Cochran Deserves No-Name Defense
As an African American attorney, I was outraged by Bill Plaschke’s demeaning comments about Latrell Sprewell and his attorney, Johnnie Cochran [Dec. 10]. Plaschke wrote: “In the middle chair of a long team sat the nation’s most talked about thug. . . . Close to him sat the nation’s most talked about thug attorney.”
Everyone, including Sprewell, acknowledges that his assault on Coach P.J. Carlesimo was wrong. Sprewell’s behavior, while unfortunate, does not warrant the mindless name calling that Plaschke has resorted to.
Plaschke’s description of Cochran as a “thug attorney” was not only crude and insensitive, it was also racist. “Thug,” just as “welfare,” “violence” and “gangs,” is one of America’s code words for blacks.
Throughout the history of this country, great white attorneys have represented serial killers, political assassins, rapists, drug dealers, Mafia bosses, white supremacists and the Oklahoma City bombing suspects. Yet, few, if any, of them have been referred to as “thug” attorneys.
LEGRAND H. CLEGG II
Compton
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