Supreme Court: ‘Strong on Law’

You state in your editorial (Nov. 1), “Strong on Law”: “It ill behooves Gov. George Deukmejian to attack the court, which has acted with judicial restraint. He seeks to whip up public sentiment to remove Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and three of her colleagues, whom he accuses of being soft on criminals. The charge is not true. Far from being soft on criminals, the justices are being strong on the law.”

This, of course, concerns Proposition 8, the Victims Bill of Rights initiative.

“Strong on Law”? These aforementioned justices, are strong on law, yes. Strong on words, strong on the letter of the law. One might say, “love for the law.” They are enamored with it. Enamored with nit-picking so that civil liberties are not denied the criminal or the accused as they perceive it.

The public perception of the California Supreme Court is total lack of compassion for the safety of the general public. They don’t love people. They love the law! It seems they care more about the written word than humankind in general; and by that I mean decent human law-abiding human beings who are hostage to brutes who brutalize their fellow man. The court whose zeal for “Strong Law” above the peoples’ safety holds California’s citizens hostage to the perpetrator of crime. No matter how one reads a law, there probably will be more than one interpretation. There will be only one interpretation next November. “Kaput.”

GERRY M. WILLIAMS

Santa Monica