Meet the candidates: Perspectives from 2020 City Court Judge primary hopefuls

In my last post I looked at the office of city court judge through the lens of a citizen concerned with equity and justice – in particular, justice for BIPOC and Syracuse residents living in poverty.

While I still feel I have a lot to learn about what average citizens can do to hold elected judges accountable to the action items in that last post, I want to turn now to the city court judge candidates who will be on this year’s democratic primary ballot and where they stand related to issues of policing, racism woven into the justice system, and their own personal agendas for using their power to address these problems from the bench.

My approach was to contact all 4 of the democratic hopefuls on the ballot (Limpert, Tadros, Pitts-Davis, and Leibo) with the same short email and questions, and compare their responses.

Here was my email to each of them:

Dear (Name),

I’m a voter in Onondaga County and I live in the city of Syracuse. I am trying to learn more about candidates up for election this November, and in particular about the stances they hold with regard to law enforcement and the role of the criminal justice system in our diverse city.

In your view, what role does a city court judge have in dismantling systemic racism in the criminal justice system? Based on your experience, what are some concerns you have about trends in enforcement or interpretation of law in Syracuse city courts?

Housing equity, drug charges, and firearm violations are a concern in our city, and are also a hotbed of racial disproportionality here. How do you view the use of punitive vs restorative justice in matters like this?

I look forward to your responses.

Signed,

Charlotte

I received responses from all 4 hopefuls, and have reproduced them below in full with no edits. I should perhaps note that I don’t consider myself a journalist but I did not ask these candidates’ permission to post these publicly, or tell them the outlet. Because my primary goal in this blog is to record what I learn but share that with others, I feel compelled to make these responses available to others who might want to know more before voting in the primary this week.

I hope this is helpful for your decision-making in today’s primary!