The World Around You

Having only seen the coverage of the event and having no information on the trial, I will withold comment on whether this judge made the right decision, but it certainly does not seem that justice was served.

Kansas City Royals coach Tom Gamboa said Judge Leo Holt “made a mistake” in allowing William Ligue Jr. to dodge prison time when he sentenced the Alsip man to 30 months’ probation for charging the field and tackling Gamboa at a White Sox game last year.

If he had wanted to, Ligue could have caught most of Wednesday afternoon’s Sox-Royals contest at U.S. Cellular Field, because Holt also refused prosecutors’ request to ban Ligue from major league ballparks as part of his probation.

“Nobody ever said judges or our legal system [are] perfect,” Gamboa said as he readied for the game. “Life isn’t fair, and in this case I think I’m not alone in saying that the judge made a mistake. But he’s only human.

“I’m a compassionate guy myself,” he said. “But personally I’m stuck with a permanent reminder of this because of the stuffiness in my right ear.”

A bare-chested Ligue and his teenage son charged the field at what was then known as Comiskey Park last September, blindsiding the first-base coach with a flurry of punches. Gamboa, 55, suffered damage to his hearing.

Ligue’s son is to be evaluated for boot camp after violating his own probation earlier this year.

The 35-year-old Ligue had thrown himself on the mercy of the court when he entered a guilty plea to aggravated battery charges earlier this year. He thanked the “compassionate” Holt as he left the Criminal Courts Building on Wednesday.

I guess the message is, feel free to attack someone, as long as it is during a violent athletic event. According to the judge,

The state is rightfully concerned about protecting players and others on the field, the judge said, but only to a degree. Baseball, he said, “is not immune from the frailties of human conduct.”

“Baseball is a microcosm of the society, and as such, has both the desirable and undesirable,” Holt said. “The violence that ballplayers are exposed to comes from within.

“What fan has not seen a pitcher intentionally hurl a baseball at a player’s head at 90 miles per hour?” the judge continued. “Who has not seen a batter leave home plate headed for the pitcher’s mound, bat in hand, bent on mischief and mayhem?”

Makes sense to me…not.

Senator Arlen Specter has a succinct op-ed in today’s New York Times reminding the Justice Department that we have to lead by example.

The events of 9/11, as well as the war in Iraq, require our government to intensify its efforts to combat terrorism. So it is more important than ever that we do our utmost to show the world that we will enforce human rights laws evenhandedly.

Fortunately, the United States already has the tools to lead by example. The Alien Tort Claims Act, passed in 1789 by the first Congress, allows aliens — that is, people who are not citizens of the United States — to sue in federal court for a “violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” More than two centuries later, in 1992, the Torture Victim Protection Act became law. This law creates a right for victims — even aliens — of state-sponsored torture and summary execution in other countries to sue in federal court here.

Despite this history, the Justice Department has decided to contest the application of these laws by federal courts to human rights violations. Protecting human rights through litigation, according to the administration, might disrupt relations with some of our allies. In a pending federal case involving slave labor in Burma, the Justice Department argued that this and similar lawsuits may complicate foreign policy by angering nations helping fight terrorism.

In 1992, the Justice Department made a similar argument. Congress considered and rejected it, as did President George H. W. Bush. Both the president and Congress recognized that suits brought under these laws will not be successful against sitting governments and leaders who have immunity. They will bear fruit only when used against former leaders and corporations that have violated fundamental human rights laws recognized since the trials of Nuremberg.

These two laws cover only the most extreme violations of international law. The Alien Tort Claims Act has been interpreted to apply only to genocide, war crimes, piracy, slavery, torture, unlawful detention and summary execution. The Torture Victims Protection Act is limited to torture and summary execution. There is no room for moral relativism.

American credibility in the war on terrorism depends on a strong stand against all terrorist acts, whether committed by foe or friend. Our credibility in the war on terrorism is only advanced when our government enforces laws that protect innocent victims. We then send the right message to the world: the United States is serious about human rights.

This is an important issue that I have heard very little about. Thank you to Senator Specter for taking a stand for the victims of terrorism the world over.

As reported in the LA Times this morning,

Among the many Californians amazed when Arnold Schwarzenegger entered the governor’s race late Wednesday afternoon was the actor’s Brentwood neighbor and friend, Richard Riordan, former mayor of Los Angeles.

Riordan was “stunned” when he learned from a television newscast that Schwarzenegger would challenge Gov. Gray Davis for the state’s top post, according to one of Riordan’s closest confidants. The two-term mayor believed Schwarzenegger had committed to sitting out the race, leaving Riordan free to run without contesting his friend, the confidant said.

Of the two, Riordan led in most polls. As late as Wednesday morning, he had spoken to Schwarzenegger and gotten no inkling that the movie hero was about to announce his first run for public office — taking the plunge in a “Tonight Show” appearance with host Jay Leno.

“So this is what it feels like to be mugged,” said the Riordan advisor, who asked not to be named.