ATLANTA - (AP) A Georgia judge who kicked whites out of his courtroom while he lectured black defendants is getting a comedian's help in delivering his stern message.
Bill Cosby was joined Superior Court Judge Marvin Arrington at a Thursday night forum for at-risk youths from the Atlanta area. Both men are black, and Cosby himself has made waves by criticizing the black community.
"The young people are worth saving," Arrington told the predominantly black audience of about 500, which included teenagers identified as being "at risk" by local juvenile authorities.
Arrington recounted a litany of criminal defendants who come before him in court, including young men who murder in drug deals and a father who slept with his daughters.
"Somewhere, you can cannot tolerate this uncivilized conduct," Arrington said.
The judge has admitted he shouldn't have made white people leave as he tried to scare straight some young black men at the March 27 court session. He said he only wanted to get the defendants' attention without dressing them down in front of whites.
Arrington said it was frustrating to see a stream of young criminals in his courtroom.
"You guys are destroying your lives," he told them in what he called a "fireside chat." "Black people, please turn your life around!"
Arrington's speech drew him comparisons to Cosby, who has drawn praise and criticism for saying that some black adults are not providing proper guidance.
"You've got to teach your children how to think," he told a crowd of several hundred last year in Philadelphia. "You watch one blow the other one's head off and how can you feel good about yourself?"
Most recently, the 70-year-old Cosby, whose adult son was murdered in 1997, has recorded a hip-hop album with subject matter including the value of an education and self-respect.
The album is "the opposite of what I think is the profanity for no particular reason, the misogyny for no particular reason," he said last week. "It really looks at the frustration and the anger that a young man may have."
