| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front: Culture Wars | |
| Anti-war judge rejects foster teen's bid to join military | |
| 2008-03-07 | |
| Shawn Sage long dreamed of joining the military ... and becoming a Marine. His foster parents, as well as his social worker, supported his decision to enlist early [into the Delayed Entry Program]. But last fall, a Los Angeles Superior Court commissioner dashed the foster teen's hopes of early enlistment for Marine sniper duty, plus a potential $10,000 signing bonus. In denying the Royal High School student delayed entry into the Marine Corps, Children’s Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel reportedly told Sage and a recruiter that she didn’t approve of the Iraq war, didn’t trust recruiters and didn’t support the military. “I tried. I said, `Please.’ I begged. He tried, he said, `Please’ and begged,” Sage said. “But she refused.” Mackel said she denied delayed enlistment to an eager Navy recruit as well, Medrano said. She expressed concern that recruiters treat recruits “like another warm body,” he said. “She said, `All you care about is your numbers.”‘ “She just said all recruiters were the same - that they `all tap dance and tell me what I want to hear.’ She said she didn’t want him to fight in it.” “The judge said she didn’t support the Iraq war for any reason why we’re over there,” said Marine recruiter Sgt. Guillermo Medrano of the Simi Valley USMC recruiting office. Despite being denied [by the judge’s capricious act], he still shows up for USMC physical training. The judge’s name is Marilyn Mackel. From the LA Superior Court Website you can find the contact info, including her phone number at her office.
| |
| Posted by:OldSpook |
| #14 t was me. Sorry! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-07 22:18 |
| #13 Generational change, Crusader. Just give it a few more years. |
| Posted by: t 2008-03-07 16:39 |
| #12 Will the day come when we take our country back from sanctimonious bitches like this hack of a judge? I'm not holding my breath. |
| Posted by: Crusader 2008-03-07 15:18 |
| #11 I like Mike's idea. Living well is the best revenge. The young man should do well in the Marines, and come back to Commisioner Mackel's hearing room in full Class A uniform. Just to be an inspiration to the other kids there that day. And he would be. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-03-07 14:19 |
| #10 As if changing the law will matter. This bitch was honestly "ruling" from the bench -- her whims outweighed all else. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2008-03-07 13:45 |
| #9 And definitely file a complaint with the state bar association. To me, it's grounds for disbarment as it's a clear case of personal bias and the judge has no legal basis for the ruling. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2008-03-07 13:34 |
| #8 I would guess that since this particular decision was based on the judge's personal bias and apparently nothing else, it should be rather easy to have the case heard by another judge. |
| Posted by: crosspatch 2008-03-07 12:30 |
| #7 Rope. Tree. Judge. Some assembly required. Black robed tyrants. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2008-03-07 12:17 |
| #6 Even better idea: cross the border into Arizona, enlist, then return to California. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-03-07 12:01 |
| #5 He did one better. He suggested a law that requires only the consent of foster parent OR social worker. And its either or - they both must say no to veto the enlistment. No judge and her prejudiced ignronace and political axe-grinding, and abusing some poor kid to make her political hay and hatred. And it looks like it will pass - thanks to heavy Republican shaming of the Dems in the land of fruits and nuts. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-03-07 11:29 |
| #4 Don't beg, appeal. If that doesn't work, wait 'til you turn 18, sign up, and mail the judge a postcard from boot camp. And another from Fallujah. Come back on leave and drop by the courthouse in full Class A uniform, just to say hello. |
| Posted by: Mike 2008-03-07 10:55 |
| #3 "It just felt like, wow. I even told Shawn, I said, `Dude, it feels like we've been burned at the stake at the Salem witch trial.' She just had some kind of animosity toward military personnel." Not yet, sarge. Not yet... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-03-07 10:52 |
| #2 Although she practiced business litigation in Orange County before she became a bench officer, the Mississippi native said she has had a longstanding interest in criminal justice and juvenile law. A graduate of Bennett College, a historically black womenÂ’s school in Greensboro, N.C., she was a social worker in foster care in New York City. She later worked as a probation officer while earning a masterÂ’s degree at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, part of the City University of New York. MackelÂ’s law degree is from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. After graduation, she taught criminal justice at the University of the District of Columbia and had her own practice in the nationÂ’s capital. Hardly surprising I'd say. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-03-07 10:45 |
| #1 And if you are too lazy to hit the web and search: MACKEL, MARILYN Commissioner Edmund D. Edelman ChildrenÂ’s Court (Dependency) Dept 402 (323) 526-6402 Be polite. No bad language. But be firm in telling her a judge is not supposed to inject her ignorance, prejudice and unreasoned bias into another young personÂ’s choice to serve his/her country. Information courtesy of LASuperiorCourt.org's search engine. http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/judicialofficers/index.aspx |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-03-07 10:39 |