Gibbs Staff

Twenty-five years ago, Judge Wilmont Sweeney, a Black Alameda County Superior Court Judge, recognized that the court system was too elitist and inaccessible to the community, especially the Black and Brown communities, which it serves in an adverse way. He wanted the court to be accessible to the community.

The court serves to mediate disputes between individuals and between individuals and institutions. Yet the court's attitude of long standing has been to mediate disputes between the rich, to protect the rich from the poor, and to simply send or not send the poor to jail/prison. There are written codes that contradict this behavior, but it is the behavior that defines the person or the entity. Huey Newton is quoted to have said, a theory in a book is nothing more than a theory in a book, unless it is applied.

Indeed, for the Juvenile Division of the court, its primary tasks are written and theorized as to protect juveniles from society, to rehabilitate them when the need exists, and to protect society from them. But with the heavy concentration of Black and Brown juveniles in that system, that is not the way things have gone. [See Bias Colorblind Justice] And as those juveniles turn 18, they are thrust into the criminal justice court where there is no notion of rehabilitation in even a theorized sense--Proposition 21 in California made sure of that for juveniles.

Now, by mandate, the Court is concerned about making itself accessible to the community? Sweeney understood that need 20 years ago without a mandate, and he tried to do it, only to be fought against by the ruling elite of the court who wanted to keep that institution a closed society in which the rich could settle their disputes, be protected from the poor, and the poor could be disposed of in ways they felt were proper. The court has remained an all white and predominately all male cloistered society.

Sweeney was far in front of the courts on accessibility and many other matters. He hired people the administrators of the court would have never hired; he tasked with goals that they would have never tasked them with; he conducted personal community meetings that many of the indigenous felt beneath them. And as a result of his efforts, he bred a small cluster of judges who caught his vision, saw his wisdom, and became judges of and for the people. For his part, he was elected year after year because the people knew and trusted him; they knew they could get an audience with him or someone who was close to him.

It became obvious to the community, that whenever community forums for getting to know your judge were hosted,  most of the judges were afraid of the community and uncomfortable with them. The way of the community is different from the manner of the judges: the community seems hostile, disrespectful, and forceful--I wonder why--toward judges, a community they usually see only upon their judgment seats. Sweeney was always comfortable with the community and they with him. He spoke the language of the community and also the court. That was one aspect of his brilliance that was far ahead of his fellow judges and the indigenous administrators of the court system.

It is interesting that the local print media spent enormous amounts of ink on the Alameda County's Chief Probation officer, yet it has spent comparatively little ink on Alameda County's Superior Court and its top level administrators. Why not explore how the court system's current attempt to go out to the community and tap into their voice has problems; how the persistent continuity of an all white top-level administration that is incapable of communicating with the community it is supposed to serve; how a conflicted court culture and communication system precludes the court from developing the strategic plan it is tasked to develop?

Sweeney did, for a time, make the courts, at least the Juvenile Division, accessible to the community. He hired people who were fluent with the language of the community and with the language of the court and not afraid of either; these people could function in all levels of society. The current crop of top level court administrators cannot function on multiple levels of society, only their own level. That is a persistent problem with those of the elite--their inability to understand beyond their own egocentric frame of reference, hence, their frame of reference must be used in order for them to understand others .

Sweeney implemented programs that gave the community a voice--yearly conferences to consider the plight of young black males (those which the court sees too often and in too great a number); he hosted local community forums, participated in community activities; received advice from the community on matters that were before the court; he talked with the press regularly on community issues and on legal issues. He simply was not afraid of the community and was capable of relating beyond the Court's frame of reference.

Fortunately, there are a few similarly situated judges who remain and are not afraid of the community. It will be their responsibility and their resources that the present court, with its old line of administrators, will have to tap in order to make the court accessible to the community again. The current Presiding Judge of Juvenile Court is starting again some of the institutions that Sweeney began and the lords of the court fought against. And now the Court is mandated to develop a strategic plan that will make it accessible to the community it is supposed to serve. It has always been more than accessible to the rich, but Who will Defend us?

Since this mandate to make the courts accessible is fast upon them, we again see the cost of brilliance. It is always such that the brilliant are far advanced from their surroundings and therefore seem odd and/or illogical; there is often a failure to understand their message, reasoning, vision, and sometimes they are viewed as a crackpots and ridiculed. This is the way of the world for brilliance/genius, and don't let that brilliance be Black.

I offer DuBois, MLK, Jr., Gandhi, Madame C. J. Walker, etc…Judge Wilmont Sweeney.[]

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