Courts

Judge's Isalmaphobia Gets The Best Of Her At Sentencing

The man's sentence gets reduced because of the judge's painful bigotry.

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(SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)

I have this conversation a lot:

White Person: You say every Trump voter is racist.
Me: Racist are too comfortable with racism for my taste.
White Person: What about the black people who voted for Trump?
Me: What is it about black people that makes you think they’re immune from being hateful towards Latinos, Asians, or Muslims?
White Person: [Continues saying racist crap long after I stopped listening.]

Of course the Trumpian promise of bigotry towards Muslims and immigrants was going to appeal to some black people. Of course it’s going to appeal to some black people who didn’t even vote for Trump. Being black does not give you MAGICAL POWERS. It doesn’t make you faster or stronger or more resistant to the virus of bigotry that infects our country.

Enter Municipal Court Judge Sharon Dickson. While sentencing Fazial Azizan, an Iranian-American convicted of being disorderly after a car crash in an Uber he was driving, Judge Dickson couldn’t contain her own bigotry. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

[Fazial Azizan] was convicted during the bench trial. Before she handed down the sentence, the judge called Azizan “a threat to everyone who wants to catch Uber.” At one point, he tried to interrupt her, and Dickson fired back.

“But I know where you come from, women don’t mean anything. OK? But that’s not how it works here. OK?,” she said. “You can look up or you don’t have to. It’s up to you. I mean, I’m just a woman. I’m only a woman who is wearing a robe today. Doesn’t really matter. I get this. This is who you are.”

Judge Dickson is out here acting like she has the Ayatollah in her courtroom, instead of an individual American. She doesn’t know a lot about where Azizan comes from, what he believes about women, or who he is. You shouldn’t interrupt a judge, especially while she’s sentencing you, of course. But whatever moral high ground Judge Dickson had she blew when she started talking about where he comes from.

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The Georgia Court of Appeals reduced Azizan’s sentence to time served. Azizan was represented by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Bigotry against Muslims can come from any place, from any race, but it can’t be allowed to come from the bench.

Man’s sentence reduced after judge is accused of anti-Islamic bias [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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