I’ll continue with my notes from the debate on Red, White and Blue a week ago, and add in what I saw in the Tuesday debate (which I finally watched yesterday online).
Last Friday, toward the end, Kelly Siegler was very indignant and defensive (perhaps it was understandable, given she felt the D.A’s office that she has worked in had taken quite a beating — deservedly — just about the entire debate). She declared that the Assistant D.A.’s like herself had given their careers to the job, that they haven’t told people about all the good they do, and that they work for very little money. She said that the way she would repair the reputation of the D.A.’s office would be to tell “all those people whose feelings have been hurt” that they would be willing to discuss it. She repeated the same response on Tuesday, stating she would, “welcome anyone who would like to discuss those hurt feelings” and that there was a “pool of people in the office” who could “go out into the community and talk.
I don’t want to harp on this one point with her (I do have others) but repeating the opinion that all of the racist activities in the D.A.’s office under Chuck Rosenthal — and I’m not just referring to the email nonsense — just hurt people’s feelings is patronizing. That attitude should be enough to sink her campaign. But there is more.
On Friday, she repeatedly stated that a prosecutor’s job is “to convict a guilty person.” She believes this. It is dangerous, in my opinion, for a prosecutor to think this way. The job, all of the other candidates affirmed, is to see that justice is done.
While Siegler has been in the office, the D.A. has given judges lists of people to call for Grand Jury duty. As Pat Lykos noted, when she was a judge, she appointed commissioners and charged them to find Grand Jurors who were representative of the community.
More tomorrow.
calle viena 