prison-industrial complex invests mega bucks into the Democratic Party and Black politicians to sustain and energize the slave trade. See the Thirteenth Amendment. It takes politically-conscious voters to secure positive results and slavery.
10/20/05
After Assemb. Clarence Norman became chairman of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, he looked in the mirror and saw “Boss” Tweed. In his second look, he saw Meade Esposito. Norman was off to the races. He never saw Fannie Lou Hamer nor Medgar Evers.
Unfortunately, no rule nor custom exists in the Black community which requires any Black spokesperson or public official to speak in the language of a revered ancestor. Accountability is an alien concept. In the Black community, it is wrong to criticize a Judas goat. Although we are thoroughly disunited, we must pretend to be united.
Whites are clear about their role models. President-select George Bush delivered his “Great Society” speech after Hurricane Katrina and in front of Jackson Square in New Orleans to honor “Old Hickory,” President Andrew Jackson. His idolization of Jackson tells you everything you need to know about Bush. Blacks and Indians are in deep trouble.
A history question may have stumped Harriet Miers’ nomination as a Supreme Court justice. She was asked to name the two Supreme Court justices she most admired. Whites, in power, are big on history and role models. See Lynne Cheney’s new book distorting history.
Chief Justice John Roberts was asked a similar question. His answer was Justice Robert Jackson, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s mentor. Miers’ answer was Oliver Wendell Holmes and “Warren.” In Supreme Court history, this could either be Chief Justice Earl Warren or Chief Justice Warren Burger. We may never know. No one has ever accused her of being a historian.
Judicial corruption in New York City has been under the public microscope since at least the Tweed Ring in the nineteenth century. Meade Esposito was a political heir of Boss Tweed. Like in the civil rights cases, the Department of Justice waited until Esposito was infirm and senile before he had to repay his debt to society.
The local district attorney in Brooklyn, however, is seeking to paint Norman as the poster boy for judicial corruption. Hynes is asserting that he will cut Norman some slack if he name names even though Hynes already has more names than Norman will ever acquire in his lifetime. Eventually, all Blacks must become snitches. This was the basis for Rev. Al Sharpton’s prosecution in 1989.
This proposed exchange of information for leniency is unnecessary. The New York Supreme Court may take judicial notice that the judicial system in Kings County is corrupt. It is well-known that virtually every judicial officer in Kings County had to purchase a judgeship outright or offer an exchange of services for one.
When I got off the boat more than thirty years ago, I was advised to save my money in order to purchase a judgeship. I was then told that judgeships were like Cadillacs. You had to pay to play. Hynes grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up in Georgia.
The political establishment will use Norman’s conviction to argue that all state judges in New York should be appointed by the governor instead of the Black and Brown masses. This is a Machiavellian move. In politics, you must never judge a book by its cover.
Currently, the city is seventy percent non-white but the judiciary is more than seventy percent white. If Blacks are to build real political power in this city,we must first control the judiciary. Unfortunately, there will be no resistance to a judicial campaign allowing for the further disenfranchisement of Black voters. Political education is a rare commodity in the Black community.
There has always been a struggle by the executive branch of government for control of the judiciary. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity case is a recent example. All disputes must finally be decided by judges. Blacks who lack the consciousness to understand political power will never be able to exercise sovereignty.
The school funding case was back before the Appellate Division, First Department on October 11. The governor appoints these justices. He recently appointed Justice Bernard J. Malone of Albany Supreme Court to sit in Manhattan. This fails the smell test. The state is importing judges to control historically-oppressed groups in New York City without dissent from Black spokespersons.
Justice Malone expressed his hostility to overturning Cummings v. Richmond Co. Bd. of Ed. He is another Harriet Miers. The Supreme Court ruled in 1899 that Black children were only entitled to an eighth grade education despite the holding in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. Children in New York City are still being miseducated under a Jim Crow law.
Eliot Spitzer, the state attorney general, insists that New York should embrace this apartheid ruling.This was his argument on October 11. It should be of great interest to Blacks that Spitzer is calling the shots in Fernando Ferrer’s bid to camp out at Gracie Mansion for the next four years. Black Democrats are refusing to connect the dots. Blacks are being asked to endorse their own oppression.
Gubernatorial and mayoral appointments simply mean that judges will not bite the hands that feed them. It also means that most judges in New York City will continue to be male and pale. The Black community is still not able to address problems in housing, domestic relations, crime and police brutality and criminality. Sensitive judges would help our plight.
The recent win by Civil Court Judge Margarita Lopez-Torres for Brooklyn surrogate is a threat to the political establishment. She was an insurgent candidate in addition to being Latino and a female. Surrogate is a powerful judicial post. Steve Pagones’ uncle is the Dutchess County surrogate.
No reason now exists why Blacks and Latinos should not control the judiciary in both the Bronx and Brooklyn with Queens on the horizon. In violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the political establishment is seeking to establish a second surrogate in Brooklyn. Whites are still demanding a piece of the pie despite demographics.. If the right people are elected as judges, the prison-industrial complex will suffer a severe blow.
Hynes’ motive for prosecuting Norman is clear. As an advocate for the appointment rather than the election of judges, Hynes is seeking to portray Norman as the boogie man. Hynes’ next move will be to demand the disenfranchisement of Blacks and Latinos in judicial selections. We need visionary leadership.
To be sure, judicial corruption existed in Brooklyn on Norman’s watch. If Hynes had done the right thing, he would have proposed that the Department of Justice initiate a RICO investigation against the Brooklyn Democratic Party for operating a criminal enterprise. This would have also meant putting his own office under a microscope.
A long list of district attorneys has turned their heads while money was swapped for judgeships in Brooklyn. I remember hearing the story of a Black lawyer who paid the late Sen. Vander Beatty Twenty-five-Thousand Dollars ($25,000.00) for his name to be put on the ballot.
After failing to see his name on the ballot, the lawyer complained to Meade Esposito who responded, “I don’t need a n----r” to collect my money. He then forked over Fifty Thousand Dollars ($50,000.00) to Esposito who did put his name on the ballot for Supreme Court justice. The lawyer proceeded to become the second coming of Judge Roy Bean.
The payment of money is not only an indicia of greed. It also guarantees party loyalty. It put all criminal defendants at risk. Brooklyn courts are an assembly line for the prison-industrial complex while Black leaders are living large off the slave trade..
See, for example, the criminal conviction of Assemb. Roger Green for taking chump change from the prison-industrial complex. The prison-industrial complex invests mega bucks into the Democratic Party and Black politicians to sustain and energize the slave trade. See the Thirteenth Amendment. It takes politically-conscious voters to secure positive results and slavery.
10/20/05
posted by Attorney Alton Maddox at 7:27 PM
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