Pete Bondurant
Veteran Member
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...s-fostering-racist-behavior-article-1.2182039
A Kentucky judge blamed two parents for their young girl's "constant fear of black men" after an armed robbery she witnessed, local reports said.
The parents argued for a tougher sentence for the man convicted of busting into their Louisville home at gunpoint while their daughter watched "Spongebob Square Pants," according to the Courier-Journal.
Judge Olu Stevens blasted Jordan and Tommy Gray's victim impact statement at a court hearing in February and again recently in a Facebook post he later deleted.
"Whenever we are running errands, if we come across a black male, she holds me tight and begs me to leave," Gray wrote in February of her daughter. "It has affected her friendships at school and our relationships with African-American friends."
OLU STEVENS VIA FACEBOOK
Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens, pictured in a Facebook photo, is facing backlash for comments that said two parents were perpetuating racist behavior in their young daughter.
Stevens, who is a black man, was "deeply offended."
"This little girl certainly has been victimized, and she can't help the way she feels," Stevens said, according to video obtained by the Courier-Journal. "My exception is more with her parents and their accepting that kind of mentality and fostering those type of stereotypes."
Stevens contends the statement played no role in his decision to sentence the robber, 27-year-old Gregory Wallace, who pleaded guilty to the March 21, 2013, crime, to only five years' probation.