Which story is better?
This was a great big muscular kid, in for assault with a deadly weapon and robbery. It was in the LA riots, in Pasadena.
This guy walks into a little Mama-Papa Korean-owned liquor store, carries out a bunch of stuff, puts it in his car, walks back in, pushes the old man out of the way, a little old Korean guy, carries more stuff out.
The Korean guy stops him at the door.
The guy lifts up a beer bottle, says, “Get out of my way or I’ll crush your skull, you little (racist remarks) and got arested.
In the courtroom this guy came up out of his chair, up over the counsel table. He got nailed by a Pasadena policeman and my fill-in baliff Brianwho used to pitch for the White Sox.
They had him pinned on counsel table. Brian, who is left handled, is leaning over him holding his arm so his gun’s on his left side. I don’t like guns in the courtroom.
This guy’s on his back, and really built.
That arm that Brian is leaning over and holding keeps coming up toward his gun. Every time it came up it was getting closer and closer to the gun. I’m watching this hand getting closer and closer.
So I stood up on my bench and jumped into the well. My robe is flying. I happened to be wearing tennis shoes that day. I jumped down and grabbed the guy’s arm and cranked it behind his back until Brian could get over the railing. It took all of three seconds.
There was somebody there from the Pasadena Star News at the time; the headline said, “Whoosh! Batman Judge.”
“I did this joke, saying, ‘If I can’t beat the guy up, I’d sue the bastard.’”
From the audience came a yell. “Hey, Jew-boy!”
In a beat the comic replied, “Listen, pal. I wouldn’t need my lawyer for you, OK? Knock it off.”
Again came the taunt, “Jew-boy!”
It was a hot moment as the comic turned to him, “You know, look at the size of you, you big Aryan man you. I’ll be honest with you. You’d probably kick the shit out of me. There’s really nothing I could do. And, yet, I feel bad for you, because I know that’s not somethng you learned in college, how to hate Jews. So it must be something you learned at home around the dinner table. Your father, working for a rich Jewish man, saying ‘Jew, Jew, Jew, Jew-boy’. Yeah, you’d kick the shit out of me.”
As the comic scanned the audience his eyes settled on a table of black students.
“Hey you black dudes out there! If he hates Jews, you know what he thinks about you guys. Would you take that shit? ” With their attention riveted on him, he asked, “Could you do me a favor? Will you escort this asshole out of here?”
“You got it, brother!” came the reply.
The black students stood up as a group of ten and turned to the taunter. One of them said, “Get your motherfucking ass out!”
“I said, ‘Thank you.’ They walked this guy right out the door. I called to him as he left, ‘Take it easy.’”