DEFENSE CAN'T BW PROSECUTOR'S PUPPET

The recent pedestrian/sidewalk-law issue has thankfully highlighted
some of the racial discrimination that permeates our local justice
system. However, I believe that there is an even more insidious
problem awaiting poor blacks who seek equal treatment under the law.
I speak of Ron Filipkowski's campaign for public defender.

Filipkowski has signs up all over Sarasota pledging to "end the
revolving door system," and his campaign pamphlets pledge that he
will be "a leader who will fight to prevent crime."

These are the slogans of a prosecutor, not a defense attorney.

In a racially discriminatory criminal justice system like ours, the
public defender's office is the last refuge for poor defendants to
try to receive fair treatment, and Filipkowski threatens to turn the
defense into a puppet of the prosecution.

If the man is elected and puts into action his plan to lead the fight
against drug abuse, to whom will minority defendants turn? Certainly
not to Filipkowski.

Those who have been subject to unlawful searches, especially those
minority defendants who have suffered under police discrimination,
will be forced to put their faith in an anti-drug crusader in order
to fight their drug-possession convictions.

Filipkowski would be a disaster for defendants.

Nathan J. Robinson, Sarasota