Making a Political Appeal : D.A. Reiner’s comments in shooting case are not helpful

The decision by a local judge to sentence a South-Central Los Angeles grocer to probation--rather than prison--for killing a black teen-ager was questionable, no doubt about it. But Los Angeles Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner is only bringing more heat to an already overheated murder case by joining in the criticism so vociferously.

African-Americans are understandably angry at the leniency Judge Joyce A. Karlin showed to Soon Ja Du, who shot 15-year-old Latasha Harlins to death after accusing the youth of trying to shoplift. Found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, Du could have gone to prison, but Karlin instead ordered her to serve probation. In a case that has come to symbolize the tense relations between immigrant merchants and their black customers in poor neighborhoods, Du’s sentence was, to some black people, insult added to injury.

African-American leaders have called for the community anger generated by Karlin’s ruling to be channeled constructively. Even Karlin expressed a hope that leniency might promote a healing process. But healing won’t be helped along by Reiner’s outburst.

Reiner called Du’s sentence “a stunning miscarriage of justice” and swore to keep Karlin--a former prosecutor made a judge only a few months ago--from ever trying another criminal case. That is technically possible under a California law that allows attorneys to remove one judge from a case without an explanation. Reiner said he will order his staff to invoke that privilege every time Karlin is assigned to a criminal case. It’s perfectly legal--but is it wise? Should a jurist be blackballed for one controversial decision?

Reiner is up for reelection next year. The Harlins case has been so painful and sensitive that one is left with the uncomfortable suspicion of a politician trying to use a community’s collective grief for his own ends.