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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (171315)	8/14/2001 3:16:35 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

AG Lockyer of CA doesn't need facts. Come to think of it most demagogues don't.! Courts: County's top prosecutor in such cases responds to attorney general's criticism of percentage of charges filed. August 14, 2001 By JOHN McDONALD The Orange County Register Orange County's top hate-crime prosecutor defended his record Monday in the wake of criticism by State Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who said too few hate- crime cases are filed by the county. Several local human-rights advocates expressed surprise at the criticism. ..................... . "None of the cases I decided against filing as a hate crime are hate crimes," Fell said. His defenders include Joyce Greenspan, director of the Orange County-Long Beach chapter of the Anti-Defamation League. Fell is on its board of directors. "He is very diligent," Greenspan said of Fell. "Very often with a hate crime, one has to be careful." She said she had received no complaints against Fell. Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission and a member of Lockyer's hate-crime task force, said he was surprised at the attorney general's criticism of the county. "We haven't had any complaints about the district attorney." Amin David of Los Amigos, a countywide Hispanic community group, said the criticism took him by surprise but that it may signal a need to review the prosecutor's work. Michioku said Lockyer had based his criticism solely on numbers and that he had no specific knowledge of the facts of any case. Fell said he is confident any review of his work would show he did a good job. Good News, the CA Supreme Court shows common sense. Schools given a broad right to detain students The state Supreme Court says officials don't have to have a 'reasonable suspicion.' August 14, 2001 By KIM CURTIS The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO School officials do not need reasonable suspicion to stop, question or investigate students, the state Supreme Court ruled Monday. That authority cannot, however, "be exercised in an arbitrary, capricious or harassing manner," the high court said in its unanimous decision. The case stemmed from a March 1999 incident at Los Angeles County's Montebello High School in which a 14-year-old student was called out of class by a security officer who suspected the student was carrying a knife. The student, identified in court documents as Randy G., acted nervously and stuffed something in his left pocket when he saw the security officer. The officer later pulled the boy out of his classroom to ask whether he was carrying a knife. The boy said no, but agreed to a search of his bag and his clothing. The officer found the knife in his pocket. The boy was placed on probation, but appealed. He said the knife should be excluded because the security officer lacked reasonable suspicion and the detention violated his constitutional rights. "The U.S. Supreme Court has said the Bill of Rights doesn't stop at the schoolhouse gate and it has said you should protect the constitutional rights of students because that's a way of educating them to responsible citizenship," said Robert Gerstein, the boy's lawyer. "I would say this doesn't meet that mandate." Gerstein said he has not yet decided whether to petition the state Supreme Court for a rehearing or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case. State Supreme Court justices were clear in their ruling. "The broad authority of school administrators over student behavior, school safety and the learning environment requires that school officials have the power to stop a minor student in order to ask questions or conduct an investigation even in the absence of reasonable suspicion," they wrote. Bad News Gov. Davs vetoed a bill that would have set up an annual penmanship contest among schoolchildren. "Meritorious" but it would take focus away from his goals of improving student performance in reading and math.