Our Readers' Opinions
March 9, 2012

More serious issues before the court than cell phone cases

Fri, Mar 9. 2012

Editor: There is no law anywhere stating that males cannot wear jewelry into a court room, neither is there a law stating that persons cannot have cellular phone cases attached to their belts while in a courtroom.{{more}}

So why then does Senior Magistrate Donald Browne place so much emphasis on these things?

I recently went to court to answer a traffic charge and on entering the dock the Senior Magistrate began bellowing to the top of his voice about why a cell phone case was attached to my belt and ordered me to instantly remove it.

Now the question is, what was the ruckus about? He then said that it resembles a gun and began asking about westerns and ivory handle pistols, confusing me even more. Can someone please explain to me what my cellular phone case had to do with my traffic charge and why are men not allowed to wear jewelry to court even though you are not a prisoner?

These are modern times when focus should be placed on more important matters than a cellular phone case on a belt.

Recently, a prisoner issued numerous threats and unleashed a barrage of curse words in front the Senior Magistrate and no charges were laid against this prisoner. Why was this matter left to go unpunished? Why at one point did talks surface about the court disciplining the journalist that wrote about the incident instead of the prisoner that paraded himself?

Persons in charge need to place more emphasis on what’s important and a Blackberry case attached to my belt shouldn’t be at the top of the list.

Lyf Compton